CC VER 2020 07 27CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
JULY 27, 2020
Mayor Ryan called the meeting to order at 7:03 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: Heather Johnston, Jake Foster, Kate Aanenson, Charlie Howley, Jerry
Ruegemer, City Attorney Andrea Poehler, Kim Meuwissen, Matt Kerr, Jodi Sarles, Mary
Blazanin and Priya Tandon
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Ray Mikkonon 6781 Penamint Lane
Mayor Ryan: Good evening again everybody. Thank you for joining us tonight. 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 ANNOUNCEMENT: TODD HOFFMAN RETIREMENT PROCLAMATION.
Mayor Ryan: First up we have a public announcement and tonight our public announcement, we
are going to have a brief ceremony for our long time Parks and Recreation Director Todd
Hoffman. It didn’t seem fitting to have the ceremony within the walls of City Council since his
impact was felt in and around the community so we are going to adjourn briefly and read a
proclamation and have a quick ceremony outside for him at the Veteran’s Monument and then
we will be returning to the chambers for the continuation of our meeting at 7:30. So for those of
you watching at home there’ll be a brief break and then we will return at 7:30 so we will
entertain a short recess.
The City Council meeting was recessed at this point.
Mayor Ryan: We will resume our meeting.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilwoman Coleman moved, Councilman Campion seconded
to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s
recommendations:
1. Approve City Council Minutes dated July 13, 2020
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2. Approve City Center Park Paver Replacement Project
3. Authorize a Cooperative Agreement with RPBCWD for the Silver Lake Water Quality
Improvement Project
4. Approve an Amendment to the Chaparral Planned Unit Development (PUD) Ordinance
to Correct a Typographical Error
5. Approve 2021 Service Agreement of Joint Assessment with Carver County Assessor
6. Amendment to the Development Contract for Boylan Shores
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Ryan: Next we have visitor presentations. Visitor presentations are included with each
of our regularly scheduled council meetings. 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 will 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 we appropriately follow up with your item. However if you’re simply
making a comment you do not need to fill out a form. We had one submitted and please come
forward. Thank you for joining us tonight. You may take it off, yes.
Gretchen Piper: That was my question. Thank you, how fun to show up at a council meeting
with, that includes cake so you’re the only city. I’m just saying. Thank you. Thank you to the
Mayor and members of the council for having me here. I just wanted to take two minutes of
your time to introduce myself. My name is Gretchen Piper and I am candidate for Minnesota
Senate in our district, District 33 so that includes part of Chanhassen so I wanted to make sure
I’m visiting every city, every school district in Senate District 33 and to hear what’s on the
agenda. Fun to come for a big retirement ceremony and learn that to bring everybody along I’ve
got to have a big wing span so that was fun to be here for this. I grew up in Hamel on a farm in
Maple Plain and I live in Wayzata now so I’m on the A side, the north side of the district. I went
to Orono public schools and also the University of Minnesota where I did my MBA so I spent
most of my life here living in Senate District 33 and my family’s here. My kids are here in
public school and I’m running for State Senate to represent our values. Our community values
and to get some important things done for high quality public education. For accessible health
care. Protecting our beautiful lakes and waters and the environment and critical infrastructure
investments that we are frankly waiting for right now with a bonding bill that’s stuck in part
because of partisan gridlock and I’d to be somebody who consistently, as I’ve done in my career
reaches across the aisle and gets things done and just goes to work for our communities. I have
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my own small consulting business. I’ve also worked in the medical device industry and worked
on those issues that are important to our community is I’ve worked in healthcare. In education.
I’ve worked in the environmental field so I’ve done a lot of these things and I’d like to bring
what I know in those areas there and in work force development and human rights. I’d like to
bring that to our work at the legislature and get things done for our communities so I’m running a
positive race. I’m running to get constructive work done for our communities. Not for our
political parties and I’d like to take care of the backlog of projects that really need to be done in
the legislature. There is a lot of work to be done as we recover from the pandemic as we find
safe ways to get back to work. To get our kids back to school. There’s a lot of work that we
need to do together and I’m ready to do it. I would love to further the conversation when we’re
not in the middle of a busy City Council meeting but if there are any questions I’m happy to take
those or you can find me at GretchenPiper.com. Or Gretchen at Gretchen at GretchenPiper.com
is my email. Thank you members of the council. Mayor for serving our community. Local
politics is where it happens and I’m really anxious to serve our community and have us go
forward together in ways that I know that we can so let’s have a conversation and I will take any
questions now or later.
Mayor Ryan: Perfect thank you. Council do you have any questions? I don’t think so but thank
you for coming forward. We appreciate it.
Gretchen Piper: Thank you. Yeah thanks for the time.
Mayor Ryan: You bet, thank you. Are there any other visitor presentations tonight? Okay with
that we will go to our fire department and law enforcement update.
FIRE DEPARTMENT/LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Ryan: Chief.
Chief Don Johnson: Good evening Mayor and council. It’s our monthly fire department update.
We’re still sitting at 44-45 firefighters. Relatively stable and healthy crew. We did have some
internal promotions that happened based on one of our assistant chiefs going on a long paid
leave. Or a long unpaid leave. He’ll be leaving August 1st for a job which kind of opened up a
vacancy in the assistant chief ranks which we were already carrying one so we did some internal
promotions and I hope to bring a couple of people before you next month. We’ll look at some
scheduling and do a little swearing in for our new two assistant chiefs. 74 calls in June. We had
2 that were Chief only calls. 24 day only calls which are responded to by just a handful of day
available staff. 25 duty crew calls and 23 general alarms. June was probably our most stable
month in regards to the expansion program with COVID shifts behind us and everything else. It
kind of gave us a good baseline of where calls are at and I’m happy to report that cutting down to
23 general alarms that all of the fire departments are responding to is a lot less than the 50 or 55-
60 in the past so the program is definitely working. A few of the significant calls, 44 were
rescue EMS with 5 motor vehicle accidents. We had 3 fire responses. We had an exterior fire
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on a townhouse on Maggie Way. A wood chip fire at Roundhouse Park which for those listening
do not pour your coals from your charcoal grill into the mulch before you leave the park. It tends
to have the fire department have to come out a little later. And then a same scenario at a trash
can fire at Lake Minnewashta Park on the same day so if we could just be careful as we
celebrated our Parks and Rec Director leaving, let’s be careful in our parks when we’re
charcoaling. Shift training has still been mostly online based on COVID guidelines but in July
that did loosen up and we started doing some small group training so one training topic is now
taking us 4 cycles to get through in groups of 10 so. June 27th we had a drive up food drive that
the fire department put on. We collected over 1,500 pounds of food supporting our 3 local food
shelves here. Included cash donations which we converted to Cub Foods gift cards and
distributed those as well. Thank you to Mayor Ryan. On June 29th we were able to go around to
4 of our Black Hat folks that passed probation. We’re all adjusting to staying in these small
groups but I know that had a big impact on those 4 for us so I thank you for taking the time to do
that. That evening as well as you can see from the Chan Villager Greg Geske was awarded
surprisingly with his Firefighter of the Year from 2019 so I also hope to bring him in front of
council next month as well. And then July 4th partnering with rec staff and the sheriff’s office
we were able to put on the fireworks show. The only other thing of mention is we did have a
major loss fire on July 5th. This was on Lake Point Road. It was about 3:00 in the morning. A
considerable amount of staff. We were out there for quite a while. We’re still working on the
investigation for that so with that I can stand for questions.
Mayor Ryan: Council any questions? I don’t have any questions Chief but two things. Did you
say you’re going to be able to get the folks that got their Black Hats as well as Mr. Geske to a
council meeting so they can be recognized? Or for sure the Firefighter of the Year.
Chief Don Johnson: Yes.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. I’d definitely like to have council have an opportunity to congratulate him
in public. I think it would be nice. I know we’re limited in terms of number of folks that can be
in the chambers but just on behalf of council I know we would like to congratulate him. And
then second of all you weren’t at our last meeting obviously because it wasn’t your report but
just want to commend you again for your work and preparation and then execution of a safe 4th
of July. I did make a comment and I think a few of us did at our last council meeting but the fact
that we were able to still have fireworks is you know credit to you as well as Lieutenant Pearce
for pulling together a plan and then executing on that and allowing our residents to enjoy the
fireworks so I just want to, I know I’ve seen you since and sent an email but I again would like to
say publicly how much we appreciate your efforts on behalf of the City so thank you.
Chief Don Johnson: I wish I could take credit for it. It was a true team effort.
Mayor Ryan: Wonderful as always, thank you Chief.
Chief Don Johnson: Thank you.
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Lt. Lance Pearce: Good evening Mayor and council.
Mayor Ryan: Good evening.
Lt. Lance Pearce: I’ll cover the June calls for service and then I have a couple other things that I
created after I sent the packet out so I don’t know if Kate can help me out. Techno issues on that
at all. In June we have 1,056 calls for service correct and when I was doing that I noted a spike in
a couple of targeted areas that I have covered on here. I can certainly send this out to council if
need be but we went.
Mayor Ryan: You can put it back down now. Perfect. Nann do you have the overhead camera
for documents for Lieutenant? Perfect thank you.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Alright looks terrible but we can still read it. So what I noted on here if you
look on the very bottom was, we went from the frauds and thefts were averaging around 20 a
month or so. We had 65 last month and so I wanted to talk that through with council. And the
other two that I wanted to talk through a little bit was the increase in mental health and also
domestics and I think the domestics and the mental health is a result of the pandemic we’re
having and the stresses people are feeling at home with job losses and lack of activities to do.
That kind of stuff. We’re seeing a definite in the amount of domestics so I’ve broken this out on
the top two. That says domestic and domestic assault. The difference being the top number on
both of those measurable from 2019 and 2020 is domestics if we get called and no one is arrested
and the second one the domestic assault is where somebody has committed a domestic assault
and been arrested for that offense. So you can see we’re going up a little bit. As noted I took a
look on Friday to see where we’re at for the month of July and as of this morning we had 6
domestics where nobody was arrested and we had 3 where somebody was arrested so we’re
certainly seeing an increase in those calls. In addition to the mental health’s. If we look down
on the bottom of 2020 in June we are up to 16 of those and we’re usually averaging around 8 or
9 a month so we’re certainly seeing an increase in those. The fraud and thefts, that’s a direct
relation to the unemployment fraud. There was a news article on there a couple of weeks ago
where people are filing for those claims and then finding out that somebody else has already used
their name so we provide citizens that are victims of that, we have our own internal ID theft
packets and also the Minnesota Department of Employment is helping out those citizens as well.
Mayor Ryan: Are you, who is contacting, the sheriff’s office? In terms of the fraud and theft.
Lt. Lance Pearce: The victims contact through the website.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Lt. Lance Pearce: We also have an internal one that goes to the, all 3 of the credit bureaus and
the IRS to file a claim saying somebody has stolen your identity.
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Mayor Ryan: Perfect thank you.
Lt. Lance Pearce: So.
Mayor Ryan: Council any questions for the Lieutenant? I just would like to say thank you for
pointing out the, or putting forward the numbers about the mental health and domestic cases. I
know that in our Carver County report it talked about that it’s been up, it’s up 31 percent and I
think that’s just a shocking number and we spend a lot of time obviously talking about other
aspects of COVID and the impacts to our residents and our community and that statistic is not
always shared and I think it’s a really important statistic for people to be aware of and so I just
you know would encourage again to those who are not feeling safe to make sure you reach out to
somebody that can help you. Whether it’s law enforcement or a friend to help you in those
circumstances but it’s an alarming statistic and thank you for bringing that forward.
Lt. Lance Pearce: You bet. I have a couple other things just for council. We have only had one
call for service. I stand corrected. I sent it out this morning. My Sergeant corrected me. We
had one call for service last night for violation of the mask mandate but that is all since that went
into effect Saturday morning.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. And in terms of mask my understanding is education first?
Lt. Lance Pearce: Absolutely. Yeah we’re looking for voluntarily compliance in most of that,
and the complaint we did have last night was, it wasn’t something that was occurring at that
time. It was a question.
Mayor Ryan: And businesses, our local businesses are aware of how to get in touch with you if
they have issues.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Correct.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Lt. Lance Pearce: And then on your next agenda for the next meeting the sheriff is going to
come talk to council about the sheriff’s office and some policy stuff as it relates to the policing
reform that got passed last week so he wants to come in and come at the next council so we’ll
both be here.
Mayor Ryan: Okay wonderful. Thank you Lieutenant.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Any questions?
Mayor Ryan: I don’t think so. Thank you.
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Lt. Lance Pearce: Thank you.
ADOPT ASSESSMENT ROLLS AND AWARD CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT FOR
LAKE LUCY ROAD MSA PROJECT.
Mayor Ryan: Next is our old business. We have, which was tabled from our last council
meeting. We have two of our road project topics and so Mr. Howley the first one is the 2020
Street Rehab Project.
Charlie Howley: Thank you Mayor, council, good evening. I’ve got a quick power point here
for you. There we go. Alright Lake Lucy Road Rehabilitation Project. Tabled from last meeting
where we held a public hearing for the assessments but we didn’t move forward with the
assessment adoption or the award of contract. That’s for reconsideration tonight. For the
information to the public. We had a workshop on our agenda before this meeting where we went
through some options for our funding challenges. I’m not going to rehash all those options until
we get to the end of this power point. So tonight’s action was to consider approval of the
assessment roll and consider authorizing the construction contract. Here’s the project area and
scope and I’ve been through this a number of times. It’s essentially Lake Lucy Road between
Galpin and Highway 41. The project was bid on June 18th. We got 6 bids. Low bid was below
our estimate. There are 20 parcels that would be assessed by this project and it came in at $3,718
per unit and they’re the ones shown in blue.
Mayor Ryan: Mr. Howley? It’s fine that we continue with this one but I just want council to be
clear that right now we’re looking at item number 2 okay. Just.
Charlie Howley: Yep and this slide kind of gets to that. There’s the funding summary for the
entire project is MSA funds were to be utilized for this project and we have a zero there now
because of our MSA funding challenges due to State Aid. We had utility funds and we had the
assessments to the residents so we had a shortfall of $595,000 that we didn’t have a source for.
Here is the overall project schedule. After tonight the project would have started constructed and
it would have been a fall, late summer fall project of this year. So again we did present some
options in the workshop but this one is solely related to MSA funding and due to our other
obligations we, unless we found another way to find money we couldn’t move forward with this
project but nonetheless the original motions were on the top should you move forward or I added
one here on the bottom which would be just to document that your wish is to potentially not
move forward with the project.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Mr. Howley. Okay again council I just want to make sure that we’re
clear that we’re talking about Letter H, number 2 for Lake Lucy. Not the 2020 Project. It’s the
Lake Lucy and I know for our residents that are watching or here tonight if you followed our last
meeting we had a lot of conversations around where we were at financially as a City with these
projects. What was coming in from the State. What wasn’t coming in from the State. Since
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people are not driving as much the municipal state aid that we typically get from the State is
fueled by, no pun intended but fueled by a gas tax and with that funds we have the decrease in
amount that is being allocated to our city has dropped 15 percent and then there’s no allocation
in years ahead that we’re planning on using for some of our roads. We’ve also heard from a
number of residents in terms of the financial impact to them with everything related to COVID
and unemployment and the ability to pay the assessments and so after our meeting two weeks
ago we asked the city staff to put together some options for us. Come back and explain our
funding situation. Where we were at and what our ability is to move forward and so that was
what we had. The conversation that we had out at our work session meeting and so tonight as we
move through this I want it to be clear for the residents that are here in chambers as well as those
that are at home watching this, because we did receive you know a number of them are interested
in moving it forward. This isn’t about whether or not roads need to be addressed. The situation
on the roads, roads need fixing. They need upgrading. The conversation or the topic that’s
really at the heart of our conversation for council to consider is how are we as a city going to pay
for our roads now that we know that there is going to be a shortage from the State and that was
really the discussion that we had earlier at our work session so I just want you to really
understand what the heart of our feelings towards these project is. It isn’t the need. It’s the
ability to fund that need and that’s what we as a council have to make the decision based on is
it’s something that we can move forward with at this time so I just wanted to give a little
background on that but council I’ll open to further comments. Questions for Mr. Howley or
further discussion. Or a motion.
Councilman McDonald: Well I’ll make a motion Madam Mayor. I would propose that the City
Council postpone this project to a date in the future and reconsider again for possible next year’s
inclusion in the road projects.
Mayor Ryan: We have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilman Campion: Second.
Mayor Ryan: With a valid motion and a second.
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the City Council
postpone the Lake Lucy Road MSA Project to be considered with the 2021 road projects.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 5-0. I would also like to note specific to all the projects, Lake
Lucy I know that project, there was some concerns about what do you call it Charlie? Speed
feedback?
Charlie Howley: Madam Mayor I would say speed, vehicular speed and pedestrian safety.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
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Mayor Ryan: Right. So signs for that monitor speeds. I know that was a big concern for
residents that live along Lake Lucy about a crosswalk and so we have asked city staff in our
work session to take a look at that. Look at numbers and see if there’s something in the interim
that we can do to address those needs going forward so that would be something that would
come back possibly to council. Thank you Mr. Howley.
ADOPT ASSESSMENT ROLL AND AWARD CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT FOR
2020 STREET REHABILITATION PROJECT.
Mayor Ryan: And then we’ll go to H-1 and that is the 2020 Street Rehabilitation Project.
Charlie Howley: Mayor, council I have a quick power point on this one too. Here we go. This
project very similar to the Lake Lucy MSA project was, we had a public hearing held last
meeting for the assessments and it was tabled to move forward with the project and adopt those
assessments so in similar nature tonight’s action would be to consider moving forward with the
project and awarding the contract. This one if you remember was six distinct neighborhoods
spread out around town all bid as one project. Bid results were in on June 19th and came in
below our estimate. Assessment summaries for the various neighborhoods are listed here. And
the funding summary, again we had utility funds. We had assessments. Resident assessments
and then we had our revolving assessment fund which is where the funding shortfall comes from
because of we were planning on using MSA advance funds for the Lyman portion. The local
Lyman portion and the Powers/Lake Lucy pedestrian crossing projects which are moving
forward so we didn’t have the appropriate funding left in this fund to fund our share of these
projects as one big project. We did in the workshop come up with options about potentially
doing one neighborhood or two neighborhoods or we even thought about using the County as a
financing source over some period of years in the future but we don’t have any assurances that
that would ever pan out so as discussed in the workshop we really had the decision of postponing
and not doing anything or potentially doing one of the six neighborhoods but nonetheless we
don’t have the funds in a revolving assessment fund to do all of these neighborhoods. The
project schedule would be, if it was awarded tonight we would start construction and substantial
completion would be later this fall and then into next spring. So again the proposed motion is to
consider similar to the last project would be to move ahead or kind of formally say we’re going
to postpone it and not move forward with this project this year.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Mr. Howley. Before I ask for a motion I think it’s important and I’m
going to ask you to try to explain it because I feel, I’m anticipating the questions being how do
you not have enough money to do the roads this year? Didn’t you budget? Isn’t there a
franchise fee? And I think that’s kind of the looming question and while we’re all fairly you
know obviously knee deep in the conversations in terms of where the money is going. Where the
funding’s coming from. How we’re allocating it. I think we need to present a little bit clearer
picture on that so residents know that we, it’s not that we just don’t have the money but where is
that money, where is the budgeted money, where are those budgeted dollars going?
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Charlie Howley: You bet absolutely. So we did have a budget in the revolving assessment fund
for 2020 which was funded by the franchise fee. The budget that we’re using that budget on
projects outside of the 2020 street improvement projects. One of them is a previously awarded
and an under construction project at the Powers and Lake Lucy pedestrian crossing. That was
originally going to be funded by MSA funds because it’s eligible. The Lyman project which is a
County led project which is already under construction and we have an agreement on that project
over 5 years with the County as they’re the lead agency but we have a cost share. We are going
to pay for that with MSA advance money so the franchise fee money was going to be used to pay
for this project. The 2005 local street projects. The MSA funding we wanted to use went away
due to things outside of our control. Right? The pandemic if you will. So we had the decision.
While we’ve got these obligations that we have to pay for and what’s the risk of not moving
forward with those obligations per our existing agreements or spending the money on these
projects that are currently bid and waiting to get awarded and we can’t do both because we don’t
have that much money. So we had to make the decision about okay MSA funding went away.
We have to pay for these things over here but we’re using our franchise fee money to do that.
That’s the pot of money that we’re using to pay our previously obligated stuff because our MSA
funding went away. Does that clear it up a little bit?
Mayor Ryan: Yeah it does. It does, I appreciate that. I just, you know I’m just anticipating the
concern of well why didn’t council prepare for this and again, and we use acronyms quickly but
the MSA is the Municipal State Aid and that’s funded from the State of Minnesota. Comes to
each city based on the number of identified MSA roads.
Charlie Howley: Yep.
Mayor Ryan: And they changed that. They changed that in the last month? Month and a half?
Charlie Howley: Month and a half.
Mayor Ryan: Month and a half where the dollars that we were anticipating being allocated to
our city have gone away and the advancement, there is no guarantee on that money coming to
any city. This isn’t just Chanhassen so when we look at this, and that was one of the questions
we asked at our last council meeting is this just affecting our city and it isn’t. This is affecting
cities across the State because it’s money that we rely on as a city to be able to do some of these
bigger roads and we have the Lyman Boulevard project. We have Minnewashta Parkway which
some of our municipal state aid is going towards and that’s a two year project and so you know
we have to really look at all of the numbers and do what makes sense for us as a city. As a
community for our residents and how we’re utilizing those funds and these projects have started
and that is why we don’t, we did not, one of the choices that we were faced with as a council was
to bond for it and move forward but the council was not prepared to bond for this money to move
forward and then have a tax increase because that was not what we had committed to when we
had implemented the franchise fee for our roads last year. And so you know sometimes these
decisions seem like they come, that they’re made really quick at our council meeting but I just
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want our residents to know that we are having work sessions and multiple council meetings
because there is just a lot of information that comes before us and in COVID times I think we all
know things change literally on a daily basis and we were anticipating some change to the MSA
funds and the information we’re getting was getting worst and worst and so now we know and
Mr. Howley was on another call today to talk about it and we are not getting those funds so you
know being responsible stewards of our tax dollars and how we allocate them there are projects
that are already underway that require our funding and to utilize those funds towards those
projects so we don’t take it lightly to push projects out because I know there’s a lot of folks that
want projects to move forward. They feel that their roads are in need. They’re paying their taxes
or paying their franchise fee and their roads are ready but we also have an obligation as a council
to make sure that we are utilizing the funds to projects that are requiring our payment now. We
can’t continue to be indebted to the County and so we need to move forward with those and so I
know I said it about 5 minutes ago but it isn’t about that we don’t believe our roads need
attention because there is not one of us up here that would say including staff would say that we
recognize that our roads need funding. That’s why we implemented the franchise fee but this is,
this is something that we feel is important to put the funds that we have towards the projects that
Mr. Howley had pointed out and then really take a look at our strategy going forward for 2021. I
will also say that you know that the comments and the concerns weighed heavily on our, on
council as a whole in terms of those that have been really negatively impacted by COVID in
terms of job loss and the ability to be assessed 40 percent of a $3,000 or you know a project and
now have to come up with $3,000 dollars or $2,000 dollars and that was a hardship that we were
concerned about as council as well and one of the options for us was to pick one project and
move forward with that and the concern across council was okay so if you pick that one project,
well what about the 54 people of that one project. Well maybe there’s some of those 54 people
that are facing financial hardship and so to pick one out of the six didn’t seem fair either. So you
know I’m trying to recap the story of the conversation that we had in our work session because I
think it’s important for everybody understand how heavily we weighed this decision of
potentially postponing all of our road projects. I’m certain we’ve never done that ever but
because of the financial situation is the number one reason but we also did not want to have to
pick one project over another because they’re all important but we also didn’t want to put some
people in a challenging predicament as it relates to finances so with that council if anyone wants
to add anything to that I welcome your comments or would entertain a motion. Councilman
McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Well thank you very much Mayor for that soliloquy of what kind of
transpired. The only thing I would add to all of that is that as we looked at this, at least for me
and I’ll speak only for me, it wasn’t about whether or not we had the money for the projects.
We’ve got the money. As you’ve heard we could do bonding. We could do a lot of things but
what’s the impact upon the citizens to do that and one of the things I was touched by the most
was the emails I received, this COVID pandemic has reached our community and it has had great
impact on a number of people and so the question comes okay that’s great. We could go out and
do a new road and it would look nice and everything but someone’s got to pay for that. The
citizens pay 40 percent of the cost of any of this and as the mayor had stated depending upon
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
12
where you’re at that’s $2,000 to $3,000 dollars that would come out of your pocket or you could
add it to your taxes for the year but again at that point then your taxes go up on your property so
what it really came down to me was again I listened to what people were saying and this does
have an economic impact. One of the questions that I had asked of Mr. Howley was okay do we
have any streets that are in that bad of a shape that they’re basically going to turn to gravel
before next year and I was assured no we do not. The streets that we were looking at doing
could continue to be patched to keep them passable and I think that’s a better alternative than
going ahead and going through with these projects and as the mayor said if we’re going to
postpone the vast majority why is it fair to say we’re going single out one particular
neighborhood. It really isn’t in these particular times and again I cannot emphasize the fact that
the times have changed from last year whenever we were first starting to look at these road
projects. At that point everybody was gainfully employed. Everything was going great. It was
not going to create that big of a hardship and as a matter of fact it would have helped all the
residents with property values and again keeping the roads of our community in good shape so
basically I listened and I think what it comes down to is it’s the inability of citizens on the cash
flow to pay for their 40 percent so that’s why I do not support moving forward this year with
anything with the road projects and again MSA funds and all of that are just added things on top
of why we should just sit back and wait until better times or until we know a lot more about
where the economy’s going and what it is we’re looking at in the future but I do not want people
to think that the City is broke or you know we don’t have control of our budget because that’s
not the case at all. We’re doing this for the residents because we’ve listened to what the
residents have said and it does create too great of a hardship at this particular time. At this
particular moment in history upon our residents and I just think we’re better served. Let’s wait a
year. Let’s see where we’re at and hopefully at that point the economy has recovered to the
point where cash flow out of our citizens is no longer the big issue. So with that Madam Mayor I
would make a proposal that we postpone the 2020 road projects currently on the schedule to next
year when they can be re-evaluated.
Mayor Ryan: We have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilman Campion: Second.
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the City Council
postpone the 2020 Street Rehabilitation Projects to next year. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Charlie Howley: Madam Mayor can I add one thing quick?
Mayor Ryan: Yes please sir.
Charlie Howley: For all the residents out there who were in the neighborhoods of these 6
neighborhoods and then the Lake Lucy MSA. We’ve completed our pothole patching of the
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
13
entire city other than those neighborhoods so we will get out there and get those ones now that
we know we’re not moving forward with these projects so.
Mayor Ryan: Wonderful.
Charlie Howley: We won’t leave it the way it is currently.
Mayor Ryan: Perfect, thank you for clearing that up. Appreciate it. Thank you Mr. Howley.
PUBLIC HEARING: METES AND BOUNDS SUBDIVISION AT 901 CARVER BEACH
ROAD.
Mayor Ryan: Next we have our public hearing and that is Ms. Aanenson.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the council. So this is a subdivision request.
It’s actually a metes and bounds which you probably have not seen one of these for a while. I
think it’s been a while since we done it but the subdivision ordinance does allow the City
Council to approve a metes and bounds subdivision which means both lots meet the requirements
of the ordinance so the public hearing is actually held at the City Council as opposed to at the
Planning Commission. So it speeds up the process if most of the infrastructure is in place so
with that the location of this lot is at 901 Carver Beach Road. It’s zoned PUD-R and it’s guided
low density residential so there is an existing home. We’re clearing up a couple of things.
There’s a lot remnants here so we’re tying that up with a part of this subdivision process. So the
property itself is 2.04 acres and again creating two lots. You can see the existing home and then
the newly proposed home. So with this subdivision one of the things we do with a subdivision,
we’re dedicating additional right-of-way for Carver Beach Road. We’re getting that revised
drainage and utility easements on both sides of the lot lines so that’s standard as you can see on
the, I’ll use my little laser pointer here. On the north side, around the property. That’s standard
with every subdivision lot so it’s the same process that we would do and then a wetland
delineation was also done on the property. That’s a first step so they did get the wetland
delineated and there is a buffer that they are meeting and that’s being shown here. …I did
receive a couple of calls regarding some of the grading and there are some trees on the lots.
Extensive trees along the lot. There’s also a retaining wall that must be moved outside of the
wetland buffers. So while you’re looking at this now they would still have to come in for the
building permit to make sure the building permit follows what was approved in with the… As
long as they meet the setbacks there can be some changing of those setbacks but as far as the
standard conditions those would have to be followed. So again as I mentioned tree removal was
an issue on the conditions regarding that but some of the trees because of the grading that will be
removed, you can see they have the red X’s along those and there is some significant amount of
trees on the property. So again the house could be slightly moved depending it appears. That’s
the choice that the owner wants to go forward with. So it is a public hearing before you so if you
wanted to open the public hearing and ask if there are any questions.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
14
Mayor Ryan: Perfect. Before we or before I open the public hearing, council do you have any
questions? I just have one question Ms. Aanenson.
Kate Aanenson: Sure.
Mayor Ryan: When you showed the Parcel A and B, so Parcel A goes behind another home.
How does that?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah it is a bit of an anomaly. Typically you wouldn’t do something like that.
I’ll let maybe the owners who are here to talk about that but typically you wouldn’t necessarily
divide it that way. You might want to divide it a little bit differently but it could be that, we’ve
heard that maybe there’s an owner over here that may want to acquire that and, they could have
to add it to their lot. Again that’s not a subdivision. We could administratively add a portion of
a lot to another lot so that could be a potential too but I’ll let the applicant address that but good
question.
Mayor Ryan: It was an interesting so. Okay with that I will open the public hearing. Please step
forward and state your name and address for the record or if you’re watching on TV you can call
the number listed below. Please.
Ray Mikkonon: Madam Mayor, councilmen, my name is Ray Mikkonon. I live at 6781
Penamint Lane. If you look at the map my property borders the west end of the wetland. One
my concern is from, what is the access into the property?
Kate Aanenson: It would come off of Carver Beach Road.
Ray Mikkonon: If you’ve ever walked by that property it’s about a 20 foot drop from Carver
Beach, at least a 20 foot drop from Carver Beach Road. A very steep slope down there. It’s
going to require a lot of fill to have access onto Carver Beach Road.
Mayor Ryan: Could we pull up the site map again please?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah. I’ve got it on mine, sorry. So I’ll let if Charlie wants to add, the City
Engineer but we do have our standard for driveways. Just like a street can’t exceed 7 percent. A
driveway cannot exceed 10 percent so as I mentioned earlier when they come in for a building
permit those are the granular details that the staff. So it goes through planning and also
engineering to make sure that, how that fill’s being brought in and making sure their driveway
maintains that 10 percent grade.
Ray Mikkonon: But what I’m saying is if you look at that my property, the neighbor who is next
to me from the back of his garage to the wetland there’s a wall that’s literally 20 feet high that’s
supporting his foundation of his garage. That is an extremely steep slope in that section on the
north section along Carver Beach Road there of that property. If you’re coming anywhere out of
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
15
that you’re going to have a very steep grade of a driveway if you don’t fill which is in Minnesota
is a real difficulty. Plus you’re then coming onto a very busy road and there’s extreme amount
of landfill which also I would think about affecting the wetlands. And I’m also concerned about
the amount of trees that get taken out because that directly affects my value of my property.
Mayor Ryan: And you are to the west, is that where you said you’re at is the west?
Ray Mikkonon: Yes I’m the.
Kate Aanenson: This one?
Ray Mikkonon: I’m the wedge shaped property right there.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: So this item still has to go to the watershed approval, to get approval on that.
The wetland was delineated. They’re providing the appropriate buffer on their property.
Ray Mikkonon: And what’s the, may I ask what the buffer is?
Kate Aanenson: 16 ½ feet.
Ray Mikkonon: How much?
Kate Aanenson: 16 ½ feet.
Ray Mikkonon: 16 ½ foot buffer?
Kate Aanenson: Yes. Plus the setback. So there’s a setback plus a buffer.
Ray Mikkonon: What’s the setback?
Kate Aanenson: So you can see the buffer line is, it’s way up between…and it goes all the way
up to here.
Ray Mikkonon: And then what’s the setback?
Kate Aanenson: So 16 ½ feet from that.
Ray Mikkonon: How much?
Kate Aanenson: 16 ½ feet from that.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
16
Ray Mikkonon: Setback should be at least 65 feet from the wetland barrier.
Kate Aanenson: That’s not the city code though.
Ray Mikkonon: That was forced on me when I added the addition onto my house which I took
down the existing deck structure and the previous owner had built underneath and I had 60 feet
setback and I was required to do 65 and so I had to give up part of my lawn for the no mow zone.
So I don’t think 16 feet is an acceptable setback or the regulation.
Kate Aanenson: That’s the buffer plus the setback. So I would just say at one time setbacks
from wetlands were greater. Over the 30 years I’ve been here they’ve been modified to, because
you used to be able to have a setback but you’d mow all the way up to the edge of the wetland
and we’ve changed that so there’s a setback and a buffer space and no touch mow zone so that’s
changed over time.
Ray Mikkonon: But the setback is still 65 feet.
Kate Aanenson: I’m not sure what it is exactly on this one. I’d have to go back and look at the
grading plan.
Ray Mikkonon: It was in 2000 or actually in about 2005.
Mayor Ryan: So when the, Kate as this moves forward and you may stay there and continue to
ask questions there. As you move forward through this process what will have to come back to
the Planning Commission and Council?
Kate Aanenson: Nothing would come back. If you approve the lot split they would still have to
apply for the building permit and approval so when they come in for the building permit we
make sure it meets all the setbacks. So this would be the closest point here. So it has to meet
those setbacks and it also can’t exceed the 10 percent driveway grade.
Mayor Ryan: And then in terms of his concern about the fill, is that part of the application that
they’re going to include how much fill they’re going to utilize on the property?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah they would show that correct. Yeah but the grading plan is what is being
shown on here currently. And I would see if the owners wanted to add anything additional on
that, that they’re here.
Mayor Ryan: Okay we’ll have them come up once, okay.
Ray Mikkonon: So with the fill how steep of a hill do you have and then on the south side of the
property to the wetland.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
17
Kate Aanenson: Charlie?
Ray Mikkonon: Because like I said you’ve got a lot of fill to put in there. To get anywhere near
the road.
Kate Aanenson: Yep Erik said he talked to you about this.
Mayor Ryan: Normally we’re in different seats up here but with social distancing we’re all kind
of in different spots so.
Charlie Howley: Mayor and council, if you want to put the map up on the screen please.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah so this is the closest point right now. It’s at 71 feet. From this point right
here. That’d be to the edge of the wetland so that’s 71 feet.
Charlie Howley: So looking at this grading plan is the driveway will go down from Carver
Beach Road to a low point and then go back up to the garage. There is not a slope on here but it
can’t exceed 10 percent so that would be verified and likely you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t
construct it like a triangle anyways. You need to have a bow in it but I presume this is going to
be like a walkout right? So you’re going to start at the street. You’re going to come down a
driveway. You’re going to go back up a little bit to the garage. Then there’ll be a walkout so
you go down like 12 more feet and then you can see that there’s a big fill so just those contours.
Those dashed contours that kind of bow out to the south. Right there. Those are fill contours
and it’s looking like they’re 2 footers so that’s 2, 4, so as you get down towards that retaining
wall that’s about a 6 or 8 feet of fill and when it hits a retaining wall, and presumably that
retaining wall is, I can’t see on this plan but it might be say 4 or 5, 6 feet tall. So without
question there’s a lot of fill coming into this site. I mean to put a house on there that’s what you
have to do so the fill gets designed per a grading plan to appropriate slopes. It gets compacted.
It gets restored and stabilized so that it doesn’t slough and then you know the trucks that come
in, we make sure they’re not over loaded right so there’ll be a number of trucks coming down the
street and you know the road is built to handle truck traffic so without seeing the plan more than
this I can’t tell you exactly how much fill or what the steepness of the driveway is but without
question the plan reviewer is Erik in the engineering department and then when the building
permit comes in they make sure that it’s appropriately engineered.
Ray Mikkonon: Okay. As I stated the property next to mine he had the 20 foot, clearly a 20
foot wall supporting his garage on that side of the property. I would be surprised if you can do a
4 foot retaining wall and how far of a setback is that retaining wall going to be? From the pond.
Charlie Howley: I would say based on the scale of this drawing from the delineated wetland it’s
probably that 16 feet.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
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Ray Mikkonon: And I consider that to be unacceptable. It’s going to destroy the view of my
property with a 16 foot setback when the requirement that was put on my not all that long ago
was 65 feet. From 60. It got expanded from 60.
Kate Aanenson: So I’m saying it’s 71 feet right here.
Charlie Howley: To the house.
Kate Aanenson: To the house yep. So it says the retaining wall has to be moved outside of the
wetland.
Ray Mikkonon: But I would consider the retaining wall, even though it’s not the house I would
consider a retaining wall to seriously impact my property value.
Mayor Ryan: Can we, what is allowed now in setbacks? Are retaining walls allowed typically?
Kate Aanenson: Yes I mean we have them in park trails. We have them, yeah.
Mayor Ryan: So that, so when he’s talking about the setback your or the City’s code is the
setback to the structure, not the 60 foot. I guess I’m trying understand the difference between
what was in 2000 asked of this gentleman to what is happening now and if it’s just the rules have
changed.
Kate Aanenson: I don’t know enough about the other site I’m sorry. I can’t comment on the
other, I don’t know enough about what was done there so our determination was, is that it met
the requirements of the city ordinance but for the retaining wall being moved outside of the
buffer requirements so.
Ray Mikkonon: Because you’re also going to take a serious amount of vegetation out doing that.
Kate Aanenson: Sure. Yep.
Ray Mikkonon: And that’s my other concern is you have a lot of mature, nice trees there that are
going to disappear. And again that’s going to impact my property.
Mayor Ryan: Okay thank you for your comments. We appreciate it.
Ray Mikkonon: As this goes forward what access do we have to see what the situation is?
Mayor Ryan: Are the documents posted online? Anything will be posted online?
Kate Aanenson: We’re going to post it online, the staff report’s online too.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
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Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Ray Mikkonon: Thank you very much.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. And if the applicants want to step forward please that would be great.
Mary Jean Brown: So the whole parcel is 2.4 acres that we bought and there was a home that
was in need of remodeling so the home that’s being parceled off is Parcel B. We put $65,000
into remodeling that home and it’s a very nice rental home and we chose to parcel that off and
then do a 2.04 acre lot for us to build our final home on so it is a walkout rambler. It is closer to
the rental home than I would prefer but we’re putting it there because it’s the best for the lot.
That’s how the lot slope. It was best based on the recommendations from the surveyor that we
hired and I’ve got $5,000 in surveyor fees. And our builder. So that’s how the location was
chosen. If it was my choice it would have been further to the west which would have been closer
to his property. There’s, I have, I talked to Bob Generous at the City numerous, numerous times.
I’d have, we have 160 feet across the front, across Carver Beach so technically we could have
had two lots because you need 80 and we’re not doing two. We’re just doing one for our own
single family residence. There is a lot of tree coverage but a lot of it is buckthorn. There are
some nice trees which with any time you build a home you’re going to lose some trees. We
aren’t anywhere near the wetlands. We’ve paid for the wetland delineation survey. We paid for
the tree survey. We paid for the surveyor. We’ve done everything that they’ve asked and it is a
6 percent grade on the driveway is the highest that we intend to go. It’s not our choice but we
may need to when it comes down slightly and then it goes up so you have the water doesn’t run
into your home. So these plans were looked at. We’ve gone back and we’ve done what we need
to do to comply with everything. There will be some fill brought in but it’s not excessive. It’s
what we need to do on the lot.
Mayor Ryan: And I had asked earlier about the configuration of the lot. How Lot A goes behind
an existing house.
Mary Jean Brown: That’s because we own the house. We own Parcel B. That’s our rental
house.
Mayor Ryan: But what’s next to Parcel B?
Mary Jean Brown: There is a house that just went up for sale on the corner there.
Mayor Ryan: Yep.
Mary Jean Brown: And they have 10 feet to their back yard. And he contacted us to see if we
wanted to buy it and we weren’t interested and I said to him I was concerned that when they sold
it that anyone buying it knows that they only have a 10 foot back yard. I don’t want them to
assume that the acreage behind it is their’s.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
20
Mayor Ryan: Right.
Mary Jean Brown: So it’s actually under contract and the realtor for the buyer contacted us
immediately and asked if they can buy the land directly behind the house so no one ever builds
there and it is a buildable lot but I’ve told them that once the lot split goes through we would sell
them a half acre back there all the way to the pond so they own the whole back of their house.
They just don’t want anything ever built there.
Mayor Ryan: Gotch ya.
Mary Jean Brown: So it would remain wooded and I’ve talked to Bob about that. It’s a lot line
adjustment. I have to pay to have a survey but I’m not doing that until they close on their lot so
it was done this way because we weren’t sure if people owning that house someday would want
to buy it or down Nez Perce. The next owner owns a duplex there and he’s a builder and he had
expressed interest in it so we carved it out. I wanted to leave .35 acres with Parcel B but we
wanted to leave our options open.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. And obviously you’re well within your rights to do with your property. I
just was curious just because it was such a strange configuration of a lot.
Mary Jean Brown: It is.
Mayor Ryan: That then moves behind two homes and I understand one of them is a rental but I
just was curious about that so thank you for explaining that.
Mary Jean Brown: Sure.
Mayor Ryan: I appreciate.
Mr. Brown: And we also wanted to retain the wetlands, the marsh. We kind of wanted to keep
control of that because we really want to keep it wildlife and preserve because we nature type
people. We certainly are trying to keep that as natural as we possibly can so that’s why we
retained the parcel that’s behind Parcel B to the wetland. We did not add that so we’ve kind of
retained that because we want to keep a nice, and where our house is positioned we are as far
from, and that’s a lot of area believe it or not as far as privacy and impacting him. We can’t even
see their house. We don’t even know it’s there.
Mary Jean Brown: It’s down.
Mr. Brown: It’s down and we’re positioned as far from impacting our neighbor as you can
possibly can.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
21
Mary Jean Brown: We’re 10 foot I believe we’re 10 foot from the lot line.
Mr. Brown: We are from our.
Mary Jean Brown: You know to the east.
Mr. Brown: To Parcel B.
Mayor Ryan: Alright thank you.
Kate Aanenson: I was just going to add Mayor real quick. Just in the staff report it goes into
more detail on the landscaping tree preservation so I just don’t want to leave that so. We do,
they did pay for the tree survey for the one lot and so I just want to review the Forester’s
comments on that so on the upland area, total upland area, the 1.5 that would be outside of the
wetland so the baseline canopy is at 90 percent so yes it’s heavily wooded. The minimum tree
canopy coverage is 55 and the preservation is being proposed at 65 percent so clearly tree loss is
tree loss if you’re looking at it but it meets the city standards which is why we were
recommending approval.
Mayor Ryan: Perfect thank you and thank you for including that. It’s always a concern of mine
especially with subdivision, you know dividing lots and the impact to neighbors and tree loss
obviously people buy, love wooded lots and so it’s a concern when those trees come down so
thank you for including that as part of the staff report. And sir just for your information all this
information is online in terms of you know tree preservation and their landscape plans so I just
wanted to point that out as well. It’s available on our website. Council any other questions for
the applicant? Alright thank you for sharing.
Mary Jean Brown: Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: And the public hearing is still open so if there’s anyone else that would like to
come forward or call in we’ll wait for, and with that I don’t see anyone else here coming forward
or the phone doesn’t look like it’s ringing so I will close the public hearing and return it to
council for any further questions, comments or a motion.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll make a motion Madam Mayor.
Mayor Ryan: Sure Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: I would propose that the Chanhassen City Council approves a
resolution approving a metes and bound subdivision creating two single family lots subject to the
conditions of approval and that we also adopt the Findings of Fact and Decision.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. We have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
22
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Resolution #2020-48: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded
that the Chanhassen City Council adopts a resolution approving a Metes and Bounds
subdivision creating two single family lots, plans prepared by Premier Land Surveying,
LLC dated July 1, 2020, subject to the following conditions and adoption of the Findings of
Fact and Decision:
Engineering:
1. The applicant shall update the parcels description to adhere to six (6) foot side and rear
yard drainage and utility easements (as applicable) and ten (10) foot front yard drainage
and utility easements on both Parcel A and Parcel B prior to recording of the subdivision.
2. The property owner of Parcel B shall enter into an encroachment agreement for the
existing fence within the newly created drainage and utility easement prior to recording
of the subdivision.
3. The applicant shall enter into a right-of-way easement agreement with the city to obtain a
consistent 50-foot right-of-way corridor along Carver Beach Road prior to recording of
the subdivision.
4. Retaining walls shall not be constructed within drainage and utility easements.
5. The development fees associated with this subdivision shall be paid prior to recording of
the subdivision. Fees are based on rates in effect at the time of recordation. For 2020
they total $15,600.86 and are enumerated as such:
a. Surface Water Development Fee: $9,800.86
b. Park Dedication Fee: $5,800.00
Environmental Resources:
1. Tree preservation fencing must be installed at the edge of grading limits prior to any
construction activities.
2. The applicant shall submit a corrected inventory and survey that also shows tree protection
fencing to be installed around the entire site at the edge of the grading limits.
Parks & Recreation:
1. Park dedication fees in the amount of $5,800 shall be paid prior to recording the
subdivision.
Water Resources:
1. Retaining walls and fences must be located outside of the wetland buffer.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
23
2. The applicant shall adjust the drainage and utility easements to fully encompass the
delineated wetland on the property.
3. A surface water management fee in the amount of $9,800.86 shall be paid prior to
recording the subdivision.
4. The proposed development will trigger Rule C-EPSC, Rule D-Wetland and Creek
Buffers, and Rule J-Stormwater Management, for the Riley, Purgatory, Bluff Creek
Watershed District and must receive a permit from them.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 5-0.
APPROVE A REQUEST FOR A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT (CUP) FOR FOOD
PROCESSING AND OUTDOOR STORAGE FOR SIX SILOS ON PROPERTY
LOCATED AT 2100 STOUGHTON AVENUE (HEMP ACRES).
Mayor Ryan: Ms. Aanenson are we having somebody join via Zoom on this one?
Kate Aanenson: Yes. They should be on Zoom. So this is an application for a conditional use
permit for food processing, Hemp Acres. Owner Capstone Investors LLC. This item did appear
before the Planning Commission on July 7th and before you tonight. Just a little bit of
background on this project. This is the old Gedney Pickles site. It’s actually the most
southeasterly terminus of the city of Chan. Excuse me, southwesterly terminus of the city of
Chanhassen and this building goes back quite a ways. Back to 1958 and then ’63 when the City
of Chaska and Gedney entered into a sewer agreement. It’s actually being sewered by the City
of Chaska. Ultimately when we have sewer and water going down 61 we will provide municipal
services so we had that discussion with the applicant so it is a conditional use for the business
being proposed. The food processing. It is the owner’s intent to do food processing for the
hemp seeds. Again it’s used for food purposes so the conditional use is actually for the food
processing and the outdoor storage for six silos so when we first met with the applicant we went
to the existing business and it’s actually regulated by the Department of Agriculture and he’s
looking for additional kind of farm to market. It’s an increasing production so he was looking
for storage and looked at a number of cities and we’re happy to kind of that match up. When
Gedney had left this spring to match or last fall we matched this user up with this building so
he’s taking the 50,100 square feet and again it’s the River Valley Business Center and ultimately
the entire building is about 180,000 square feet so it’s kind of an interesting parcel. This part is
owned by Chaska. The rest of this, this is the existing, you can see the Gedney getting access via
Audubon and also off of Stoughton. The Minnesota Valley Electric has a substation right here
so there’s some storage being used in this building right now but the food processing will be on
this side of the building. So this is the alter survey. There’s a lot of stuff going on in this. It’s
an existing so again the applicant’s proposing to remodel the existing side of the building. He’s
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
24
got a building permit and if it wasn’t for the outdoor storage and it’s consumable so we have this
would be similar to General Mills who’s actually doing production. Trucks coming so it was one
of the things that we looked at so we wanted him to conditional use for the six silos so that gave
him confidence as he moves forward. He wouldn’t have to keep coming back so that gives him
room to grow which you know he has stated to us that ultimately he could have 25 to 50
employees there as he grows so the food production for the consumer is the first phase but
there’s other things you can do with the by products of the hemp seeds. So we’re excited that he
chose to land in this spot. I think the Planning Commission did hold the public hearing and they
recommended unanimously to approve it so it’s consistent with the land use. Office industrial
and that’s our long term use for the site too. Again the food processing and the outdoor storage
is the conditional use in the IOP district so as I mentioned this is on the far westerly side of the
building. Ultimately hope over time that we can get some up ticks to the exterior of the building
as the applicant continues to expand in the building itself. So here’s a schematic of how the silos
would look. We asked him to do some illustrative so you could see. We want to make sure that
typically we do have a few other silos in town that are for food processing or maybe for oil
storage just to see what they would look like from the exterior. Again it fits in with that existing,
the existing uses down there like the Minnesota Valley Electric area. Floor plan.
Mayor Ryan: How is the height comparison to other structures in that area?
Kate Aanenson: They’re similar. They’re similar.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: So again site access, one of the things we did ask them to look at too is on, you
know for them getting to farm to market, this was a great location. They get right onto
Audubon/212 so this definitely met their needs. So again the Planning Commission voted 6 to 0
and then we are recommending and if you wanted to ask Mr. Levine if he wanted to say a few
words. I think he should be on Zoom.
Mayor Ryan: Sure. Mr. Levine we would love to hear more about your business.
Jake Foster: Matt just stepped outside…
Kate Aanenson: We talked to him earlier in the day. We’ve had a couple conference calls with
him. He was at the Planning Commission and if you saw the Minutes attached he put out at
length explaining what he does. It’s very, very interesting the food processing so it’s used as a
protein so again some of the by products are that he explained to us so he can ultimately use so
he’ll be doing some additional storage so they’re pretty excited that like I say he had looked at
some other locations that promised him all kinds of assistance and never came through. We
didn’t offer him any assistance. We just tried to help him through the process so excited that
he’s here.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
25
Mayor Ryan: Perfect. I mean I know it’s in the report so I’m familiar with this business but it
would have been, because it is fascinating and I think to some people possibly confusing on what
it is or what it’s not and so I was hoping for a little explanation but I think there was actually
something written in the paper about it as well so, but we’ll just read about it online and if there’s
anything else council you have any questions for Ms. Aanenson. No? Alright with that I would
entertain a motion.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ll make a motion. I’d like to make a motion that the City Council
approves the Conditional Use Permit for food processing operation with outdoor storage for six
35 foot silos subject to the conditions of approval and adopts the Planning Commission Findings
of Fact.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Do we have a second?
Councilman McDonald: Second.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman McDonald.
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the Chanhassen
City Council approve the Conditional Use Permit to allow Hemp Acres to process food
products from hemp seeds and allow the construction of six 35 foot tall silos based on the
plans prepared by Phillip D. Johnson, Architect,. Dated April 4, 2020, subject to the
following conditions and adoption of the Planning Commission’s Findings of Fact:
Building:
1) A building permit will be required for unit improvements, silo installation, and unit
remodeling.
Engineering:
1) If an intensification or increase in use or an expansion is requested for the site, a traffic
analysis will be required to determine the volume of traffic the new site will generate.
2) Any future intensification of the site usage shall investigate the use of the driveway
access to Audubon Road.
Natural Resources:
1) The applicant shall work with city staff to finalize a planting plan.
2) The applicant shall incorporate a landscape buffer along the north side of the building,
which includes Autumn Blaze maple, Siouxland poplar, Black Hills spruce and Amur
maples.
3) The front planting areas shall have wood mulch as a ground cover.
4) All proposed parking lot landscape islands and peninsulas shall comply with City Code.
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
26
Planning:
1) When the site is redeveloped or the usage intensifies, the existing pickle tanks shall be
removed from the property unless they are used as part of the building tenant operation.
Water Resources:
1) Updated plans illustrating the total land disturbance activities associated with all site
improvements shall be submitted for review and approval by the city.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 5-0.
RECOMMENDING CHANHASSEN RESIDENTS AND VISITORS WEAR MASKS.
Mayor Ryan: And then the last item for new business is a resolution about wearing masks.
Quick background. We obviously two weeks ago we were in a different, like we were talking
about with the roads, things change daily. Two weeks ago council didn’t take any action on
masks nor was it on our agenda but I know we all received a lot of phone calls and emails and
comments about that the council should take this issue up. In the meantime I had asked staff to
put together a resolution with a recommendation just to have an opportunity for us as council to
discuss. Obviously in the last week the Governor took action for the State of Minnesota and is
now mandating masks for folks across the state to wear masks and real briefly, so beginning on
Friday, July 24th, 2020 at 11:59, this is Executive Order 20-81. Minnesotans must wear face
covering indoor businesses and indoor public settings as described in this order and related to
industry guidance available at the Stay Safe Minnesota website. Workers must also wear face
coverings outdoors when it is not possible to maintain social distancing and so obviously this
information is available online but the Governor came out with this mask mandate. I know that
there has been a lot of information available for people to read so this resolution is not valid
anymore because the Executive Order obviously supersedes this resolution so the only action
that we need tonight by council is to table this resolution indefinitely or until a further need
arises but that’s all we need to do for, as it relates to masks. So if anyone wants to make a
motion to table that.
Councilman Campion: I will make a motion.
Mayor Ryan: Councilman Campion.
Councilman Campion: I move to indefinitely table this item.
Mayor Ryan: We have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Chanhassen City Council – July 27, 2020
27
Councilwoman Coleman: Second.
Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Coleman seconded that the Chanhassen City
Council table indefinitely the resolution recommending Chanhassen residents and visitors
wear masks. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 5-0. Any council presentations tonight? Councilman
McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Before we get to that I just want to say something. I want to double
back on the mask thing. One of the things that I felt very strongly about is definitely personal
responsibility and I want to thank the Mayor from the standpoint of you put out a number of
letters trying to address this issue and how we were going to handle it and I think that under your
guidance and stuff we have been able to come up with an approach that hopefully will take care
of the public’s concern about the public safety. Again there were a lot of issues and I know that
as we talked about it in council and also as we talked about it during the work sessions, how do
we enforce it? What do we do? What’s the impact on businesses? How is everybody going to
feel and I know that we spent a lot of time, and especially you did Mayor directing staff that we
need to find answers to those things before we just go out and put a motion in place or put an
ordinance in place without fully understanding the impact upon the citizen so for that I want to
say thank you and I think that as a city we did do a good job of trying to get information or at
least pointing people to where information was so that they could better understand this issue so I
just wanted to say that without just dropping it as though we didn’t care or we were trying to
shirk our duties. We weren’t doing that at all. We were trying to again come up, what’s the best
approach for the citizens of this town so thanks for your leadership on that.
Mayo r Ryan: Thank you Councilman McDonald.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS. None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. None.
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None.
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the
meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The
City Council meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m.
Submitted by Heather Johnston
Interim City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim