CC VER 2019 07 22CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
JULY 22, 2019
Mayor Ryan called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the
Pledge to the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Ryan, Councilwoman Tjornhom, Councilman
McDonald, Councilman Campion, and Councilwoman Coleman
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Kate Aanenson, Jason Wedel, Todd Hoffman, Roger
Knutson, Chief Don Johnson and Lt. Lance Pearson
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Jim Boettcher 7476 Crocus Court
Larry Koch 471 Bighorn Drive
Becky Varone 661 Bighorn Drive
Jodi Holden 1321 Lake Drive West #207
Jay & Sally Johnson 7496 Saratoga Drive
Meredith Petouvis 7041 Mill Creek Lane
Donna Burt 6645 Horseshoe Curve
JoAnne Syverson 489 Pleasant View Road
Laurie Susla 7008 Dakota Avenue
Mayor Ryan: Thank you everybody. Welcome to this evening’s meeting. Sorry we are a couple
minutes late. Thank you for those who are watching at home, either on the city cable channel or
that are livestreaming from Chanhassen’s website. We’re glad that you can join us. For the
record we have all of our members present tonight so our first action is our agenda approval.
Council members are there any modifications to the agenda as printed? If not we will proceed
with the published agenda.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mayor Ryan: First up public announcements. I have one public announcement. It is to
announce about the 2019 Night to Unite. Keeping Chanhassen a safe community is a partnership
effort. Night to Unite supports this effort by reminding citizens that their involvement is vital in
building a strong and safe community. Each year the City of Chanhassen joins thousands of
communities nationwide in observing Night to Unite. Night to Unite is designed to heighten
crime prevention awareness. Promote neighborliness and strengthen police and community
relationships. This year’s event will be held on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 and we encourage
residents to join their neighbors in observing NTU, Night to Unite by attending an organized
event in their neighborhood such as a block party. We have Carver County deputies, the fire
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department and members of, and city representatives. We will attempt to visit all participating
neighborhoods so we encourage you to register your neighborhood block online on the
Chanhassen website and we hope to see you on Tuesday, August 6th.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor can I just add?
Mayor Ryan: Yes.
Todd Gerhardt: That those people that, I think it’s the first 70 parties that register will get a Cub
gift card and we will also print their invitations out for them to send to their neighbors and so go
to our website. Contact us to get registered and help us celebrate United Night out.
Mayor Ryan: Night to Unite. It’s changed names so yeah, Night to Unite.
Todd Gerhardt: I liked the other one better.
Mayor Ryan: Yes it’s easier to say so that’s great. Fantastic so hope to see you on August 6th.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Coleman seconded
to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s
recommendations:
1. Approve City Council Minutes dated July 8, 2019
2. Receive Environmental Commission Minutes dated June 12, 2019
3. Lotus Woods: Approve Final Plat, Construction Plans and Development Contract
4. Resolution #2019-35: Approve Public Streets and Utilities in Anthem on the Park
5. Resolution #2019-36: Accept a Donation from Charter Bank for the Senior Center 2019
Holiday Party
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Coleman seconded
to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s
recommendations:
1. Approve City Council Minutes dated July 8, 2019
2. Receive Environmental Commission Minutes dated June 12, 2019
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
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3. Lotus Woods: Approve Final Plat, Construction Plans and Development Contract
4. Resolution #2019-35: Approve Public Streets and Utilities in Anthem on the Park
5. Resolution #2019-36: Accept a Donation from Charter Bank for the Senior Center 2019
Holiday Party
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Ryan: Next up we have visitor presentations. Visitor presentations are included with
each of our regularly scheduled council meeting. Anyone wishing to address the council on a
matter that is not specifically on the agenda may step to the podium. Please provide your name
and address for the record and then please address the council. You have 5 minutes to present
your item. If your request includes an action item from staff or council please complete a Citizen
Action Request Form so that we are clear on what you are asking and we will appropriately
follow up with your request. However if you are simply making a comment with no required
action a form does not need to be completed. I know we have 3 scheduled visitor presentations
by citizens who filled out the forms so let’s start there and the first one up is Mr. Jay Johnson. If
you would like to step forward. Welcome this evening.
Jay Johnson: Howdy. I’m Jay Johnson, 7496 Saratoga Drive. I used to sit up there a long, long
time ago. We hired Todd. Anyway.
Mayor Ryan: Well welcome back.
Jay Johnson: I have been meaning to come and talk about the internet and Mediacom but then
Next Door website got running a string or a thread on that. Just a lot of people complaining.
You know I went to them and said hey, don’t complain here. Here’s the 800 number for
Mediacom if anybody’s listening and they’re complaining. 800-332-0245 and that in the past the
City Council was also the Cable Board. I don’t know, think it still is. I don’t know. But anyway
the internet goes up and down a lot and so I went out and bought a $10 application and put it on
the computer and unfortunately I only started running it yesterday and so just like any technician
as soon as you start working on something it doesn’t break so in the last day the internet’s only
been down 5 times and the longest amount was 11 seconds which is nothing compared to what
happens a lot of times. I’ve had it down for 10, 15, 20 minutes at a time so I’m going to let this
run now for a while. I’ll probably let it run for a couple weeks because it just runs in the
background and then I can look and see how many times it’s been up and down. What it does is
checks 3 different websites and if it can’t connect to those 3 websites Google, Level 4 or
whatever it is and Open DNS. These are common websites. If it can’t connect to them after 200
milliseconds it says it’s a failure and if all 3 that records a failure and it has to be down for more
than 5 seconds. So I will let that run. It’d be nice if you have a spare computer around, spend
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$10 bucks and get this app and let it run in the background. See how well Mediacom’s actually
doing and I’ll report back to Todd or whoever Todd tells me to contact in the staff and get him
my results here in a couple weeks.
Mayor Ryan: Go ahead Mr. Gerhardt.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah Mayor, council you serve as the Cable Commission. You do not serve as
the internet commission. The FCC regulates cable TV but does not regulate the internet so we
have no control over the internet service or the phone service that Mediacom provides our
residents. But what we do do is we have contacts at Mediacom and they want you know the
customers that they’re serving to be happy and would more than be willing to sit down and
discuss what the outages that occurred with their internet or their phone service but right now we
can only regulate the cable TV is what the FCC allows us to do.
Jay Johnson: Right.
Todd Gerhardt: And that gives us the free Channel 8 and if you have outages for more than 8
hours we can have them credit you back that but you’re disgusted because you didn’t get to see
the show you wanted to see that was being shown at that time is where usually the frustration is
and then they send you a big whopping 82 cents and that even makes you more mad but we can
just regulate the quality of service from the cable TV but we cannot regulate anything with the
internet or the phone service. And Roger Knutson, City Attorney can vouch for me on that and.
Jay Johnson: But you’ve got their ear.
Todd Gerhardt: What’s that?
Jay Johnson: You have their ear.
Todd Gerhardt: We have their ear and they want to try to provide good service.
Jay Johnson: It’s like a lot of people, they complain on social media but if they haven’t called
the 800 number, if they don’t tell somebody.
Todd Gerhardt: Right, they don’t know.
Jay Johnson: They don’t know they’re having a problem.
Todd Gerhardt: Yep.
Jay Johnson: So and when I saw there was also a national site you can go to about cable outages
and Mediacom 88 percent of the complaints was internet so they do have an internet problem as
a provider here in town.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
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Councilwoman Coleman: Mayor, Mr. Johnson I received your request and at our last City
Council meeting we had Senator Osmek in who actually chairs the committee that looks into
these types of issues. He asked that we forward along any complaints or issues that we hear so I
did forward your request along to him. He reached out again and asked if this is a problem just
you’re experiencing or your neighbors are experiencing. It sounds like on Next Door you are
hearing that it is a greater problem in your neighborhood is that correct?
Jay Johnson: Yeah, are you familiar with Next Door? It’s a social media thing and we’re
getting, it’s people from Excelsior. All over Chanhassen. The whole Mediacom area are
moaning and groaning but you know to each other.
Councilwoman Coleman: Sure. I’ll let him know that then and I would follow up with him as
well if I were you just to get another set of ears or eyes on this issue.
Jay Johnson: Okay well I didn’t know he was on that committee. I’ll probably send him a note
too but thanks.
Mayor Ryan: And before you step away thank you for bringing this forward. You know we as
council do receive a lot of emails about the internet service and so in receiving this Mr. Gerhardt
and I did speak about it and he does have you know specific point of contact at Mediacom that
he is going to follow up and share your concerns you know and it is very evident on Next Door
that it is a kind of a pain for a lot of people to deal with so he’s going to follow up with his point
of contact to highlight, although we can’t regulate it he is going to bring it up and highlight the
frustration that a lot of our residents are feeling.
Jay Johnson: Well like engineer I had no data so now I’m going to collect the data so.
Mayor Ryan: Yes and please do pass that along to Mr. Gerhardt once you get that.
Jay Johnson: Yeah.
Mayor Ryan: Great, thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Gerhardt.
Todd Gerhardt: You’re welcome.
Mayor Ryan: The next individual, Ms. Susla.
Laurie Susla: Hi my name is Laurie Susla. I live at 7008 Dakota Avenue and I am the President
of the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance here to talk to you about a couple of our requests that
we have. First, I want to put this up and how you guys this beautiful sign. Thank you so much.
That went in at the Lotus ramp which was a thing that we had discussed at the working session
so thank you for following up so promptly with that and having that installed. We very much
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appreciate it. Excuse me, I’m suffering with a bit of a cold. So we have two different requests
that we’d like to make of council. The first is that in the event of a high water event on Lotus
Lake my current understanding, and I would defer to Mr. Gerhardt and Mr. Knutson about this,
is that, the understanding is that council needs to pass, or council needs to be involved in
declaring a no wake zone on any lake that is an emergency provision. This, excuse me is the,
this is Chapter 6110 Subchapter 3700 and then this part, let me see if I can get this so you guys
can read this. Subpart 9 is the emergency section here. To my unlegally trained mind I don’t see
anywhere that it says that City Council must declare the emergency. It seems as though it just
says that a city has a right to do this but I thought, not I. The Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance
board thought that it would make sense to formalize the process that this would happen at the
City. Case in point if we had a giant storm tonight and because we do have high water levels
right now, we went over. If we had to wait for 2 weeks for you all to meet again, that could you
know a lot of shoreline damage happen during that time so we were hoping that you might take it
upon yourselves to formalize a process how this would be handled inbetween council meetings.
So that is request number one. Request number two is the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance
would like to have the City’s permission to contract with Midwest Aqua Care or a vendor of
your choice but they already work at Carver Beach Park for the City and they do a lot of the
homes on the lake already so this would be a good vendor to use. To treat the weeds at the
public ramp. We at Lotus Lake have an invasive weed called Brittle Naiad which we’re the first
recreational lake, fully recreational lake in the whole state to have this invasive weed and we do
not want to be ground zero for spreading this to other lakes in the metro or outstate areas so often
times the way aquatic invasive species will travel from lake to lake, a boat can look clean but if
there are weeds inbetween the boat and the bunk of the trailer they can travel onto the next lake,
and particularly if there’s a relatively, if they launch again within a couple days and so, a boat
and trailer can look clean but infestations can still happen so we’d like to keep that area as clean
as possible and we would be happy to pay for that service. We are under a bit of a time issue
because DNR permits have to be submitted by July 31st so if you all wouldn’t mind either, I
don’t know if all council needs to get involved in this but maybe Mr. Gerhardt could give us the
authorization or however you guys would like to handle that if you would like to handle that we
would appreciate it.
Mayor Ryan: Perfect thank you Ms. Susla. Before you sit down I have a couple of questions but
council any questions of what was shared? So, and this will ultimately come back to you Mr.
Gerhardt for clarification. So back on I think it was June, the June 10th meeting we as council,
Mr. Gerhardt voted to change our, the high water for the no wake restriction from I think
currently our ordinance is 896.8, correct?
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Mayor Ryan: And so but then we voted as a council to lower it to 896.3 which is here. But we
have to go through the formal process through the DNR to, and this will come back to you. The
formal process for with the public hearing, informational get there, you know fill out the
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paperwork and then before it actually can be approved to officially become our new no wake
ordinance, correct?
Todd Gerhardt: We have to provide the data to the DNR of why we want to switch it from 896.8
to 896.3 and have justification for that high water mark.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: And so once we do that then the DNR wants you to go out and solicit public
contact with not just the lake homeowners but the public at large and we had discussions today
of doing social media notices. You can put a flyer in the newspaper and it goes to every home
for $800 so it’d be an invitation to everybody to go to that public meeting and then we explain
why we’d want to switch that water level to the new level and then once that data is gathered the
public can provide input through comment cards and then we would put those comment cards
together. Provide it to the DNR and the DNR would say okay you can go ahead and ask council
for a change to the ordinance. If everything is perfect.
Mayor Ryan: And so before you know back in June when we as council approved changing the
ordinance to the 896.3 obviously we weren’t you know all that as familiar with the DNR process
or you know because it was already in our ordinance.
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Mayor Ryan: But we had set that, what is the difference then with declaring it an emergency no
wake now to get to that number or do you have to wait in order to, because we got that number
based on a 10 year average correct?
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Mayor Ryan: And so I guess what’s the advantage or disadvantage of you know, or can, how do
you declare an emergency no wake or what constitutes an emergency?
Todd Gerhardt: The DNR allows you to designate a 30 day emergency no wake period at the
discretion of the City Council and you determine what that level is. So the DNR is saying we’ll
give you a blank check for 30 days but you have to have justification that there’s an emergency
and that emergency is erosion of lakeshore. Some type of public health risk. You know that are
the two that come to mind but you’ve got to have some type of an emergency to be declared as a
part of that motion.
Mayor Ryan: And right now Mr. Wedel what are we at today?
Jason Wedel: Mayor, members of the council. We shot the elevation of the lake today and as of
today we’re at 895.87.
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Mayor Ryan: 895.87 okay. So we’re not at.
Todd Gerhardt: We’re below.
Jason Wedel: We’re below the 896.3.
Mayor Ryan: And obviously 896. So council I turn it back to you and just in terms of the 896.3
which we had voted on as council to move forward before we fully understood the ordinance or
the DNR process. If you want to put on the 30 day no wake restriction at 896.3, which we had
agreed to for the 30 days as we continue to move through.
Laurie Susla: Madam Mayor, I’m sorry if I can clarify. It’s up to 30 days. It doesn’t need to be
30 days. It could be 5 days.
Mayor Ryan: Oh so it could be any days.
Laurie Susla: Right and so what the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance is asking for is that as
you all pass the code that now needs further work, that that be the groundwork for when it would
go under an emergency. So if we got 4/10th’s of an inch, excuse me, 4/10th’s of a foot of rain and
we hit that 896.3 we’re asking that you all would instead of waiting for another meeting that you
would give the authority to Mr. Wedel or Mr. Gerhardt to declare an emergency on the lake
without council meeting and that it would be just like the code you passed. So if 2 days later we
go below then we would wait 3 days, it’s still below. It would go away. It doesn’t need to be 30
days. That’s just the maximum.
Mayor Ryan: Oh the maximum okay.
Todd Gerhardt: Once you establish the 30 day process what it’s doing is giving your law
enforcement the means to ticket people that are creating wakes above the, or at the 896.3 and the
prosecutor having the authority to prosecute effectively that ordinance and it makes, the
prosecutor wants teeth in what he is trying to do in prosecuting and he prefer that the council
designate that emergency ordinance versus staff picking and choosing when that is.
Mayor Ryan: But like the ordinance that we passed back in June, isn’t that what we declared is
that 800, when it reaches 896.3 public works director can go, can declare the high water and no
wake?
Todd Gerhardt: Yes. You can do that but we didn’t follow the proper methods of modifying
that ordinance so if the water patrol was to write a ticket and somebody wanted to find a good
attorney and finds out that the City didn’t follow the proper protocol the Judge would throw out
those tickets.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
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Mayor Ryan: So even if we declare an emergency at 896.3, let’s say we do that today, it’s not
prosecutable because we haven’t changed our ordinance officially?
Todd Gerhardt: Well if you declare today that it’s no wake for 30 days below, or above 896.3
you’ve got to get the clock ticking and you can’t wait you know that the emergency no wake
would kick in as soon as it hits the 896. You’ve got 30 days of when you declare it. So, and I
think what Laurie’s asking is for you to give either Jason or I the authority to put it on when it
goes above 896.3 and what Roger or the prosecutors want is the council to declare it an
emergency at 896.3 to have more teeth in it when you prosecute anybody that is out making a
wake.
Roger Knutson: And I’ll just add you don’t have to wait 2 weeks for a council meeting. If it’s
truly an emergency you don’t have to give any notice. For a special meeting it’s just 3 days
notice for a meeting.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. But if we decide, okay.
Laurie Susla: If I could ask, if the council was to pass a resolution which obviously that would
take more time than just a motion tonight but pass a resolution that define this very well. Is that
something that would be an issue in court?
Roger Knutson: It could be because you can define it as well as you want but how the document
they meet those exact circumstances may be difficult. You could potentially do it that way but
the clearest, the cleanest way of doing it is to have a council meeting. Special council meeting or
emergency meeting and declare the emergency and explain why it’s an emergency and how
many days you want it for.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Council any comments or questions about that number one? No, oh go
ahead. I’m sorry. I can’t see you.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I just have a comment about all of this. For me to actually give an
opinion I don’t know enough about it yet. Speaking, I just don’t know the rules. I don’t know
the regulations. The reasons behind all of this and so I think that I would need more time and
more education maybe something on a work session where we can really read a packet. Think
about it and ask questions instead of just blankly passing something tonight or doing anything
like that because I just don’t know enough about it.
Laurie Susla: The idea behind it is just to protect shorelines. If we were to go to say over the
896.3 and then had to wait a minimum of 3 days and hopefully get a quorum of council together,
it just is sort of, this is sort of, we’re proposing this as a stop gap measure until the city code can
be updated to what was proposed and voted on earlier. Not something that would be the way the
City would operate from here on out but just as a stop gap until we can get to that agreed upon
level in code.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
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Mayor Ryan: But I guess where I’m stuck right now, because I know we as council already
voted to approve the 896.3 and I know we did that on June 10th. And then came to the
realization that there, you know we can’t just change it. We actually have to go through the
process. The DNR which we’ve started the paperwork and you’ve already met and discussed it
so we have that. So in the meantime, and correct me if I’m understanding this correctly, or stop
me. What you’re asking is since we already approved, before we knew the process, the 896.3 to
say, to establish tonight or at our next meeting or however, whatever we decide an emergency
high water restriction at 896.3 for whatever number of days we determine. You know before it
falls below and then it’s removed so it’s the emergency no wake zone in addition to who can put
on the restrictions? Or are those two separate issues? Is it who can put it on or is it that we
would have to establish an emergency no wake high water mark?
Todd Gerhardt: Both.
Mayor Ryan: Both. Okay. But what we approved on June 10th was 896.3 and the public works
director.
Todd Gerhardt: Correct. But we did not solicit public input. We did not explain how we
determined 896.3 versus 896.8 and get DNR approval for that and the same goes with
Minnewashta. And then the DNR wants us to have a public hearing and they want to hear more
than just the lake homeowners. They want to hear from all residents so they want us to notify
our best efforts of notifying the public that would use the lake and we thought putting a notice in
the Villager. Putting notices in social media. Explaining why we’re having this meeting and
explaining the changes and how we determined 896.3 versus 896.8 and that we would hold it
either at the Rec Center or the library. Have a small presentation and then those people that are
for, against or have other ideas can fill out comment cards. The DNR wants to review those
comment cards. We would provide those as part of our application to the DNR for their
endorsement of the proposed ordinance change that we could bring back to the City Council for
your approval.
Mayor Ryan: Okay thank you, so understand the process. Council, Councilwoman Tjornhom I
know where you stand. Any other council members want to comment or do anything with the
request number one or we can bring it back and discuss it at a later date.
Todd Gerhardt: And that process Jason don’t we think we can get it done no later than the end of
September.
Jason Wedel: I think the thought was we could have the public informational meeting and some
of that through September but really getting through the whole DNR process and getting that
adopted is probably going to be beyond this year’s boating season so whatever gets approved
through that whole process is really going to be more for next year’s boating season.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
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Laurie Susla: And that is the concern. That we’re running unusually high water most of this
season and it is, I mean it’s likely that this situation will occur. We’re just trying to not have a
true, you know have to call council in and all that stuff. Just that’s what we thought. A simple
process in place would make sense.
Mayor Ryan: Any further comments? Okay. So I think we’re going to continue with the
process as is. You know I know we’re at what Mr. Wedel said right now we’re 895.87. We’ll
continue to, I know they monitor it. Get information daily and if an emergency takes place well
then it will you know 3 days to call to get a quorum and we’ll have to address it at that time. The
second request in terms of treating, oh I’m sorry. Mr. Knutson.
Roger Knutson: Just to point out there’s this provision in the law that says for an emergency
meeting you don’t have to give 3 days notice. You can.
Mayor Ryan: Oh so, oh. Okay so it’s not 3 days. Okay, thank you for that clarification.
Todd Gerhardt: So it’s just a matter of getting a quorum of 3 or more.
Mayor Ryan: Okay thank you for that clarification. I thought it was 3 days, thank you.
Roger Knutson: That’s for a special meeting.
Todd Gerhardt: That’s for a special council meeting to take up a development issue or private
matter within the community or one of our ordinances.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: This runs under the DNR regulations which is a separate statute. It’s and so I
don’t know how Roger keeps them straight.
Mayor Ryan: Alright so an emergency you can a quorum and then we can address it at that time.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah the newspaper needs to be notified and invited to the meeting and explain
why you’re having it is the key part of having an emergency meeting.
Mayor Ryan: Perfect. Luckily there’s a 24 hour news cycle so that is perfect. So the next one is
the ask to treat invasive weeds near the public launch. Open to feedback from either Mr.
Hoffman, Mr. Gerhardt, Mr. Wedel, in terms of that process. If it’s something that council has to
be involved with.
Todd Gerhardt: Well it’s our public access and but we don’t own the water so I think you need a
DNR permit.
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Laurie Susla: You do and that’s the July 31st deadline on that is the latest date that you can get a
permit for this boating season.
Todd Gerhardt: Does the water need to be calm for a certain period of time?
Laurie Susla: No.
Todd Gerhardt: So they just make the applicant. Launches can continue.
Laurie Susla: Correct. I mean they obviously if there was a boat actively launching they’d stay
out of the way.
Todd Gerhardt: I don’t see this being a problem from our side of it as long as you have a DNR
permit. Todd or Jason?
Todd Hoffman: Yeah it’s just a choice. So it depends on what you’re killing as far as
vegetation. You’re not just killing the vegetation that you’re after but you’re killing other
vegetation as well. Fish habitat, those type of things so it’s a policy decision or choice.
Mayor Ryan: Mr. Wedel do you have experience in this at all?
Jason Wedel: My only experience has been with lake associations and them doing treatments for
invasive species or plants using their own funds and then being allowed by the City and I’ve seen
that on other lakes before so this would not be uncommon.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: So is there confirmation that this weed exists?
Laurie Susla: Yes. Yes.
Todd Gerhardt: And who made that confirmation?
Laurie Susla: The watershed district. Riley-Purg.
Todd Gerhardt: And is this Riley-Purg’s protocol to eradicate through chemicals?
Laurie Susla: Yes and they have done that. They started that I believe last summer after they
found the invasive weed they did that application in the fall and then they re-applied again this
spring for Curly Leaf Pond Weed but I believe there will be a Brittle Naiad, they check for it
every time they’re on a lake which is every 2 weeks and if they see it coming up they’ll be
applying a herbicide to that also.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
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Todd Gerhardt: Okay. Mayor, council if you want to direct staff to work with the watershed
district to prepare a letter allowing the Lotus Lake Association to spray or put out an application
to eradicate Brittle.
Laurie Susla: Naiad.
Todd Gerhardt: You know staff will look into that.
Laurie Susla: And I would say that the Brittle Naiad isn’t necessarily at the, the thing about
Brittle Naiad, the reason it has the name that it has it is very brittle. It breaks and so it floats
around the lake so although it might not be rooted at the ramp it could have floated to the ramp
which is why just keeping that whole area clean is just a good habit so that it doesn’t get into
milfoil that then goes onto a trailer that then goes to another lake.
Mayor Ryan: Alright well without objection or if council has an opinion I would direct staff to
get confirmation from Riley-Purgatory and work with the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance and
the treatment if you deem appropriate.
Todd Gerhardt: Okay.
Mayor Ryan: Council? Okay.
Laurie Susla: Alright thank you so much for your time.
Mayor Ryan: Alright thank you Ms. Susla. Mr. Koch.
Larry Koch: My name is Larry Koch. I live at 471 Bighorn Drive. Well first of all I’ll start out
I’m back here again to talk about what you just talked about which were the lake levels.
Unfortunately because what I heard from Mr. Gerhardt and Mr. Knutson I’m not sure where to
start but let me start here. We have an emergency, okay. You decided it was a problem you
know more than what, 4 weeks now. 5 weeks. 6 weeks if you add up all the meetings. It is a
problem. The water is too high. The wakes created by these boats are destroying the shoreline.
They’re causing extreme damage that can’t be undone. I submitted over the past 2 presentations
pictures, damage just on my shoreline. Other people residing on Lotus Lake have also submitted
pictures of damage so I’m here basically to ask you again to in fact pass this emergency
resolution a copy of which I have drafted for you for your benefit. That would set the slow no
wake level at 895.88 feet and I’ll get into why it should be that level for most watercraft with the
exception of wake boats and I have a definition of wake boats. The slow no wake level for wake
boats should be 895.5 feet and while I’m at this, I want to make sure everybody understands.
One-tenth of a foot is 1.2 inches because it’s easy to say oh you know what’s a tenth. Well a
tenth is 1.2 inches and it adds up as we go. So I also want you to take note of the prior letters
that I submitted as well as the other information and factual back up. I also have several
attachments I want to show you that’s part of this. Here is starting from the north. Here is the
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
14
narrowest part at Lotus Lake and this top part 898.63 feet. We can move down to the narrowest
point of this line that runs from northwest to southeast, it’s 450 feet. We go down to what I call
the middle narrows. At the top of it there’s somewhere approximately 800 feet. You go to the
end of what I call the middle narrows it’s 799 feet. Now this is give or take a few feet but it’s off
of Google Maps. We go to what I call the east lake, the widest part here is 1,026 feet. Here’s the
reason why this is important. These distances. Based on the information provided by the Wake
Sports Industry Association itself. At 300 feet a regular cruising boat creates anywhere between
a 5 inch and a 6 inch wake. A wake surf boat, and we have deep waters so we should actually be
dealing with the deep numbers, 12, almost 13 inches of wake. That’s at 300 feet. Simple math
and using their very own rate of decrease of wakes shows you that in order to get down to the 6
inch or the 5 inches you have to go out 700 feet. Now if you take 700 times 2 that’s 1,400 feet.
There is only one spot on Lotus Lake that is 1,400 feet wide and that’s this area right here and
it’s a very short distance. So the bottom line is that Lotus Lake is not sufficiently wide to allow
these wakes to dissipate to the level that they would be if it was a normal boat. Because of the
height of these waves that is why we have an emergency and I’ll show you in my next diagram,
and I wish I had it a little bigger but I think you can, hopefully you can follow along. I realize
that my yard stick demonstration last week didn’t get the job done so I thought I would come up
with this diagram to try to explain the relationship between the various heights because it’s very,
very important. I’d like to start with this blue line here and this dot. That’s the ordinary high
water mark. That’s basically defined where the aquatic plants meet the terrestrial plants. I
abbreviated that definition somewhat. So that’s where basically below that you have aquatic
plants. Above that you have terrestrial plants. You’ve got your you know lotus flowers. You’ve
got your milfoil unfortunately. Above that you have your grass and your trees. Currently we
have a slow no wake level here at 896 feet 9.6 inches. That basically means that we have to have
a flood on my land and any other shore owners of 6 inches before we say stop. No more wakes.
So when you take that level as the top level and if you have a boat going on that you’re going to
create for a cruising another 5 inches. So let’s say it’s just 1 inch below. You’re going to have
that wake is going to go up another 6 inches and farther into our properties. If you have a wake
boat you’re going to go up another 10 to 12 inches above that and you’re going to be splashing
water, shoving water onto everybody’s property over and above the ordinary high water mark.
Every time you do that it’s like taking a fire hose and spraying it on somebody’s property and
slowly but slowly, and not so slowly this year it’s taking away people’s property and putting it
into the bottom of the lake. Something we will never, ever get back so I think it’s important to
take into account the fact that for whatever reason when this slow no wake level was set, I have
no idea why. It’s really irrelevant. What we have to look at is what is on this lake today and
what level do we have to have in order to protect that land above the ordinary high water mark.
And to do that I’m saying is that for the normal wake producing boat we should have 895 feet
10.6 inches. That gives you basically 5 inches of splash for lack of a better word. 5 inches from
the height of the water to splash up and not go over the ordinary high water mark. Once you go
over the ordinary high water mark you’re intruding on other people’s property. It’s just that
simple. It’s like driving over their property. Throwing water on it. Throwing stones. You’re
intruding on other people’s property and the worst of it is, it causes erosion and that erosion as
we know puts phosphorus into the lake. That phosphorus ends up causing all that nice green
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
15
slimy stuff that we’re going to be seeing in a couple weeks if we don’t end up having more rain.
That’s something we don’t want to have so it’s incumbent upon us to set a level that makes sense
and minimizes the damages. Unfortunately wake boats create this tremendous artificial wake so
in order to take into account that 13 inches almost and I gave them the benefit of the doubt,
another 10 inches, wake boats should be down here at 895 feet 5.6 inches. 10 inches below the
ordinary high water mark. That allows enough room so that when that wave comes rolling in
you’re not going over the ordinary high water mark and you’re not crashing onto people’s
property and washing soil into the lake. You’re not washing phosphorus into the lake. You’re
not creating a worst algae problem. So this is why and this is sufficient information I believe for
you to establish an emergency situation and declare two new lake levels where this is this slow
no wake. And again if I repeat this again, for ordinary craft 895 feet 10.6 inches. Unfortunately
for wake boats, simply because they make this much larger wake we need to have it at 895 feet
5.6 inches and I give it in inches because again that one-tenth of a foot, it’s 1.2 inches and you
start adding those up it ends up being a lot and remember even one-tenth of an inch over the
ordinary high water mark means that they’re throwing water on people’s property and causing
erosion. Erosion of soils that generally have high levels of phosphorus in this area. And I did
this, this is just a chart but, and I’ll leave a copy with you. This shows anything that you have.
These are the various depths and the various days and as you can see over at my suggested level
we are still over the level that we should have on these lakes. In other words we should be at
slow no wake and I’m not sure how you got your measurement. I went out and took a picture of
the post that is out there on the lake and used the formula that they had and I came up with I
believe it was .97 so over a tenth over. I don’t know when you took it. It can vary but it’s close,
but the reason we need to do this now is because that weekend at the end of June and the first
part of July is the problem that it looks like we’re going to be saddled with. Okay could be for
millennia. I have no idea about you know how climate change is going to affect this but we
know we have these much greater rain events. We had something like over 5 inches of rain over
this period of time so that lake can go up and it can also go down. If we wait to have, and even
we have emergency right away, we don’t have the time to go and decide oh is it over? Is it
under? We need to deal with it right away to protect people’s property so I, in my proposal,
emergency proposal is exactly the process where staff when it’s over that amount they
immediately send out the signs. Put up the notices like you already have in your ordinance but
they go and do that once it’s over that. That is the only way we are going to be able to prevent
additional damage that can’t be undone. In addition unfortunately because of the nature of the
lake and wake boats, so we propose that these areas hatched in red be off limits to wake boats
except going to at a slow wake speed and the reason is, it goes back to the maps that I had
earlier. You can see here. There’s insufficient room in these areas for the wakes created by a
wake boat to dissipate even to the level of a regular cruising boat. As I said before I’ve lived on
this lake for almost 30 years now. We’ve never had this degree of damage and I like anybody
else like to have fun but you know you can really have fun in the right kind of places. Wake
boats just do not work on Lotus Lake. No different than if I buy Lamborghini and I want to go
really fast, I’m sorry I can’t do that. If I want to do it I’ve got to go to a race track or go to the
Audubon in Germany where I can use it. It doesn’t fit on Lotus Lake. And I’ve actually created
some lines to be adopted being the lines where we determine where on Lotus Lake these actual
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
16
marks go. So in conclusion because of this data and this information I ask you to pass tonight an
emergency resolution I proposed with those heights. Put it in effect. Allow the staff to monitor
it and immediately post signs and I also ask you to immediately draft, okay and prepare for
submission to the DNR a permanent ordinance change to lower these heights of the lake for the
no wake heights. Excuse me, I have a cold. And also to limit the areas in which, let me find my
page again here. The areas in which wake boats can operate on Lotus Lake. Again this is to
preserve this lake. Oh thank you. Part of the discussion I wish you would have before. Oh in
closing I’ve read the regulations of the DNR and I hate to say it, I don’t see almost very much of
what Mr. Gerhardt said. If you have it please send it to me. I have read those regulations. I see
no requirement for public hearings. Not that it wouldn’t be a good idea but there’s a difference
between maybe a good idea and what do you have to do. And I think that we need to dwell on
this fact to make sure we have our facts right. Do what we have to do but because it’s so
important we don’t do anymore than that so I ask for all that information and I apologize and
thank you for giving me the time to speak.
Mayor Ryan: Sure, thank you Mr. Koch. I’m going to make just a couple comments and then
obviously if council wants to make some comments as well. You know I recognize your passion
and your’s and other members on Lotus Lake about the water. The high water mark. The type
of boats that you’d like to see on the lake versus not. The restricted areas on Lotus versus those
that are not and your last comment to Mr. Gerhardt about you know what’s required and what’s
not required. I think you can appreciate as council you know yes at our meeting in June we said
that we are going to follow the guidelines of the DNR but as council it’s our responsibility to,
although it might not be required to take public input it is a policy or something that we feel
strongly about to gather public input on when we make significant changes and while you may
feel strongly about the certainly areas, you know we had the packed chambers the other night of
people that would feel just the opposite about what those areas, if there should be restricted
areas. Are those the right areas to be restricted and I know you have your rationale and your
reasoning for why you would pick those areas but there’s always counter points and it’s our
responsibility as council to make sure that we’re listening to everybody. Not only the
homeowners on the lake but the people that utilize that lake and that’s why the DNR has
requested a public process when you’re changing an ordinance. It isn’t because it’s just going to
affect homeowners but it affects anybody that wants to use this public recreational lake and so
when you talk about establishing a, how did we get the 896.8, we got that because that was
established over the average of 10 years. I know boating has changed. I know size of boats have
changed. I understand that but that’s what was established and that is why again we’re going to
go through the process through the DNR getting public input. We’ll take all the information that
you’ve sent us. That can be part of the conversation with the DNR and maybe it ends up not
being 896.3 like we had initially suggested as council. Maybe it will be lower but again that is
part of the process and why it’s so important for us as council to not just make a decision on a
whim but to fully understand your input. Your neighbor’s input and the community’s input or
anybody that’s using this lake to make sure that we’re coming up with the right number. And so
you know I’m not prepared to start restricting areas on lakes. I think it’s really important that we
gather the feedback from the public and as we continue Mr. Wedel and Mr. Gerhardt continues
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
17
the process with the DNR. As I had suggested to you in an email and you had asked about why
isn’t there a task force. Well once we continue to move through this process I know there is asks
about buoys and the 100, you know the 100 foot offshore. Those are all conversations that we
can have as part of a larger conversation as it relates to boat use on Lotus Lake but it’s, you
know unless council has changed their mind from your presentation my understanding based on
the feedback from Ms. Susla, Ms. Susla’s presentation that council isn’t ready to make and
establish any type of emergency high water mark because today we’re not at, your request is
895.88 and today we’re at 800 and 9 point 87 and I know it’s, you know it’s a small number but
a significant number as you suggest but we’re not at that number so we’re not even at the
emergency stage that you’re requesting us to put in so unless council has changed their feeling
you know I don’t think we’re going to establish a new, an emergency no wake zone tonight and I
think it is imperative as we move through this process that we do get the public opinion and
feedback as we start establishing, you know or if we start establishing new ordinances and
regulations and guidelines as it relates to Lotus Lake but I’d be open to council, or I am open to
if council would like to do something different.
Larry Koch: Can I make two comments to what you said.
Mayor Ryan: Quickly.
Larry Koch: Because I think it is important.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Larry Koch: On that basis. So what you’re telling me is that we’re going to wait until another
high water mark defined as to whatever before we’re going to take any action, is that what you’re
telling me?
Mayor Ryan: If it’s an emergency situation Mr. Gerhardt will call us and we will convene as
council land make an emergency no wake restriction.
Larry Koch: And I thank you but here’s the question. What’s the definition of an emergency
going to be? Is it going to be the current slow no wake level which is 6 inches above the
ordinary high water mark? I’m just, I’m asking the question because I believe leaving it the way
it is, I don’t know what the basis for an emergency is and you’re going to end up debating it
again, with all due respect.
Mayor Ryan: Right and we may end up debating again and maybe that’s part of the conversation
and I don’t really want to get into a debate with you because I know your stance but I’m telling
you from council’s stance we’re not doing anything in terms of an emergency. I asked at the last
meeting what constitutes an emergency and I think we have a lot of latitude if there’s a sewer
breakage or there’s something that’s you know that’s going to affect integrity of the lake we can
have an emergency. If we have a you know a rain event that we know is going to dramatically
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
18
impact the lake then we can call the emergency no wake. We just got done from a lot of rain in
the last 5 days and you’re, we’re lower today than what you’re requesting as the low no wake
zone so we as, you know we have informed individuals not only on staff but Riley Purgatory.
We’re in touch with all the, you know the entities that are responsible for lake conservation and
we will do what’s right but to just make an emergency decision changing an ordinance or the
number that we have established as the high water mark, you know we’re not being responsible
council members just to make that based on a few people’s feedback versus taking the input from
the entire public. That is our responsibility as elected officials and that’s where we’re sitting
tonight so I don’t want to keep going in the back and forth and debate. This is what we’ve
decided is we’re not putting on an emergency no wake zone at this time.
Larry Koch: Then could I just confirm that I’m going to get the information from Mr. Gerhardt
and I would like in particular the information that he believes backs up his statement as to what’s
required from the DNR and secondly how you came about with your level that you voted on
would have been 3 or 4 meetings ago.
Mayor Ryan: Okay we don’t, just because it’s not required by the DNR the City Council can
say.
Larry Koch: I’m just asking if I can get that information. That’s all I’m asking.
Mayor Ryan: Well if he has it he will provide it but I am saying whether it’s established DNR
letter of the law that it is required it is the policy that we followed as council, at least since the 4
years that I’ve been on it, we don’t always have to hold a public hearing just like we don’t have
to have a back and forth when people are coming before council but we offer some latitude when
people come before to either hear opinion and feedback from council. It might not be required
by law but that’s the practice that the City Council has taken.
Larry Koch: Okay thank you for your time. Appreciate it very much.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you.
Larry Koch: Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Mr. Koch.
Donna Burt: Good evening I’m Donna Burt, 6645 Horseshoe Curve. This is the third time I
have been here. On June 11th I brought to the attention of Minnesota Rule 6110.3700 sub point 9
and it has been explained thoroughly several times that no public notice, special meeting or DNR
approval is needed, which you just reiterated. And that it is completely separate from an
amendment to a city code so in this conversation today I keep hearing mixing up an amendment
to a permanent city code with an emergency no wake ordinance. They are completely two
different things and the conversation continues to get mixed. The very essence of this rule which
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
19
is to safeguard for emergencies is being ignored repeatedly as no type of council intervention or
water level is needed to declare an emergency. An emergency can be for any reason deemed
necessary. It could be visibility due to smoke. High water or other emergencies that God forbid
hopefully we never see. We’ve already wanting to be educated. Over the past several weeks
myself and others have provided an enormous amount of data substantiating our damage claims.
Diagrams, illustrations, maps, photos, videos, surveys from the LLCA members showing that 70
percent of people living on the lake believe that these wakes are causing damage. Each of you
have full access to the lake. You’ve received multiple invitations to come out to private
properties. Each wake that hits, you can see the mud and dirt and soil and vegetation pouring in
the lake. Certainly this is more than enough information to educate yourselves with and
substantiate damage that is already occurred and is occurring. The essence of the state rule was
designed for emergencies is not about safeguarding for prosecutable offenses. It’s about letting
people know they shouldn’t make a no wake under emergency situations. They simply don’t
know because there isn’t a no wake in effect. A vast majority of people will oblige if there’s no
wake. Most people don’t understand the damage they’re doing. If it’s prosecution and litigation
that concern you if you do not act then you leave yourselves open to claims of negligence and
your duty to stop a public nuisance. This is my third appearance here. Lastly I do want to add
regarding the suggested amendment to the permanent city code. We have still not hit the new
suggested lower level and massive damage is occurring. The new suggested level for the
permanent amendment to the ordinance is not low enough and I agree 100 percent with both Ms.
Susla and Larry Koch and the data he has provided to show where that low water, where the
water mark needs to be for a permanent amendment to the ordinance which has nothing to do
about the emergency situation we are in right now. That’s it.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Mrs. Burt.
JoAnn Syverson: Hi again. I’m JoAnn Syverson, 489 Pleasant View Road and I’m not
presenting anything tonight. I’m not showing you any pictures. I just want to be sure that I have
an accurate read of what’s going on with these wake issues. I presented a deck to the City
Council last February and in this deck I made my arguments proven with evidence about how
harmful wake surfing can be on a small lake. A lake that it’s not wide enough for the wave to
dissipate. And since I presented the deck and asked council to support my minimum restrictions,
which were really minimum. Just asking for 150 feet from shore and 150 feet from other boats.
If you’re on a boat when one of these goes by you would know why you should have 150 feet. A
survey was given to the LLCA membership and as Ms. Burt said two thirds of the respondents
said that they saw damage being done by wake boats and that they believe some restrictions
should be made. Now you’re asking you need to assess public opinion. Well that was the survey
done of, for the people on the lake. But there is a vocal minority on our lake. The one third and
they are very vocal but you want to remember that two thirds are the silent majority and those
people vote in Chanhassen elections. I also want to confirm that Larry Koch presented very
clearly the science behind lowering our kick off point for slow no wake and he talked about why
this was important because of homeowners land being eroded away. But I also want to, and this
is my last point. I want to comment that I’m disappointed in how this City Council functions.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
20
You know when I, before I started coming to these meetings I expected that the meetings would
be like a discussion and that council members would talk and what I see is that Mayor Ryan does
converse with us all quite a bit and offer her opinions but I see a seeming lack of interest to
participation by the other council members and I am disappointed because I voted for most of
you. So the person I conversing with on this issue is Mayor Ryan who I was told is a wake
surfer and there’s not a problem with that. At all. There’s nothing wrong with that but I know,
and I, that may not even be true and you can tell me if it’s not. I know that when I participate in
a sport or activity I don’t see the problems with that sport or activity. You know I’m just seeing
the fun I’m having so again there’s nothing wrong with that but could it be swaying your point of
view on the harms of this sport just because you see the benefits of the sport? Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Ms. Syverson. Any other council presentations? Or I’m sorry visitor
presentations.
Councilman McDonald: Madam Mayor?
Mayor Ryan: Sure, Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Okay you want someone else to talk I’m more than willing to talk to all
this. I do not agree with the Mayor on most things okay and I think that’s an open secret but I
think she has conducted herself very well throughout this in listening to everyone and I think it is
very unfair to bring up something about the fact that she may be a wake boarder. I didn’t know
that. Doesn’t really matter. Has nothing to do with any decision I will make. You also had a,
you know brought up the fact that you know we don’t know anything. You’re right. I admitted
that back in June that I do not know enough about this except there are two sides to this
argument and both of you are very passionate about your positions. You talk about a silent
majority being the two thirds that are against this. How do I know it’s not two thirds that are for
it? I’m very reluctant to take anyone’s opinion that comes up before this panel and starts to tell
us something without looking at both sides of the argument. I am an attorney by trade. I look at
both sides. I gather information. I make a decision based upon that. There is a due process
within this state. I asked a question a long time ago about well is there a lake that’s too small for
wake boarding? Evidently the DNR does not believe that there is a lake too small for wake
boarding. They govern the waters of this state. This state decided a long time ago to public
access to all lakes. You cannot have private lakes. I will point you to Christmas Lake which
fought to years to keep it private and they finally lost to the DNR. There are rules that we have
to follow. I believe in due process. We need to do a public hearing. I understand that the
boating season is going to go away. I’m sorry for that but you cannot just go in there an trample
on the rights of individuals. Granted you as homeowners have rights but you must also grant that
the wake boarders have rights and until the State takes away those rights in saying that no, the
lake is too small. You may not wake board upon this, I’m not going to make any decision until I
know all the facts so I think you need to be careful about you know looking at the fact that the
rest of us are not talking and allowing Mayor Ryan all the talking because what she says right
now is pretty much what everybody is thinking. As Councilwoman Tjornhom has said she
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
21
would like to learn more about this. We would all like to learn more about this. I have no idea
where all these numbers are coming from. Granted Mr. Koch did a very good job but he’s
asking for almost half an inch, 7/10th’s of an inch below what Ms. Susla is asking for. What are
we to think? That’s what this is coming down to is what are we to think and without further
input or information from the DNR, the watershed, I mean I would look to the experts that
manage all of this to give us some guidance. We’re not water expert managers. I don’t even
own a boat. I haven’t even been out on the lake at all this year and when I do go out it’s because
some friend invites me out to Lake Minnetonka. So I have no vested interest in this one way or
the other and yes I do know people that live on Lotus Lake and yes I will talk to them. I’ll try to
get input from their position. They’re not members of the lake owners association so I tend to
trust them a little bit more because I think okay they don’t really have a horse in this fight or you
know anything like that. A biased decision. That is our job as City Council. I thank you for
coming forward and you know making us aware of this problem and for telling us your side of
the story. I would like to hear other sides of the story and until I hear that I’m not ready to move
on anything. You know granted right now we have a petition into the DNR. We set a level for
that. I am perfectly willing to, if we reach those levels and we need to do an emergency meeting
I’m available and at that point I’ll probably grant the emergency but for right now no and that’s
why council is being very reluctant about getting involved in this because we do not have the
information that we believe we need to really ensure that everyone’s due process is followed and
it’s not just the home owners. It’s the boaters who use that lake for recreational purposes.
JoAnn Syverson: Which are homeowners too.
Councilman McDonald: Which are homeowners too.
JoAnn Syverson: So if at every meeting you say I.
Mayor Ryan: Ms. Syverson, Councilman McDonald is talking and it’s not a back and forth.
Please continue Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: I mean I’ll be glad to discuss this with anybody. You know what my
phone number is. Everybody knows how to get a hold of me during the day. That’s fine. If you
want to call up and talk to me about it I’ll accept the call and we’ll have a discussion but that’s
the position I’m taking and the whole point of me answering all this is that I truly do not think
it’s fair to go after the mayor just because she may be a wake boarder. That has nothing to do
with anything. Again she has her beliefs and she’s been very honest about all of them and I do
not think she looks towards anything with a bias perspective so I just wanted to defend the mayor
and the rest of council because you need to know that we do care and we are listening. Just
because we don’t say anything doesn’t mean we’re not listening. Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman McDonald. Are there any other visitor presentations?
FIRE DEPARTMENT/LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
22
Mayor Ryan: Okay next up we have the fire department and law enforcement update. Chief.
Chief Don Johnson: Good evening Mayor and council, this is my update for the activities of
July. We’re static at 43 firefighters. We’ve got one firefighter that went on personal leave since
my last meeting. In June we responded to 88 calls for service. 27 of those calls were handled by
the duty crews. Significant calls for the month were 42 rescue EMS with 2 motor vehicle
accidents and 4 minor related fire incidents with no structure fires. Training consisted of officer
fire ground incident training for strip malls and we conducted no regular training in July due to
our heavy activities. I’d like to report during the 4th of July activities we staffed several duty
posts for both those days. All 3 of the days. During the event the duty crews responded to 12
calls for service outside the actual events so we were pretty busy in the city regardless of what
was going on downtown. We had about 25 walk up’s for minor incidents at the street dance
during those times and two distinct medical calls during the street dance. Again very minor,
minor things. I am happy to report that we had no major incidents throughout the celebration out
in the city at all. On July 13th we assisted with our annual Tonka Mud Run with course prep and
spraying off the runners after the run and then a couple of tidbits from the Fire Marshal. We
completed fire extinguisher training and hands on CPR and a choking class for residents of the
Powers Ridge Condominiums. We also conducted the same classes for our first round of city
employees at Station 1. For that I can stand for questions.
Mayor Ryan: Council any questions or comments? Chief I’d just like to say you do your report
at the end of the month so at our July 8th meeting you weren’t here but I want to again extend
our, council’s appreciation for your support and presence at the 4th of July celebration for those 3
days. It was noticeable even in addition to the parade but you know we really appreciate having
you on site and available for those that are needed so appreciate that and then I also wanted to
comment that I heard a lot of great things about the Tonka Mud Run and you guys being there.
They said it was a great time so thank you for proudly representing Chanhassen. Appreciate it.
Chief Don Johnson: It was a team effort, appreciate it.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Lieutenant, welcome.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Thanks for letting me go after the Chief. He makes me nervous. Madam
Mayor and council I give you an agenda that I sent on your packet so I want to cover that a little
bit. I’m going to go from the bottom up tonight. Just a couple of things. I want to touch on the
4th of July since the Chief touched on that. From a law enforcement perspective we only had 5
minor incidents up at the event over the 2 days which in our eyes was not even a bump in the
road so that went really well on our end. For your agenda the staffing update. The city of Chan
is fully staffed. We’re going to make some staffing changes as it relates to supervision up here.
We have a newly promoted Sergeant that actually gets promoted on Wednesday, Jake Hodge.
He is new to Chanhassen. Spent most of his career on the west end of our county but he’s been a
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
23
county employee since 2000 and a deputy since 2004 and again newly promoted here on
Wednesday so welcome Jake Hodge and congratulations on his promotion.
Mayor Ryan: Jake or Jay?
Lt. Lance Pearce: Jake Hodge.
Mayor Ryan: Jake, okay thank you.
Lt. Lance Pearce: So moving on Sergeant Jason Breunig who was our day shift sergeant has
moved onto our coach and transport unit so he’s going to be housed out of our Chaska office and
Sergeant Tyler Stahn who has been working our afternoon on Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday’s will be the new day shift sergeant. So you’ll be seeing him a lot more during the day so
I’ll bring him to the next council meeting and introduce him so council knows but he was
unavailable tonight. So that’s our staffing changes. Training update in June all of our deputies
went through a boat and water practical during our boating season and also had some range
training working on weapon malfunction drills. Okay moving onto the June statistics. We had
43 A offense reports. 17 B offense reports and 541 non-criminal reports so I sent in your packet
a few extra graphs I want to cover real quick. So because we’re halfway through the year I
looked at our mid year stats and we had, I combined the A and B so if anybody asks about how
many crimes were in the city to me that makes a little more sense. We an split them, the A
offenses are generally your felony level crimes. B offenses are your misdemeanor crimes. We
had a grand total for the year we’re at 365 crimes. 2,405 non-criminal and then 2,451 traffic
incidents. So I broke out also for you the Group A crimes, the felony level and as you can see
we’re inundated with felony theft, drugs and felony other which are some miscellaneous ones for
the year so far. So if we have all of the 365 crimes the question is posed what do we do with the
rest of our time right. So I broke out the, another graph for you that shows what our non-
criminal are because when non-criminal what does that mean so we, the majority of our time on
the non-criminal side, alarms, medicals, suspicious activities, some animal calls and disturbance
complaints. The last graph that I sent you, I did a mock up of 2017, ’18 and ’19 Group A and B
by month and as you can see if you follow along on the graph I believe everybody has it. We’re
following the same general pattern this year. Those are mid way through the year as we were in
2017 and ’18. And I also put in here crashes by month for 2017, ’18 and 2019 year to date and
we’re also following a similar pattern as you’ve seen in the last 3 years in Chanhassen. So I
pulled some additional data and looked at just calls for service. Patrol related and I’ll, I gave this
to the mayor the other day on the phone but 2016 we had a little over 13,500 calls for service and
785 criminal reports. In 2017 we had a little over 12,000 calls for service and 737 crime reports.
In 2018 a little over 10,000 calls for service and 698 crimes so the trend is going down as far as
the number of crimes and also number of calls for service. I had spoken previously a week or
two ago for or with Mr. Gerhardt and he wanted me to provide a little bit of a speech on what the
sheriff’s office provides for crime prevention in the city and so I kind of looked at that and it’s
kind of two fold. We have an operational and then we have an education piece and as an
operationally we have the city. I’ve broken it down into 5 community policing districts where
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
24
each deputy’s assigned to provide extra patrols in that district. No daily routines of businesses,
what’s normal for any particular neighborhood. What’s out of place that allows us to investigate
some things that are just a little weird or we know is not right. And then also that deputy’s
responsible for being a point of contact between the citizens and the sheriff’s offices. I’ve
encouraged them to go into businesses within the district. Visit the daycare centers. Visit any
parks, playgrounds, all that stuff because we need to build a relationship with the citizens. So
that’s the purpose of the community policing. I did grab these. I’ll pass these around. So those
are given out if we find somebody’s door open, vehicle unlocked. Your dog’s barking and
you’re not home. We hang that on the door. It’s obviously in an orange color so people can see
it hanging on their door when they wake up in the morning. So looked at those and we do these
frequently and I looked in the month of June we handed those out for 53 people in Chanhassen
so.
Mayor Ryan: Li eutenant could you put this up on the screen just so people, there is an extra one.
Thank you.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Okay so that’s the back side and what we would do if I responded to your
house or I found your car open I would just check the appropriate box so it’s multi-use for
different things and then obviously it’s got the sheriff’s office on the front.
Todd Gerhardt: And Lieutenant what are you trying to do with these hangers?
Lt. Lance Pearce: We’re trying to remind people that they need to lock their cars or their garage
doors so that people don’t take advantage of that. And we end up with more thefts, more
burglaries, other miscellaneous things that might happen.
Todd Gerhardt: And you call those crimes of opportunity that people just drive around and see
cars parked in the street and they’re going to stop and check and see if they’re unlocked or not.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Yep and it’s not uncommon for us to see, we know that they went past
vehicles that were locked to find the one that was open for example and an open garage door is
an obvious thing.
Todd Gerhardt: And this just isn’t just in Chanhassen.
Lt. Lance Pearce: No, no, no. This is a, this is handed out to all the deputies and we do this
county wide.
Todd Gerhardt: But the crimes of opportunity in the last 2 months has been spread throughout
the southwest or the entire Twin Cities area.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
25
Lt. Lance Pearce: I would say it’s across all 9 county metro area. We’ve had a week, or week
and a half ago we had a similar instance happen on the very far western end of our county in
Hamburg. It was the same people looking for open cars.
Todd Gerhardt: And Victoria has had the same?
Lt. Lance Pearce: Yes. Yes we’ve had it just population wise it’s been a little more prevalent on
the east end of our county just because we’re highly densely populated but yeah we’re seeing this
throughout our county.
Todd Gerhardt: But from what I’ve seen on TV Hennepin County, Plymouth, Eden Prairie, you
know anything along the 494 strip also had crimes of opportunity occur too.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Yes and they’re seeing a bunch more just because they have easier access to
the 494/694 loop.
Todd Gerhardt: So when you say use of 494, they go in there. Take the whatever they want out
of somebody’s garage and get on 494 and they’re back up to Anoka before anybody knows about
it.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Correct.
Todd Gerhardt: Because 494 is barrier free access away from that home.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Correct and we’re not that far from that access.
Todd Gerhardt: Can you talk a little bit about the event that occurred at Dell and 5 and what’s
the sheriff office’s opinion regarding, I think there were some flags and dispiriting remarks on
signage.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Sure. Well first of all we got that day after it occurred and we went and
checked and those people were gone. The sheriff office’s position on that is everybody is
entitled to their opinion and their beliefs and free speech as long as they have the right to be there
and they are not harassing the public. So if they are out there with signs with they can chant
whatever they want as long as they are not harassing other pedestrians. They’re not creating a
traffic hazard or if they’re not harassing people in general but they’re free to have their own
speech and that’s where our stance is on it. And they do have to have permission to be on the
property though.
Todd Gerhardt: And the real nuisance is any traffic related trouble that the may cause.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Correct. They can’t be out there in the lane of traffic. They can’t cause cars
to slow down to a real slow speed causing a back up so we can’t have anything like that.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
26
Todd Gerhardt: Thank you.
Lt. Lance Pearce: So back to a couple other things I wanted to point out here. You know the
other things as far as crime prevention, we do target to patrol in areas we know needs attention.
I’ll use Lake Ann for example. We have people that spend time out there when it’s closed. We
know we need to spend regular time patrolling that. We also have an incident mapping
dashboard throughout the county system that interfaces with our calls for service and our GIS so
I can look up on our, in my computer in my office or my squad car I can look up the events that
occurred within the last 3 days, 7 days, last month. It will show me all of the specific events I
want to search. All of our calls for service if you really want to fill your screen. So I can know
where events are happening and where I need to patrol. And getting this information, we have
social media so with the sheriff’s office has Facebook and Twitter account. We also have an
anonymous tip line. We hit those a couple times as week. We also have the sheriff’s citizens
academy that has an avenue to understanding your local law enforcement. How we interact.
I’ve built a number of relationships with people in this city in particular just through that
sheriff’s office citizens academy. I’ve forgotten the names of people and they come up to me
and say, anyway so that’s that avenue. We also take advantage of every opportunity to provide
education, guidance and a format for questions and answers. Fourth of July was great. We had 9
or 10 people working. All kinds of information. Questions. You know hey this happened.
What should I do? That kind of thing. We have an upcoming Night to Unite so encourage
everybody to come out for that and we also do presentations to youth and senior groups. We’ve
done several of those so far this year. So and I’m currently building another project but I’m not
at liberty to discuss it. Got to make sure it comes to fruition.
Mayor Ryan: Hey perfect. Thank you for the update. Again council any comments or
questions?
Councilman McDonald: Madam Mayor?
Mayor Ryan: Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Lieutenant thank you for coming in tonight and everything and I know
a couple months ago I had asked you for some, I think it was last month about details of the
crimes and everything. I thank you for what you presented here today. It does break everything
down by the types of crimes and kind of goes a little bit beyond so we can tell okay a felony is
not a felony. What kind of felony was it? Assault? You know those types of things. So I thank
you for providing us with that information. That is helpful whenever we begin to look at public
safety and what kind of resources are needed to dedicate toward that so again thank you and
thanks for your service.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Thank you much.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
27
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. And I will add to that too. The appreciation for putting this
information together. I’m also wondering, and I haven’t looked what is on our website but I
think some of the graphs and information that were presented tonight would be helpful to put on
our website somehow. I know some of it is but the most recent data.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah if anybody wants access to any of the information shown tonight is just hit
the agenda button.
Mayor Ryan: On the council packet.
Todd Gerhardt: And then it takes you right to the council packet and then click on law
enforcement and you’ll see the entire report that you have in front of you.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Okay, I just didn’t know if under, you know under the law enforcement tab
if there’s some of it that we could look but we can talk about it.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah you can even go back. There was one month we missed Jerry.
Councilman McDonald and the prior months the Lieutenant went back and checked and it, we
did cover those months with the graphs that you saw tonight. But you can go back to any of the
agendas. It’s the second meeting of the month for City Council you will see a law enforcement
update on there and if you click on that you’ll see a graph of breakdown by crime.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: So, and then I’ll talk to Rick and see if we can’t you know have a link to that or
download it another special file.
Mayor Ryan: Yeah I’m just thinking for ease of the visitor to the website when they go to law
enforcement. I mean that’s going to be their first stop is to the law enforcement tab and even if it
redirects them to something on the council agenda with this information I think, I think to start
trying to figure out which date was presented and which information, this is valuable. It gives a
summary from January to June. I know Lieutenant Kittelson had some information too just to
provide easy access for residents when they’re looking for that data so, and again reiterate our
appreciation for your support and presence at the 4th of July celebration as well so thank you.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Thank you much.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you for your report. Alright we have no old business. No public hearings
or new business.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS. VERBAL UPDATE REGARDING POTENTIAL
EXPANSION OF LAKE ANN PARK.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
28
Mayor Ryan: Council presentation. I’ll do a quick intro and then I’m going to turn it over to Mr.
Hoffman to discuss it a little bit further. As many of you know over the course of this past year
the, it’s had so many names so I’m going to go through all of them just for clarity but it’s the
Galpin Property. It’s Prince’s Property and now it’s called The Park and it was certainly a very
public process as it should be and collected a lot of feedback from the residents about what to do
with this piece of property as a proposal came before council. It went before commissions as
well and a lot of the conversation was around a lot of emails and conversations were around save
the park. That was kind of something that we heard a lot and so through a lengthy process with a
lot of discussion and negotiation we, we now have an opportunity to look at this 50 acres of
parkland that is situated to the west of Lake Ann and as it said in our Comprehensive Plan it is
going to be integrated as part of the Lake Ann Park so this is part of the Lake Ann Park
expansion is this 50 acres. And a few months ago the council approved a contract to have a
consultant go and with the Parks and Rec Director, Mr. Hoffman to go look at the land and
identify the trails and what’s, you know what’s really happening on that you know beautiful
piece of property which many are, know that it’s an asset to this community but what we’re
going to do with it and I know Mr. Hoffman is going to touch on that in terms of what that
conversation was and what came from that meeting but ultimately the challenge that we’re faced
is here we have this beautiful piece of property but how do you fund doing anything with that
land and so in conversations with Mr. Gerhardt and Mr. Hoffman we, the idea of a potential
referendum to be able to put trails in and bridges in is something that was discussed because we
would, as many have expressed interest in having trails or access to that park the park fund nor
the City has that kind of money sitting around to be able to do anything and we want to make
sure that we do something with this land. So again a referendum came up. Mr. Hoffman has
much experience with referendums, park referendums that have come before the City and so we
asked him to, and I know there’s members of the Park and Rec Commission here tonight. Thank
you for being here but Mr. Hoffman I’ll turn it over to you and let you discuss the details of your
conversation with the consultant as well as a referendum.
Todd Hoffman: Sounds great.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you.
Todd Hoffman: Thank you. Thank you Mayor Ryan and members of the council. Tonight we
have both our chair and co-chair, Jim Boettcher and Meredith Petouvis here tonight so they’re
here to listen and offer any comments as well. So let’s talk about the first underway of the
feasibility study for trail concepts and a natural resource inventory at the newly acquired
parkland at Lake Ann Park. So Hoisington-Koegler has been hired. It will be about a 3 month
process. There’s a meeting scheduled that we have laid out so we’ll be kicking that off what we
just did with a tour last week. Last Tuesday and the folks on the tour were a variety of people
from Hoisington-Koegler and then also basically a scientist. A natural resource scientist and all
of them were just really set back by the beauty of that area and the stunning array of diversity
that you have in that particular piece of property and so that was the initial take away. Really the
long term plan here is to say okay we want to gain access through trails, bridges and a boardwalk
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
29
to all the adjoining neighborhoods and so this has been a long term plan. If you look back to the
other referendums in our city’s history, it started in 1969 with the original acquisition of Lake
Ann Park so that was a referendum that people of Chanhassen voted on. It was approved and
the original piece of Lake Ann was purchased. It was then at that time back in the late 60’s,
early 70’s that the citizens came together and said okay well let’s set this future plan forward to
expand Lake Ann Park and put that trail all the way around Lake Ann so we’re not quite there
yet but we’re 50 acres closer and it’s really quite an exciting time for our community. The
planning process for the feasibility study will continue. We’ll go out to our concert in the parks.
We’ll go out to the Farmer’s Market. Talk to people. We’ll have a variety of meetings. Some
online input and then we’ll be back before the Park and Recreation Commission in August and
with the City Council on September 9th for a City Council update and then eventually back with
a recommendation coming from our park commission in September for your consideration in
October. And that will be on the plan itself. So these are the bridges. These are the costs. This
is what this project would entail in the long term. Moving forward in our referendum history, so
then in the 80’s, even though we have I would say it’s a strong referendum history it’s, there’s
not that many but they’re very important so in the 80’s we purchased Bandimere Park. There
was a $300,000 question to purchase parkland and so when you think about these important dates
in our community I would, you think about that they’re there now but just imagine if those votes
didn’t happen. If those things weren’t there so the first one was Lake Ann. The second was
Bandimere Park. And that was added at the last moment. I was in this room. The council was
talking about and Councilmember Bill Boyt said you know we should, I think Jay might have
been there if Jay’s still here. Jay was probably there. You know we should probably add some
cash, we’re growing in southern Chanhassen. We should probably add some cash onto the
question and it passed by let’s see 4 votes. So by a margin of 4 votes we have Bandimere Park in
our community so that’s a pretty special milestone when you think back to it. Also in that one
was the second half of Lake Ann. The land had been acquired but there was no cash to improve
ballfields number 4, 5 and 6 and the soccer fields and so again back in ’88 $300,000 was
approved to construct the second half of Lake Ann. You fast forward to ’97, it was actually at a
Park and Rec Commission meeting in 1994 that the commissioners said you know what
development is happening so rapidly we’re really going to lose our opportunity to preserve some
important things in our community. Let’s ask the City Council if we can have a referendum to
preserve some open space in our community and also do some other important projects. Build
some trails. Work on neighborhood parks and so that was a 2, about a 2 year process. The
referendum did occur on June 14, 1997. It passed and we built 7 miles of trails, acquired the Fox
Woods Preserve and so all these are milestone moments in our community that the citizens
responded and said yes let’s make this happen. If you had to pick one that you thought you
could sell, the Lake Ann Park Preserve is probably at least equal to or greater than any of those
past referendum opportunities so I think if you look at the timing so as Lennar is building their
homes in what is called The Park so obviously they think it’s important because they named it
after the park so their neighborhood is called The Park. When those homes are built and people
are desiring access to this open space it would be nice to have those trails complete as those
neighborhoods come in. And we know from our history that if you do that, if you build things
you know at the same time, concurrently together then you don’t get into this well we’ve already
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
30
moved in. Now we don’t want your trail system because we’re here now. We would just as
soon not have that connection to our neighborhood so it’d be nice to do those, all those things
concurrently. You need a cash funding source. A referendum is a good way to do that.
Typically when a City Council decides on a referendum you can either appoint your Park and
Recreation Commission to serve as an advisory task force or you can just appoint a citizen task
force. There might be other things that the community wants to do. There might be some
improvements at Bandimere. Finish out Bandimere or do other trail projects in the community
so if you desire it’s also a time to do, be a sounding board into your communities or other things
you would like to do as well so you know there’s some decisions to be made before you move
forward. If you look to this November you could do a referendum coming up this November but
you would have to let the County know at the end of August. It would be very quick and very
short and it would just be an administrative type question so we would come up with the
question. It would go on a ballot and there really wouldn’t be that back and forth with the
citizenry. In fact the study, the feasibility study wouldn’t be done yet so more of a 12 to 18
month timeframe is probably more realistic but you could do, you have a variety of options that
you could consider. So I’ll stop talking and answer questions or be happy to hear what council
members are thinking. You now the dollar amounts we don’t know but you’re probably in that
$2 to $3 million dollar mark to get started in Lake Ann but we’ll know here in a few short weeks
what those exact dollar amounts are.
Mayor Ryan: Council any questions for Mr. Hoffman? Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Mr. Hoffman, have you all got a preliminary plan of what you know the
park’s going to look like as far as where trails are at and?
Todd Hoffman: We do. We have a concept plan.
Councilman McDonald: Concept plan. Okay. Was that something you passed out to us? Did I
miss it or?
Todd Hoffman: Just not, I don’t have it. We’ve passed it out in the past. I don’t have it here
tonight but I’ll be happy to get a copy of it yeah.
Councilman McDonald: Okay. And what kind of facilities are you looking at building? I mean
what would this referendum cover besides you know a trail? Anything else that’s going to go in
there? Structures? Buildings? What are we looking at spending money for in there?
Todd Hoffman: So the concept talks about two bridges and a boardwalk and then connected by
trails and so the site’s pretty remote and it’s 100 percent forested. There’s nothing else being
planned. There’s not, you know there’s no real close large parking access. Lake Ann’s about a
half a mile away. There’ll be some parking in the neighborhood over in the Lennar side but the
feasibility study will kind of get some of that information out as we continue to talk to the
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
31
community. They’ll be telling us if there’s other things that they desire that would be part of that
conversation.
Councilman McDonald: Okay thank you.
Councilman Campion: Mr. Hoffman, so the $2 to $3 million ballpark is just based on the
difficulty of building the trail and bridge and boardwalk in that forested space?
Todd Hoffman: Not necessarily difficulty. That’s just the cost of building bridges and trails and
so it’s just, there’s a large boardwalk that’s going to be fairly expensive. There’s a significant
bridge over Riley Creek and then there’s another bridge that’s also significant and it’s in an area
where there’s some poor soils so it’s just going to be the cost of the construction.
Councilman Campion: Okay.
Mayor Ryan: And Mr. Hoffman have you had, I know you went on a tour with the Park and Rec
Commission but have you discussed referendum at any of your meetings with the Park and Rec
Commission?
Todd Hoffman: They’ve just mentioned it during their CIP that it might, during their CIP
discussions they’ve said you know it might be a need for a future referendum but they’ve had no
formal discussions as of yet.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. I’d like to throw this out for council feedback. Is your meeting tomorrow
night?
Todd Hoffman: A month yep. No meeting tomorrow night. A month from now.
Mayor Ryan: Oh a month from now. That changes my thought process. Because it would be
interesting, I mean I would like to get the feedback from the park and rec commission. I mean
the timing I suppose is fine as well but to then bring it back to council in a work session to, once
we get the feedback on what you discuss as a commission in terms of whether you have more
information on the feasibility study or just what the overall consensus is from the commission
and then bring it back to council for discussion at a work session again reiterating some of the
points that you made tonight Mr. Hoffman but you know layout in more detail, you know here’s
a process. Here’s you know two different timelines. This is what we’re looking at so instead of
just springing it on tonight as part of a presentation or a discussion allow us to, you know or
allow the commission to discuss things. Allow staff to put something together formally in a
packet and then we can discuss it as a council and if that ends up being late August or the
beginning of September well then you know then that’s fine too but at least it gives all of us an
opportunity to digest that information before we act on anything. Does that work for council?
Okay.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
32
Todd Hoffman: Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: If we could do that that would be great.
Todd Hoffman: You bet.
Mayor Ryan: Appreciate it. Thank you for being here and leading the pack with the
commission, appreciate it. And for bringing your daughter. Nice to see you all. An other
council presentations this evening?
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. MID-YEAR REVIEW OF KEY FINANCIAL
STRATEGIES.
Mayor Ryan: Mr. Gerhardt administrative presentations.
Todd Gerhardt: Yes. Included in your packet is my 2019 work plan, also what we call key
financial strategies, annual goals for the City Council. And I can go through each one of them
and get your thought and feedback if you need additional information. We talked about the
increased staff for the fire department duty crew program. We continue to talk about that as a
part of the 2020 budget. It’s a key indicator as we look at our levy going into 2020 and it being a
big factor in expanding our fire department’s service level to the residents. And so Chief
Johnson gave you an update this past February. Council felt it was something that you wanted to
proceed with but wanted to wait and look at the budget as a whole and would include a final
decision as you look at approving your 2020 budget. Any other questions on the duty crew
model?
Mayor Ryan: No.
Todd Gerhardt: Okay. Consider implementation of a lodging tax. There was a small meeting at
our work session with the Buy Chanhassen group that was discussed more looking for feedback
from the council if there’s any interest in a local hotel lodging tax. And Mayor, council gave
direction to the Buy Chanhassen members that were there to reach out to the lodging businesses
and also those that would benefit from the lodging tax. What their thoughts and input might be
and you also wanted to know a little bit more about Meet Minneapolis’ business structure. So I
would not say that’s one complete. I have not heard anything from the Buy Chanhassen group
since that meeting and they’re probably pretty busy with the Night in Town upcoming up here
early August so, so that one may come back again this fall. Implement a mental health
awareness program. Lieutenant Kittelson gave you a good overview of some of the medical
mental health numbers. The training requirements for our officers and he gave you some
statistics that I put in regarding mental health calls for service and I think the direction I heard
from council is that met what you were looking for.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
33
Councilwoman Coleman: …that was what we were looking for in terms of data. As far as
whether or not I think this particular KFS project is complete, it is not in my eyes. I was looking
for an actual program, outreach initiative or some sort of public engagement that would help
achieve the goals that we outlined here.
Todd Gerhardt: Okay thank you. Appreciate that. We’ll work on that.
Councilman Campion: Yeah I agree with that. What we’re talking about ideas such as you
know state’s involved about, you know potentially hosting some annual or bi-annual workshop.
You know engagement with the community more.
Todd Gerhardt: Okay. Great. Alright. We’ll get on that so we’ll consider that one not
completed. And pavement management program deep dive. I would say that one is still going.
I think we did a good job of talking about the OCI and the assessment share and how we got to
that. I think the last leg is figuring out the funding mechanism for pavement management and I
think we’re going to continue that tonight and into August and September here before we
conclude our 2020 budget. Any other comments or thoughts on that? Okay. Conduct a
thorough review on, of all utility fund fees. We have that scheduled for September 23rd. It’s
something we look at on an annual basis of, during our rate study and we’ve moved that up this
year and you’ll see more of that at our September 23rd work session. Jason anything you wanted
to add to that? Okay. We addressed trail gaps and trail crossing safety issues. We went through
the park system master planning process. Identified 34 trail gaps, 16 trail crossing safety
concerns were identified and most of those were going to work on with road projects that are
scheduled for upgrade. The 41 trail underpass on Hazeltine Boulevard. Great Plains
Boulevard/101 between Pioneer Trail and 61. Having the overpass there. And continuing the
Mill Street pedestrian trail between Chanhassen and Excelsior and working with Hennepin
County on the direction that they want to go. And then the big one is Bluff Creek Drive between
Highway 212 and County Road 61. That would be done with a road project when we upgrade
Bluff Creek Drive going down to County Road 61. Any other comments?
Councilman Campion: I have one question there.
Todd Gerhardt: Sure.
Councilman Campion: Some neighbors were just asking me the other night about when Pleasant
View is due to be.
Todd Gerhardt: Upgraded.
Councilman Campion: Upgraded was, is there a trail talked about for portions of that or, I didn’t
have an answer.
Todd Gerhardt: It would be very difficult to place a trail anywhere.
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34
Councilman Campion: Well yeah that’s what they saying but I know that the road reconstruction
was planned.
Todd Gerhardt: Yes. We’re still planning. You remember Carver Beach, it’s going to be
similar to that.
Councilman Campion: In terms of the tightness.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. I mean even the curb and gutter situation. We’re going to try, we’re
making improvements in some areas that are difficult today out there but having a full length
curb, guttered road section, what we call an urban section with you know 10 foot of right-of-way
on each side of the curb is probably not going to happen. We have limited right-of-way. What
you’re probably going to see is just a mill and overlay into the existing right-of-way that’s there
and then any drainage issues that may exist that we could correct as a part of that project. We
could look at possible trail locations as a part of the feasibility study once that’s initiated. You
know to allow people safe zones and other pedestrian safety measures. When is that one
scheduled? Is it.
Jason Wedel: I honestly don’t have that…
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, I think it’s in the next 5 years.
Councilman Campion: Yeah I thought it was somewhere in 3 to 5 years but.
Todd Gerhardt: But until you get the feasibility study, that gives you a broad look at what’s
existing out there. We survey everything. We identify where manholes are. Where catch basins
are. Where our right-of-way is and that will dictate where we might be, have opportunities to put
trails. Put safety zones in and so the feasibility study really plays a key role in identifying those.
Councilman Campion: And that was what they were bringing up. You know not necessarily a
full trail but the safety zones were there discussing it’s difficult to safely walk there you know
from a house that’s a couple yards away from the park.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah I feel for them. They’re very brave. I saw a young lady walking her dog
the other day on Pleasant View and she just was out there and you’ve got to swerve around them
and hope a car’s not coming but you know the feasibility study really dictates to what kind of
right-of-way and also the contours that allow us to put those trail sections in there. And I give
Paul credit. I didn’t think he’d get Carver Beach done so I have a lot of trust in Jason that he can
figure something out on Pleasant View. So we’ll get the bar pretty high for him.
Mayor Ryan: Pressure’s on.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
35
Todd Hoffman: The history in the comp plan is Pleasant View originally had the trail on there
and then through that 30 year conversation at other comp plan people said is this a reality and so
it was taken off so there is no comprehensive plan for a trail on Pleasant View simply because of
the character of the road.
Councilman Campion: Okay, alright.
Todd Gerhardt: But that doesn’t mean we can’t look at you know safety zones and things like
that but you’re not going to have a full fledged trail from one end to the other, no.
Councilman Campion: Right.
Todd Gerhardt: The grades just don’t allow it and the amount of right-of-way that we own
because a lot of property owners probably own up to the road if not into the road.
Councilman Campion: Yeah and just for what it’s worth these property owners were saying they
have land they’d be willing to offer up so I don’t know, I mean the other neighbors might feel
that strongly about it where maybe they would be willing to give some so.
Todd Gerhardt: It’s rare where a property owner will give you land for a trail in their front yard
so.
Councilman Campion: Yeah I hear ya.
Todd Gerhardt: We’ll talk to them.
Todd Hoffman: In one. Gave it away.
Todd Gerhardt: Yep he did.
Todd Hoffman: There’s always interesting history. So you look back, Crosstown was going to
go through Pleasant View so Crosstown was going to continue and then people didn’t want that
so the council in the 60’s didn’t want that. They didn’t want Crosstown to go all the way over to
41. They wanted to keep Pleasant View. They wanted to keep the character of that
neighborhood and so now that’s what you have because the councils in the 60’s said this is not
going to go through. And so it’s just that viewpoint and it’s just that right-of-way. I’ve walked
it. Biked it. Driven it and we’ve taken dozens if not hundreds and hundreds of calls about you
know how can I safely get around here on a trail and it’s just one of those corridors that, and the
other thing so interesting about Pleasant View is you’ve got Highway 5. You’ve got Highway 7
and what else do you have inbetween to get east and west? Pleasant View Road and so it is used
for people to get east and west because those are the other two east and west corridors.
Councilman Campion: Okay thanks.
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
36
Todd Gerhardt: So you know I think a big one of this will be a part of the discussion with Todd
and maybe his referendum and maybe the separate question on trail gaps that aren’t included as a
part of roads so that’s an opportunity that was discussed here this past Friday or, and today. So I
say that one’s still probably going to be an ongoing discussion for years to come. Review the
practice addressing citizen’s request for traffic safety concerns. Jason and I had a good
discussion on that today and that we’ve had Project Leadfoot and we put the safety trailer out
and Jason had some good ideas about safety measures and that we put a manual together and
work with neighborhoods on what might work for them and doing you know the first thing is a
mini feasibility study. Speed study. See if there is a need or not and what measures we could
take to help with those safety needs. Jason you want to add anything?
Jason Wedel: Sure. Mayor, members of the council. So one of the things we’ve also done is
have one point person in the engineering department. It’s Erick Henricksen our project engineer
so he’s the point person for taking any kind of traffic safety calls so he’s logging them. Tracking
them. Making sure they’re followed through on so things don’t get missed or dropped so that
was one thing we’ve also implemented. And as Mr. Gerhardt mentioned so we’re using the local
road research boards manual for addressing citizenry request for traffic safety concerns. This
was a manual that was put together through multiple cities with their staff engineering
departments and public works working together to come up with standards so when someone
asks for a crosswalk in a particular location we have standards now that well how many
pedestrians per hour are crossing at this location and there’s other criteria that dictate when we’re
going to stripe a crosswalk or when we’re not so at least we’re consistent and we can tell a
resident when they’re asking for it, well these are the things that need to be in place to warrant
those types of improvements because when we add those improvements that’s something that
we’re now going to have to maintain in perpetuity so we want to make sure that they are truly
necessary and that we’re applying those standards fairly across the city.
Todd Gerhardt: So I think this is going to be an ongoing goal for us on an annual basis and to
put you know kind of the topping on the cake for this each year is maybe have Erick do a
summary of his annual input from residents. I think the council would love to see what
neighborhoods have been calling in. What are their requests? What has been staff’s action on it?
Is it ongoing? Is it you know something that we are going to include with a future road project?
I think they’d want to hear what staff’s proposal is to correct the situation.
Jason Wedel: Yeah absolutely.
Mayor Ryan: Yeah I think that would be very helpful and I think the manual will be great just to
have consistency across because I know you get a number of calls and requests so if there’s some
consistency there that everybody can follow that will be very helpful so thank you. Alright next.
Todd Gerhardt: Alright the last one here I think. No, we have a couple more. Study and
consider sanitary sewer inflow and infiltration or what we like to call I and I initiatives and the
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
37
council approved a plan to study our I and I issues in Chanhassen and just like our park system
plan, our fire study plan, our downtown initiative, we have an I and I initiative and in there will
be a laundry list of items that we can do to help reduce our I and I or inflow into our sanitary
sewer system and so that plan should be done in the next.
Jason Wedel: So we are gathering data May through October so they’ve got actual flow meters
in our sanitary sewer system throughout the city in key locations and so we’re gathering data
right now as we speak and actually ironically when we started this study we were hoping for
some big rainfall events so that you could see before and after’s. Mother Nature has cooperated
quite well so far this summer so we should have some really good data to see what our flows are
on dry days and when you have a big rainfall event. If we are getting I and I in a particular area
it will definitely show up then during those rain events so it will be, we should have some good
information to present back to council we’re thinking in November.
Mayor Ryan: Great.
Todd Gerhardt: And I’ve got to credit Jason and his staff, I mean they found manholes that are
underneath water right now so, and we’ve got to work with residents to go onto their property to
raise those manholes up out of the water so some of them can have a rubber seal around them so
water doesn’t get in but you want to know where they are so we have to raise them up and we’ve
got 3 or 4 locations that we need to work on and get the owner’s cooperation to go onto their
property to fix that. Establish economic development advisory commission to advertise City
Council’s regarding economic development, housing and redevelopment matters. We had
several meetings regarding this. We’re out advertising for commercial members and are set to
either start interviews early September end of August. I think the deadline here is the end of this
week.
Mayor Ryan: Last Friday.
Todd Gerhardt: Last Friday okay. So that’s moving ahead so I would say it’s not done yet and
you’ve reviewed the by-laws tonight so as commission members are selected and they start they
can review those by-laws and start moving forward in the task before them. And then the last
one the City of Chanhassen has ongoing economic development goals and projects throughout
the year. We brought before you Frontier Brewery and I think it was Bear Brewery and so you
had two breweries that were interested in what we call the old Red-E-Mix site or the site next to
the water treatment plant if you don’t remember the Red-E-Mix site and the Applebee’s
redevelopment. We had several meetings. There was a need for additional parking. We worked
out a permanent easement on city owned parking. Kate continues to work with them on the
layout of their facility. We had Liv Horneland at our last City Council meeting who gave you an
overview of her goals for her property based on grading issues. Mark Undestad is working hard
on the Holasek Business Park. If you haven’t been out there it’s amazing to see all the black dirt
he is accumulating on that site and is close to getting his permit for his first building. Life Time
Fitness is finishing up their second phase to their corporate headquarters. As a part of that
Chanhassen City Council – July 22, 2019
38
they’re also looking at adding additional parking where the turf field was right along Highway
41 to the south of the fitness center which was their outdoor event structure. They would have a
variety of competitions on a turf field there and they’re turning that into a parking lot. Control
Concepts came in with a 54,000 square foot building and we’re hoping for them to pull a
building permit yet this year. So that’s all we have. We have a few more things to bring back to
you but that’s our mid year update.
Mayor Ryan: Great. Thank you Mr. Gerhardt. Any questions from council?
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None.
Mayor Ryan: Any discussion on the correspondence packet? If not I will entertain a motion to
adjourn.
Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Coleman 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 9:15 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim