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CC VER 2021 01 11CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 11, 2021 Mayor Ryan called the City Council Meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The meeting was opened with the pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Ryan, Councilwoman Rehm, Councilman Campion, and Councilwoman Schubert COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Interim City Manager Heather Johnston, Community Development Director Kate Aanenson, City Engineer/Public Works Director Charlie Howley, Office Manager Kim Meuwissen, City Attorney Andrea McDowell Poehler PUBLIC PRESENT: Dr. Richard Scott (via Zoom) Carver County Public Health Jay Meyer 1611 West 63rd Street Kenneth Ashfeld (via Zoom) 6480 Yosemite Avenue Mayor Ryan: Good evening tonight everybody. Welcome and thank you for joining us tonight in this New Year. It is with great anticipation that we begin with the administering of oaths of office to our two newly-elected City Council members, Lucy Rehm and Haley Schubert. So why don’t we just begin with the Oath of Office and I believe Lucy Rehm is up first. She’s going to join us on Zoom. Lucy, can you hear? Rehm: Yes, I can hear. Can you hear me? Poehler: Andrea McDowell Poehler, City Attorney for the City of Chanhassen. If you could stand. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. Rehm: I, Lucy Rehm, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Minnesota, and that I will faithfully, justly, and impartially discharge the duties of the office of City Council for the City of Chanhassen, Minnesota to the best of my judgement and ability. So help me, God. Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Haley? You want to… Congratulations Councilwoman Rehm. Next we will have Haley Schubert. Poehler: Raise your right hand and repeat after me. City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 2 Schubert: I, Haley Schubert, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Minnesota, and that I will faithfully, justly, and impartially discharge the duties of the office of City Council for the City of Chanhassen, Minnesota to the best of my judgement and ability. So help me, God. Mayor Ryan: We’re going to take a brief moment here and do a couple of photos. Congratulations, Councilwoman Schubert. Do you want to have your family come up? Mayor Ryan: Again, congratulations to both ladies. Excited to have you on board as part of the City Council. Councilwoman Rehm, if you would like to say a few words? Rehm: Yes, thank you so much. I’ll be very short and sweet and just say how honored and grateful and humbled I am to be able to serve as a City Council member and I look forward to meeting the people who voted for me. Some of them, actually many of them I haven’t met yet because of COVID and not being able to do door-to-door campaigning but I really look forward to having the opportunity to meet with people and work on the City’s behalf to make our community even better. Thank you so much. Mayor Ryan: Great. Thank you. Councilwoman Schubert? Schubert: Yes, I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has supported me up until now and I am really excited to get to work for the City of Chanhassen and I cannot wait to meet as many Chanhassen citizens as I can. Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Congratulations. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: MAYORAL ADDRESS Mayor Ryan: We will begin with the Mayoral Address. I am going to take off my mask momentarily so it’s a little bit easier to understand what I am saying. Happy New Year Chanhassen. It is great to be back and I look forward to the year ahead. First, I’d like to welcome back Councilman Dan Campion, who is entering his seventh year on City Council. I’d also like to extend a welcome and congratulations to our two newest council members, Lucy Rehm and Haley Schubert. It is great to have you both on board, and I look forward to a successful time on City Council together. When I began preparing my remarks a few weeks ago, the focus was on Chanhassen’s 2021 plans and to revisit my “5Cs”: Communication; Collaboration; Commitment to Excellence; Community; Chanhassen. City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 3 And while these pillars remain a priority and will be communicated in the weeks to come, my address tonight, at this moment in time, needed redirection. In the back of my mind, there was something bigger to discuss. I needed to first acknowledge what has been elevated to the forefront of everyone’s mind. There is a different tone in the world today. While this City Council was elected to focus on issues that affect the residents of Chanhassen, we are acutely aware that Chanhassen is in a county, a state, and country, and what happens at each level of government directly impacts us as a city. The reality of what we have faced this last year has been sometimes challenging and frustrating, scary and sad, with seemingly a few bright spots along the way. From a global pandemic and lockdowns, riots in Minneapolis and other cities, with the fears of that destruction coming to Chanhassen, the closing of businesses, the devastating loss of life of family, friends, neighbors and colleagues, a contentious election season, and horrifically, the events that unfolded at our nation’s Capitol last week, has left many, including myself, in disbelief. So, it begs the question, how do we move forward? It’s an important question that I hope all elected officials at every level of government take a moment to reflect on, because that pause will allow us to prioritize or reprioritize the commitment we made to our constituents when we first ran for office. Six years ago, when I was running for City Council, and again two years ago when running for mayor, my campaign slogan and commitment, was to "Listen. Learn. Lead." These three words carry great significance to me, and I think these words matter more today than they ever have before. LISTEN. First and foremost, it is our job as elected officials to listen. Not only to the loudest voices, not only to those who campaigned for you or voted for you, but more importantly, listen to what is being said as well as what isn’t; listen to those who may have felt marginalized; listen to those who disagree or have differing opinions. Take the time to listen and really listen. Not to appease, but to understand. When people are listened to by those who were elected to represent them, they become part of the decision-making process. They know that their input was considered. Their voices were heard. At a time, where people wonder if they are being heard, or for those who feel shut out of the process or powerless against government, taking the time to listen must be a priority. I am again renewing my pledge to you our residents, as well as to my fellow council members City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 4 and city staff. I am committed to listening to you. LEARN. Through listening, we then have the opportunity to learn. Over the past six years, I have learned from residents who present differing views; from my fellow council members who sit on the opposite side of an issue; and from our knowledgeable city staff and my fellow colleagues. Your experiences and positions often shed a different light on a subject providing me with an alternative viewpoint. You have brought forward ideas and perspective that may not have been previously considered, but helped shape a path to compromise. I have grown as a mayor and as a person because of what I have learned from those around me. Taking the time to listen and learn from each other, the issues that once seemed insurmountable result in a more well-rounded, comprehensive solution. We should never stop learning nor should we think we have all of the answers. I am committed to continue to learn from each one of you. LEAD. By listening and learning, I become a more effective leader. Leadership is not a title, rather a responsibly and one I take seriously. Words matter. Actions matter. But above all else, leadership is about showing respect for one another. Leadership isn’t about what I want, what my idea is, or what direction I want to go. It is about bringing people together to share ideas, have robust debate, and then work together towards a solution. Unilateral power is not a pathway forward at any level of government — teamwork, compromise, and the shared desire to find the best result for the people you represent must always be the goal. My commitment is for us to continue to collaborate on challenging topics and do so in a respectful manner. Listen. Learn. Lead. How do these priorities correlate to what is happening across other communities, states, and our nation? Why do these things matter at this point in time? Because I think we can do better. I’m not telling you how to live your lives, rather I am encouraging you to hold elected officials accountable by insisting that we work together. Chanhassen city councils, past and present, do work together; we don’t always agree or get the result we want, but we are committed to figuring it out together. That approach must be done on a state and national level. And so, my hope is that we as a community can be an example for others to follow. By taking the time to listen to each other more openly; learn from each other’s experiences, we can lead a pathway forward for others to City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 5 follow and demonstrate that government is truly by the people and for the people. I have said many times that Chanhassen is a special place to live. And while we are in the midst of some very challenging times, I have never been more motivated to work together as I remain optimistic about the future of Chanhassen. We have a multitude of important decisions that need to be made in 2021, we will undergo strategic and financial planning, and development will continue to grow and shape this community. We are a piece of the bigger puzzle of government, but what remains true is that the city of Chanhassen is at the center. We are stronger when we collaborate, communicate, are committed to excellence, and focus on building community as we celebrate Chanhassen being an outstanding community to live. By doing this, I have no doubt that we will have a successful 2021. Thank you very much. Mayor Ryan: Thank you everyone. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: COMMISSION VACANCIES Mayor Ryan: We have 14 vacancies on our city commissions coming up this year. It’s always wonderful to see a lot of our residents apply for these commissions and it’s an invaluable tool and group of individuals that provide information and feedback to the City Council. So there are 14 vacancies on our commissions. We have two three-year positions on the Planning Commission. One two-year and two three-year positions and one youth position on the Park & Recreation Commission. We have one two-year and three three-year positions on the Environmental Commission. And then three three-year positions on the Senior Commission. The applications will be accepted beginning January 14 through January 29. Interviews for these seats will be conducted on February 8 and 22 between 5-7pm. Please go to our website for more information but we really encourage you to apply these commissions and we look forward to reading your applications. ORGANIZATIONAL ITEMS: DESIGNATION OF THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER Mayor Ryan: Who wants to cover that. Johnston: Madam Mayor, I’ll cover that. Per state law we have to designate an official newspaper for all of our public notices to go into. The recommendation from staff is that the Chanhassen Villager once again be appointed as the official newspaper. Mayor Ryan: Thank you. With that said, again, we should note that we are still operating under emergency order which allows us to have members attend remotely so Councilmembers if you City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 6 will recall having this discussion, I will be taking a roll call vote for all motions. Is there somebody that would like to make a motion for this item? Councilwoman Schubert moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the Chanhassen Villager be designated as the City’s official newspaper. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously 4-0. Mayo r Ryan: I have to get used to these new names. All right. Next we have the Consent Agenda. Tonight we have Consent Agenda item numbers 1 through 6. All items listed under the Consent Agenda are considered to be routine by the City Council and will be recorded as a single motion based on staff recommendation. There will be no separate discussion of these items. Are there any items that the Council would like to consider separately? Councilman Campion? Councilman Campion: No. Councilwoman Rehm: No. Councilwoman Schubert: No. Mayor Ryan: May I get a motion to approve Consent Agenda Items 1-6? CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Schubert seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the Interim City Manager’s recommendations: 1. Approve City Council Minutes dated December 29, 2020 2. Approve City Council Minutes dated December 14, 2020 3. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated December 1, 2020 4. Resolution 2021-XX: Accept Feasibility Report, Call Public Hearing for 2021 Street Improvement Project (Project 20-05) 5. Award Consultant Contract for 2021 Stormwater Pond Maintenance Design and Construction Administration Services Project 6. Approve Partial Release of Development Contract for Chanhassen West Business Park. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS Mayor Ryan: Visitor presentations are included at 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 go ahead and address the Council. You will have five minutes to present your item. If your requests includes an action item from City Staff or Council please complete a Citizen Action Request City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 7 Form so that we may 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. Tonight we do have one scheduled visitor and I think Dr. Scott is joining us via Zoom. Is that correct? Dr. Scott: Yes, I am here. I assume you can hear me okay? Mayor Ryan: Yes, we can. Thank you for joining us tonight. Dr. Scott: I do have a PowerPoint presentation so I will click my Share Screen, hopefully that will show up. I know that there is also a PDF version of it that was included in the agenda. Mayor Ryan: Yes. There it is. Dr. Scott: Great. Again, I appreciate it Mayor Ryan, Council, Staff and those who are in the listening audience. I surely appreciate this opportunity to give a brief presentation on the status of COVID-19 and where we are at with our vaccine update. I will go fairly quickly through the statistics pertaining to COVID-19 so that we can have some time to have questions and answers regarding the vaccine. I’m assuming that will be one of the more critical items that the Council would wish to discuss or ask questions about. I think for those of you who have been following the news it’s been pretty obvious that there has been significant increase in the national cases of COVID-19. In fact, I think we’ve seen about a 38% increase in cases over the last 14 days. This has also been translated in to increased hospitalizations and also resulting deaths which is of course very traumatic. Minnesota has been a little bit of an island associated with that so we’ve been a little bit fortunate where we’re seeing sort of an opposite trend. Although there seems to be a slight tick up again after the significant reduction. We think a lot of it is probably because people were very mindful of the recommendations during the pause, and limited activity obviously with schools and sports and other activities sort of on winter holiday season. That also greatly limited exposure so we’ll see what happens now as a result of that, whether or not we’ll continue to see a slight increase. Hopefully not in that we will continue to maintain a lower case rate than we obviously seen during our peaks in November and early December. The cases specifically in Carver County followed a very similar path with Minnesota having a significant decrease during the month of December, but seeing a slight uptick again so we will see if that will be sustained. Our 14-day case rate also now is below the 50 mark whereas often associated with the distance learning for our K-12 schools. We’re at the 33 right now and anything under below 30 typically allows a hybrid model for high school and in-person for elementary. I know many of the schools now are beginning to sort of start moving back towards more in-person, especially with the younger ages. Then of course with the sort of a gradual rollout of other grades as things move forward, providing of course that there is not a significant change in the case rate. The main thing on people’s minds are probably, I think everyone is aware that there are now two vaccines that are out. Carver County has also received both, the Pfizer which is the one that requires that very, very cold temperature. In Carver County that has been primarily distributed to Ridgeview Medical Center. They had the capacity for that super-cold storage so it was easier for them to process that. The Moderna has been made available for others including public health. City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 8 Both require two shots about three to four weeks apart and I think many probably have known that the first one sort of primes the pump if you will. It sort of prepares the body to get ready to be exposed to the second shot which then really confers the greater amount of immunity. Both vaccines have been shown to be over 90%, probably close to 95%, effective which of course is amazing for vaccines. Not all vaccines are usually that efficacious and so we are delighted to hear that it does have that level of impact. The percent of population, of course we are just starting to get started with the vaccines. Many of you know it’s being rolled out according to priority guidelines. Those priority guidelines were first established by the CDC. The Minnesota Department of Health reviews them and kind of tailors them as it pertains to our circumstance, and provides pretty clear cut specificity on who’s included in the different priority areas. Again, each of those priority areas are sort of rolled out over sequence. We learn about the specifics with the first priorities and we don’t always learn about the second one until we are getting close to being done with the first. With that said, we have already about 2% of our population has been vaccinated and when you combine that with the number of people who’ve actually recovered from COVID, we have a little over 8% of our population have some form of immunity. Again, the full immunity from the vaccines really will not occur until after the second vaccine. It’s usually about ten days after the second vaccine will that 95% efficacy kick in. Those who have experience COVID, research seemed to suggest that they do have some level of immunity, although the vaccine will confer a much stronger level of immunity that the organic or natural illness will. Allocation of vaccine again is prioritized according to risk in order to maximize impact. The prioritization has been determined relatively based on the risk of acquiring the disease. The risk of people who may have severe morbidity and mortality. The risk of negative social impact. That means if those people were to get sick it would cause significant harm in the community. A good example of that would be and a reason why health care professionals were targeted as the number one group, is if they got sick they wouldn’t be available to care for the rest of us. Obviously, those also living in a skilled nursing facility probably have the highest risk of the severe morbidity and mortality. Also, risk of transmission comes in to play as well and any ethical considerations are taken into account as far as disparities and other issues as well. Again, generally the population groups that are considered at risk are often determined by occupation. I mentioned the health care but also some of our agricultural workers. Individual characteristics also play a part there, both age and underlying conditions and as I have mentioned some of those other social determinates of health that also tie into the justice aspect of it that I was referencing before. Again, I think probably most people are fairly familiar with the main prioritization. It’s interesting, there’s three overall priorities. Priority 1, Priority 2, Priority 3 and then each one of those priorities there’s sub priorities, and then even within each of the sub priorities, there’s an additional level of prioritization. Here we’re just looking at Phase I, Sub priority A, and then within those are the three groups. The reason for that level of detail is primarily to provide some guidance on the rollout of the vaccine. Obviously, everyone in Priority 1A is considered a priority but since we don’t have enough vaccine or the capacity to administer them all at the same time we are rolling them out in the level of sub priority and you can that listed there. We’re still actually in the process of doing Phase 1A, Priority 1. Once we are pretty much completed with that then we will go into Priority 2 and then Priority 3. There might be some overlap in that depending on the availability of vaccine so you will hear sometimes it will be slightly different City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 9 groups across Minnesota, especially those who may be a little bit smaller and maintain the minimum. Again, people who were registering to serve as a vaccinator had to order their vaccines and they had to order a minimum of 100 and then based on their need and then based on the availability, the State would determine it. So some of the smaller facilities may not have had as many people in the Phase IA Priority 1 so they were able to start rolling over into the other area. Also, many of those a Priority 1A groups may not have decided to give vaccine right away. They wanted to wait and about 30% of folks have sort of expressed a desire to hold off on the vaccine, and thereby of course making those available for some other folks. We usually, we have a really good system here in Carver County. From my understanding there has not been any wasted dose of vaccine, either at the hospital or within public health. We have a system in place where there’s a will call where people stand by so if there happens to be a no-show, we get on the phone and them that next person in line becomes available. So that’s been real fortunate for us. What to expect? Again, the vaccines are provided free and that’s real important because there have been some scams that we’ve see out there where people are saying that we are taking names for being put on a registry so that you will be available for the vaccine. Also, people were often being told that there’s going to be a fee for that. The vaccines themselves are provided free. Sometimes, once you start getting it through your doctor’s office, there may be an administration or office visit fee, but typically the insurance companies are supposed to take care of that so no one should actually be receiving a bill for the COVID-19 vaccine. Again, there will be a variety of ways that people will be vaccinated. Right now it’s usually tied to a workplace. Again, that’s where the hospital or those who are healthcare providers or place of residence such as a skilled nursing facility or nursing home. Eventually, that will become, the vaccines will become more available widely either through your doctor’s office or clinic, and then also other community sites. Everyone will receive an important information sheet about vaccination. Everyone will receive a vaccine card to record that and we do also record the vaccine on an electronic database just so we can make sure that the second does is available for the person who gets it. What to expect? Again, vaccines are recommended for all adults but will be available for 16 years and older for one of them, 18 years old for the other. Most vaccines, as I mentioned, require the two doses. There are common side effects. About 50% of the people who receive the vaccine will experience some local reaction. Pain, swelling at the injection site. They may experience fever, chills, tiredness, headache and that could last up to one to two days. It’s possible that about 10- 15% of them need to stay home from work one or two days after their vaccine. Very little severe side effects. I know the CDC had just completely a major study of over a million does provided and I think they said there’s about 11 people per million doses that will have what they refer to as an anaphylactic reaction. There have be no deaths associated with that to my knowledge. But again, obviously, it’s actually 11 per million is really good when it comes to a vaccine and of course the benefits of the vaccine far, far, far outweigh the limited risk that might be associated with the vaccine. None of the vaccines that are currently available for vaccinating are made with the actual live virus so there’s no way that you can contract COVID from the vaccine. I that sometimes is a concern. So it’s not an attenuated live vaccine. It is a vaccine that was formulated and so there’s no part of the vaccine that actually can cause COVID. We can answer more questions about that. I know that there’s been a lot of concerns and myths floating out there through social media. Sometimes those may have started from a misinterpretation of some City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 10 information. Clearly the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. I know then people ask well how come we were able to develop it so fast? Did you have to cut corners to make that happen? Actually, no. These vaccines, one is because the scientific advances were able to develop them quickly. Because the government was helping offset the risk of development, they were able to some of the phases simultaneously. Typically when a research or pharmacy is developing a vaccine, they wait until the first phase is completely done before they start the second because if for some reason after the first phase they didn’t want to move forward, they didn’t want to have to run the risk of the financial loss that it would take to do Phase II. But if the government is helping offset the cost of that in order to expedite the research, they can began on those other phases before they are fully done, thereby sort of jumpstarting it. But at no time is there shortcuts or shortened time for each of the phases. That’s part of the reason why that was able to happen. Of course it was unprecedented that the timeliness and the ability to develop these vaccines. Again, one of the questions is will I need a vaccine if I have recovered from COVID? While we might encourage some people to get a delay in the vaccine because we know by them recovering from COVID they have some level of immunity and we would rather also give the vaccine to others who have no level of immunity. But clearly there will be much greater protection provided by the v accine than just the organic disease. That’s pretty typical with vaccines and that’s because it allows for a greater level on concentration on that particle of the virus that the body responds to in order to create the antibodies to fight it off. That’s why it’s usually much more effective in holding off future infections. Will wearing a mask be needed? Yes and the reason for that is that the clinical trials were primarily designed to assess the ability for the vaccine to protect the individual. It wasn’t really designed to assess the level of which that individual still may kind of serve as a carrier for the vaccine. Also, again it’s still not 100% effective and so still 5% of folks are expected to still come down with the disease and when you multiply that by many, many numbers, that can still contribute to the spread and that’s why we feel it’s best that we still continue wearing masks, even after getting the vaccine. Once we reach that herd immunity across our country, then obviously there will be a significantly less need to worry about the mask at that time. Again, some people are concerned about it. Is there going to be more harm to the vaccine than the vaccine itself. There’s no comparison to the level of protection the vaccine will create due to the theoretical risk that other harm or death will come from the vaccine. My understanding there has been no cases that I’m aware of death associated with the vaccine and as I had mentioned before there’s been 11 cases per million doses given of anaphylactic reaction and all of them had recovered. One of the other myths that’s out there is that is there going to be a tracking device in the vaccine itself? No. I can see how some people may have thought that. There are tracking devices that are put in the shipping containers so that they can monitor the delivery of the vaccine because the vaccines do need to require a fairly careful temperature control. They want to make sure it doesn’t get lost in shipment and so there is a tracking device that’s in the packaging, but there’s no tracking device of any kind in the vaccine itself. The other concern because the messenger RNA vaccine, they wonder if this is some sort of a DNA material? Is it going to affect or alter my DNA? The vaccine will not alter the DNA. The messenger RNA is not the same as the DNA and it does not enter the nucleus of the cell and of course that’s where the DNA is located, is in the nucleus and the mRNA does not even enter the nucleus of the cell. It does enter the cell which then instructs the cells to produce City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 11 the mechanism in which you can then develop antibodies for the vaccine. As soon as it does that the mRNA is actually destroyed but it never gets into the nucleus component of the cell so therefore there is no way that it will affect the DNA. The other concern that I’ve heard too is will it result in infertility or miscarriage? If the vaccine would be responsible for that, we would already be seeing infertility and miscarriages associated with the actual virus itself and we have not seen any significant increase of that. While women who are pregnant are more at risk slightly for some less than optimal outcomes or poor outcomes associated with COVID, from my understanding from reading the research that there has not been any increase in infertility or miscarriages associated with it. There’s no evidence that would link the vaccine to any increase of infertility or miscarriage as well. The other thing I wanted to leave you with, there is a lot of information that goes on, explains the science. One of my favorites, because it just seems to be very user friendly to address the myths, is the one that’s provided by the Mayo Health Clinic. As you can see, the link for that is there. If you also just Google Mayo Clinic Health Systems myth debunk it will take you to this website. The CDC also has a website that talks about some of the common misassociations and it explains the science that justify their judgement on these issues. I would surely encourage you if you want to get more in depth about the reasoning behind that, the justification behind that, I would surely encourage you to do that. Again, these links are included in the PowerPoint that’s attached to the packet for today. The other really good resource, Carver County, we really try to provide updated vetted information on a variety of sources that pertain to COVID -19 as far as that includes everything from helping people find testing locations, answering questions specific about COVID, even questions on mental health, parenting, all of those things are included. We also have a brand new COVID-19 vaccine website that will keep up to date on the latest information about that. It will also provide information about when the vaccine will be more available to the other priority groups. I surely encourage people to keep checking that from time to time to stay updated on what’s happening locally as far as the vaccine is concerned. With that, I know it was short and sweet. I went through a lot of this quickly but I wanted to provide an opportunity and answers that you folks may have. Mayor Ryan: Wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Scott. I will kind of go down the list with Council to see if you have any questions. Councilman Campion, any questions? Campion: No questions. Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilwoman Rehm, any questions? Rehm: Yes, I was curious if there’s any data about the City of Chanhassen that stands out and if our proximity to Eden Prairie or Hennepin County factors into the rates here? I’m curious about Chanhassen in particular. If there’s anything you can share with us. Dr. Scott: Yeah, Councilwoman Rehm. That’s a very good question. I don’t have that data committed to memory but I know I did send a link to Heather earlier today. We have two tabs on our County website that look at the case rate as it relates to cities. We have both the total cases amount and we also have like the per 10,000 population rate. We try to keep that updated on a City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 12 real regular basis so that is on our website and available there. What we find is that most of the spread that we’ve been seeing in Carver County are usually associated with cohorts. So it means that whether it be a sports league, or whether it’s a family gathering or celebration, the level of spread is going to be more due to that association and not necessarily due to the association of living next to Hennepin County. So, in other words, obviously with some of our schools and our families and others when you have associations of people regardless of where they live, the spread is going to be more in that area. The other area of course obviously, at least historically, has been in the congregate area. Earlier on we were seeing some spread as it related to businesses. The businesses have gotten real good at figuring out a way to keep their staff safe. Of course, we’ve also taken significant steps to address spread in our congregate care area. Now, with the vaccines being prioritized with congregate care, we hope to significantly reduce that risk. I don’t know, it brings up the other thing, I don’t know a few years ago remember when there was a measles outbreak and there was a lot of concern about that and again measles is a whole lot more contagious than COVID-19. You can catch measles from walking in a room that somebody was there two-and-a-half to three hours ago. That’s how contagious it was. The not factor for measles is probably five times greater than it is for COVID-19. We were very active in outreaching to those communities that had specifically been targeted with some vaccine hesitancy information. As you may recall, there were certain ethnic communities that seemed to have a higher rate of spread so we specifically reached out to those communities, had conversations, learned about their fears and anxieties, provided them the information that we were aware, and as a result of that relationship, they ended up getting vaccinated and passing out that message so we didn’t have one active measles case during that outbreak and yet just in Eden Prairie there was a lot. That I think is a good example. While obviously COVID is not going to respect boundaries, it does need contact with other people to spread. That’s why it has more to do with those associations as well obviously with the measles we were able to use a vaccine and that’s why the prevention. But now, until that’s more widely available we’re using those other mitigation practices. Good question, though. Thanks for asking that one. Rehm: Thank you. Mayor Ryan: Anything else, Councilwoman Rehm? Rehm: No, not at this time. Thank you. Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilwoman Schubert? Schubert: Yeah. Dr. Scott, is there any sort of idea on timeline of the vaccination priority and how is the communication going out when we move to the next level of priority? Dr. Scott: Thank you Councilwoman for asking that question. That’s an excellent question. That’s always a little be difficult because we don’t want to create an expectation and then have changes that we then can’t live up to. That’s why we often talk about the phases more that the dates. But we anticipate finishing up with the first Priority 1A top priority and then there’s the City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 13 1A middle and third priority. We hope to be done with all the 1A group probably by sometime early February. While there will be a little bit of overlap, the primary process is to finish the first group before we move into the second group. There will be a little bit of an overlap obviously with that. We anticipate having the vaccine widely available for the general public probably late spring and early summer. All the other groups are going to be somewhere in between that timeframe. Again, as more vaccine becomes available and we will anticipate vaccines even from other companies once they get approved for emergency use authorization, that will increase that. In Carver County we are dispensing the vaccine in a fairly efficient way. Obviously not the same day we get them because it does take planning and we don’t always know exactly how much we are going to get until week to week. But we tried and we don’t always know who exactly is going to be included in that next priority group, but we’re doing surveys all the time to get a better sense of that. We have our systems I place. Ridgeview Medical Center anticipates being totally done with their second vaccination of all of their staff. The highest priority staff will probably be done in a week or two and then they will hopefully have all of their staff done in early February. We’ve also started obviously vaccinating some of those very specific, they’re called EMSRB certified first responders so it would be law enforcement and fire as well as those who are providing the vaccines, that part. And all of those we should anticipate being done by early to mid-February at the latest as well. Hopefully, all the skilled nursing facilities will be done by that and we’re also beginning to make plans now for the assisted living and other congregate cares, both for their caregivers and their residents to start getting ready for vaccine. At this point, we are not taking names. All of the vaccines are ones that we’re outreaching through either their employer or where they live if they are in congregate care. Once we will be in a position to taking names we obviously will be communicating that. That’s why I referenced that website. We’re going to try multiple ways to get information out to the community but we are going to point them to that website so because that will be easier for us to keep up to date with the latest information. Otherwise, it would be too hard, there will be too much of a lag period if we rely only on our social media, newsprint or other forms. But what we want to do is make sure everyone becomes aware of that website and we are going to be sending hopefully maybe even a postcard with some of that information. Obviously, it’s on our social media. We keep our Facebook up to date and working with our various communities and coalitions to get the word out as well. Schubert: Thank you. Mayor Ryan: Dr. Scott, I have one question for you. First of all, thank you again for being here tonight and going through the presentation as well as answering these questions. You mentioned in the beginning about the CDC giving some guidance and then obviously the Minnesota Department of Health is kid of helping or facilitating rolling this out. My question is, you as a public health official for Carver County, how much interface do you have with that department and how are the decisions being made in terms of how these groups are prioritized. I know in other states 65 and older are getting the vaccine so how much conversation are the different public health officials having with the Minnesota Department of Health and the Governor, to influence some of the priority individuals or groups that are going to receive the vaccine, as well City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 14 as kind of the rollout. I just read that Arizona is now doing 24-hour vaccinations. Just curious a little bit more about the decision-making process behind the scenes for the rollout of this vaccine. Dr. Scott: Mayor Ryan, that’s a good question. Clearly we are in conservation with MDH probably at least once a day through the various groups through meetings and Zoom calls and things of that nature. Then also we have our own vaccine planning team and then we are I conversation with the hospital. We have relationships with the long-term care facilities, obviously fire and law enforcement so it’s a team that often reviews the definitions that the Minnesota Department of Health has specified and then we interpret those definitions the best we can given our context. There are many variables that go into that decision-making. Some of them I had mentioned to you before. We rely on MDH to kind of help define that for us and we realize that even from county to county there will be slight variations, but hopefully we try to provide that same level of consistency. Then it’s also just amount, it’s determined by the availability and then the distribution and then the distribution of those vaccines. It’s my understanding that Minnesota gets roughly 60,000 does of vaccines per week, give or take a little bit. Then they have to distribute that across the system. When you look at that number and you realize that we have a half a million people who fit the 1A priority group, you begin to see why there might be the delay in getting through all of those, even if we’re really efficient in the administration of those vaccines. The decision on why Arizona or other places might get more, I’m not totally versed on that. I know that some of the guidelines were kind of having to do with where it seemed to have worst cases, where was the greatest need. Obviously we are always advocating for our “fair share” from the Feds as well. The Governor is always trying to advocate to make sure that we get adequate numbers of those vaccines. But again, we’re trying to maintain open dialogue. We are trying to be respectful of different “interest groups” in weighing all of those into our consideration as far as the administration of the vaccine and then of course doing our best to get it administered as soon as we get it as possible. Also being very effective within, like you mentioned, I have not been aware of any wasted doses. When I talk with Darel Radde from Ridgeview Medical Center, talked with our lead on our vaccine planning, at this point we haven’t had one wasted shot which is really amazing. Mayor Ryan: That’s great news. I really appreciate you sharing that because you do hear stories about the wasted doses and they’re not going to folks so to know that there aren’t any wasted vaccines or doses in our community is great to hear. Council, if there are no other questions for Dr. Scott? Councilman Campion, any other questions? Campion: No more questions from me. Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilwoman Rehm? You’re on mute. Rehm: Sorry about that. No questions but I did want to thank Dr. Scott for coming here and giving that presentation. That was helpful. Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilwoman Schubert? City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 15 Schubert: No other questions. Mayor Ryan: I don’t have any other questions. Dr. Scott, I know how hard you’ve been working. I know you know you sit in a lot of meetings across the County and receive a lot of emails and just really appreciate you taking the time to come to our Council meeting tonight and share with us your PowerPoint and the information and answering all of our questions. I really appreciate your hard work and all that you’re doing for our County. Dr. Scott: Thank you, Mayor Ryan and Council. I appreciate that. It’s an honor to be able to be here and I really appreciate you taking this subject seriously and providing the venue for use to provide updated information so thank you very much. Have a wonderful rest of the meeting and a wonderful and safe week. Mayor Ryan: Thank you. You too. That was our one scheduled visitor presentation. Are there any other visitor presentations? Yes, sir. Please come forward and just state your name and address for the record. Jay Meyer: My name is Jay Meyer. I live at 1611 West 63rd Street. You got a vote coming up on a building project on Yosemite tonight, I understand. That’s my backyard. I don’t want to sound like the guy that complains about his backyard but it just seems like there’s a lot of buildings just being crammed into the neighborhood. We got just down the street there’s 12 new houses went up. There’s one right across that’s going to connect to the cul-de-sac basically next door to this. You’ve got a private street that’s connecting to a public street which was part of the concern when the Planning Commission looked at it. You’ve got huge situation where you’re going to dig out a lot of land, a lot of excavating going to go on there because there’s a natural grade where this is going to go in. And you’ve got potential, I know the engineers have looked at this, but you’ve got a potential drainage problem and they tried to alleviate that. I’ve still got concerns about that but when it rains there’s a lot of water that comes right through our backyard. This has a, hopefully not, but it has a potential to increase that and I just think we’ve got enough houses in that neighborhood. This neighborhood on Yosemite, there’s no sidewalks. Then the cross street on 63rd what we’re off of, no sidewalks there either. A lot of people out there walking their dogs, walking every day. It’s great and it’s nice. You get all these trucks in there and you’re hauling all this dirt away and then you’ve four new houses plus the one across the street. Five houses plus the ones that were just built down there at the other end of the block. Just a lot of houses just changed the whole neighborhood. Thank you. Mayor Ryan: Thank you for coming tonight. I appreciate it. That item is on our agenda here after we have two items under New Business and that is our second item so we will be discussing that project tonight so thank you for coming forward. I appreciate it. Are there any other visitor presentations? With that, we will move to New Business. City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 16 NEW BUSINESS: APPOINT CITY COUNCIL MEMBER – OATH OF OFFICE Mayor Ryan: As many of you know, I mentioned it in my address earlier tonight but the fifth and final Council seat will be appointed tonight because of the resigning of Councilwoman Coleman who won the Minnesota State Senate seat. Last Thursday and again tonight we held interviews for candidates that were interested in the position. We had eight interested candidates and went through an interview process and then this evening after we completed that interview process Council then discussed all of the candidates and came up with a decision that we are going to make for the appointment tonight. Before we move forward with the appointment, I just want to extend on behalf of Council our appreciate to all of the eight candidates that were interested in this seat. We really appreciate you taking the time to fill out the application, to come in and interview, but more importantly just your interest in serving the community. That was the consistent message that we heard from all of the candidates that they want to serve the community in which we live. To have so many people interested in doing just that is a testament to you as an individual but also what it says about the City of Chanhassen. Again, thank you so much for your interest. Tonight we have decided on, Council has decided on appointing form Councilmember Jerry McDonald to another two-year term. In the discussions that we had as Council there are a number of things that put him at the top of the list. One, he ran for City Council this year or back in November and he was the third place finisher in that election. He has incredible experience after 13 years of sitting on the City Council. We know that that experience is going to be invaluable to us as a Council. We have a new City Manager coming on board in the next month. We have two new City Council members and there really is something to say about having that experience and historical knowledge of things that have transpired over the past many years for the City of Chanhassen. We really feel like we have a great team of five Council members with varying experience on City Council and living in the community, and Jerry has continued to be an advocate for the people. He’s a great listener and he really takes his oath of office very seriously. We as a Council were proud to appoint Councilman McDonald to this two-year term. He is here tonight so I’d like to say congratulations to Council McDonald but before we moved forward with the oath of office, I would need to confirm a motion so if there is a motion to confirm Councilman McDonald to fill the two-year term of Councilwoman Julia Coleman. Councilman Campion? Councilman Campion move, Rehm seconded that the Chanhassen City Council appoints Jerry McDonald to fill the City Council position vacated by Councilmember Julia Coleman. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously 4-0. Mayor Ryan: Congratulations. If you would like to come forward and take your oath of office. McDonald: I, Jerry A. McDonald, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Minnesota, and that I will faithfully, justly, and impartially discharge the duties of the office of City Council for the City of Chanhassen, Minnesota to the best of my judgement and ability. So help me, God. City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 17 Mayor Ryan: Congratulations! We waste no time around here. Councilman McDonald, welcome back. It’s nice to have you. If you would like to say a few words you are more than welcome but it’s not necessary either. McDonald: Thank you for the opportunity and as the Mayor well knows, I’m never at a loss for words. I too would like to thank everyone who showed support for me but most of all I would like to thank the Council for showing support and confidence in my ability to work with you as we go forward in the future. There are a number of issues that I think as a Council, as I said in my interview there’s a number of unfinished issues that need to be taken care of and I look forward to working with Council to address all of those so that we arrive at a solution that is best for the community. Again, thank you to each and every member of the Council for your confidence in supporting and voting for me. Mayor Ryan: Thank you, Councilman McDonald. NEW BUSINESS: APPROVE A REQUEST FOR A REZONING AND A FOUR-LOT SUBDIVISION (DEER HAVEN) WITH VARIANCES LOCATED AT 6480 YOSEMITE. Mayor Ryan: Ms. Aanenson? Aanenson: I have a PowerPoint for this if you could put that up, please? Thank you. This Planning Case 2020-22, Deer Haven Addition, appeared before the Planning Commission on December 1st so it’s here before you tonight. Again, the applicants are Mr. and Mrs. Ashfeld and I know Mr. Ashfeld is on Zoom so if there is questions for him. Also, the City Engineer is on too if you have specific questions regarding that. I’ll go through but is there is more technical questions I believe Mr. Howley would be the best to answer those. So this application is requesting subdivision approval with a variance for the use of a 33-foot right-of-way, a 24-foot street, and the use of a private street serving four houses. The existing home gets access via Yosemite and a private drive serves the existing home in the back of the lot. So that existing right-of-way, that narrow part here, is the part that is 33 feet wide. The property currently is zone Rural Residential but is guided for low density. I may take a few more minutes to explain some of the options here just for the new Council members. Within the low density zoning district you can have single family 15,000 square foot, which is what this application is applying for so that’s the minimum. You could also go for a PUD or a RLM zoning which if you were to dedicate a significant or kind of a nexus of open space then you could maybe compress some of the lots. But this application is going for the straight single-family which is our most common low density. Again, those lots meet all the standards of the 15,000 square-foot requirement and frontage. So again, the home coming off of is currently being served off of the single driveway off of Yosemite. The property will be serviced by sewer and water so again the subdivision is to create three new home with the existing home remaining. Again, the street, extending sewer and water and providing stormwater which I will go through in a minute. So the tree removal, there is tree fencing that has to be installed off on the edge and verify removal and disturbed calculations. There was a note in the tree preservation area that some of the grading needs to be City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 18 verified because some of that might be some additional tree loss. The City Forester also mentioned that too some of the trees are maybe some overgrowth so the replanting of that would improve in some of those areas. Grading and drainage, it generally slopes to the north and the existing home again will remain. The grading is proposed over two phases: Phase 1 for the improvements for the utilities and the street and stormwater basin, and then the second phase is each lot would be custom-graded. The City establishes a bench lot elevation and depending on the type of home that comes in the staff would work with them on that. That’s another way to kind of work around some of those tree preservations and save as many trees as kind of working on each individual house plan instead of mass grading which is typically what you see with a little bit larger subdivision. A little bit more nuance and care. With drainage routed away from the homes into the two private stormwater basins, and these are up here but I’ll let the City Engineer go through a little bit more detail on that and then the geotechnical required upon submittal of the final construction plans. That’s pretty standard with a subdivision, a condition. So the existing public utilities consist of sanitary sewer and water main and the sewer will be extended approximately 500 fee to an existing manhole over here, which is on the end of the cul- de-sac right now on Wood Duck Circle. That would be extended, and the water main extended approximately 350 feet from the abutting subdivision also so you can see sewer and water coming in. The public and private streets which was one of the issues looking at this. So the subdivision on the Nye property contemplated extending that cul-de-sac so that subdivision is not going forward. Looking at providing access using the existing driveway is what led to the variance. The applicant is requesting… Mayor Ryan: Ms. Aanenson? Sorry to interrupt. The Nye property that we approved before is not moving forward? Aanenson: That’s correct. That’s been extinguished, correct. There’s a new owner there and they’re going to leave the property intact. Mayor Ryan: Okay. Thank you. Aanenson: The proposal is to extend the 20-foot wide public street from Yosemite with the existing 30-foot public right-of-way, trying to work within the existing right-of-way. The applicant is requesting a variance from out 60-foot standard. We typically have a 31-foot wide street within that 60-foot right-of-way. This would be making it a 30-foot and putting the 33 existing and going to the 24-foot wide so that would be the deviation of 31 versus the 24. Having said that, our private street is a 30-foot right-of-way with a 7-ton design with a 20-foot right-of- way. I think the Planning Commission kind of entered around the difference in that but you wouldn’t want to have a wider street into the, it didn’t make sense, the majority felt making this a wider street when you got a narrower street coming in. Again, the City Engineer also supported those recommendations. An easement from the property to the north is required to construct the public street. The applicant has engaged the property to the north and then the private street would serve these four lots right here. Here’s a little bit more illustrative. I think the Planning Commission, we realized after that meeting to try and show it in a little bit different visual. This City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 19 would be the 24-foot wide, the common part here, and then this would be then again, the right- of-way is 30-foot but the paved portion would then be the 20-foot rise. I think this illustratively shows up a little bit better and then just go over here. So this is where that temporary cul-de-sac, Wood Duck Circle, would still terminate here but there is right-of-way here. It’s just not being improved at this time. That would allow the property owner to the north or off the Nyes Addition which could come back in the future. That would be another public hearing and address that at a future date. Mayor Ryan: And that had to do with too long of a cul-de-sac, is that correct? Coming off of Wood Duck Lane? Aanenson: That was one of the issues that we had at the time, correct… So, again the variance, private streets are permitted and the variance criteria is specific to other variance criterias for the private street. Again, looking at this property, the fact that the lots are being custom-graded is another benefit of using the private street again making sure that each home fits uniquely on each lot. Then the right-of-way width does not permit a 30-foot wide street when you are up here so that would be the other variance within that request. We illustrated here the variance findings that are required so it’s not mere inconvenience. In order to subdivide this property because of the existing 33-foot wide right-of-way makes it a hardship and the existing surrounding topography and the conditions are based uniquely to this property as we previously stated and cannot be substantially detrimental to the public welfare. Again, all the lots meet the minimum 15,000 or bigger so it’s consistent with what’s in this drawing. The Planning Commission did discuss this, they did vote 5-1. One member recused himself and that would have made the seven members of the Planning Commission. One of the Planning Commissioners is adjacent and recused himself. The one against felt that the, was concerned about that width of the two streets so that’s why we try to show that a little bit more what that impact would be of having a 24-foot right-of-way and then going to a 20-foot instead of trying to make private street wider. Hopefully that explains to the rest of the Council and staff’s recommendation on that. So, we are recommending approval as did the Planning Commission in the 5-1 vote that we would support the rezoning from Rural Residential to Single Family RSF, again the most common zoning district and approval of preliminary plat with the four lots and one outlot. I didn’t mention that there is a large outlot on the other side of that street for preservation and then the variance with the two right-of-ways and adopt the findings of fact that were approved by the Planning Commission. With that I would be happy to answer any questions or the applicant or the City Engineer would answer those. Mayor Ryan: Does the applicant want to say anything? If the applicant is on and you would like to say a few words? Ken Ashfeld: Thank you, Mayor Ryan and City Council members for the opportunity to address you this evening. My name is Ken Ashfeld living at 6480 Yosemite and I’m representing myself and my wife for the Deer Haven subdivision application this evening. Firstly, please allow me to congratulate Council members taking the oath of office this evening. I’ve been working within City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 20 municipal government now for over 40 years and it’s always amazed me at the amount of dedication that goes into doing your job. I also want to thank your staff that has been so professional and helpful and advising me through the application process as this property is quite unique with it’s positioning as an infill parcel. Your staff has prepared a comprehensive report and I really have nothing more to add. I will stand for questions that Council may have of me but before I address any questions I would like to say that it’s always been my belief that with property ownership goes stewardship responsibilities. I, as well as the previous owners of this property, have placed a high value on maintaining the property to a high standard. As I get older and that responsibility becomes a burden, with your approval, I welcome new neighbors and a homeowners association to assist with the obligation, as well as being new residents to the community. I ask for your support for this project and thank you Madam Mayor and Council. Mayor Ryan: Thank you, Mr. Ashfeld. Let’s begin with questions. We have the applicant obviously on line, Ms. Aanenson, and then you said Mr. Howley with any engineering questions he’s also joining us via Zoom so if anyone has any questions. Council Campion, I’ll start with you. Campion: No questions at this time. Mayor Ryan: Councilwoman Rehm, any questions? Rehm: Yes, so I did visit the area. I wasn’t able to see the whole area because it looks like it’s a private street and I wasn’t sure if I could drive along there so I was trying to get a good idea of what that area looked like. One of my questions is about the outlot. If there’s plans for how that will be maintained. I know I had read something about maybe a neighbor wondering what would happen if someone just abandoned a car there. Are there any plans to put restrictions on what that outlot be used for? That would be one of my questions, I guess. Aanenson: If I could answer that one. Mayor Ryan: Do you have a picture of the outlot? Aanenson: Yeah. It’s up here. So this is the area that’s going to be in the outlot. That question was also raised at the Planning Commission and what we recommended that there be an association because there is a private street so they’re going to have to manage the plowing. In addition, there’s a turnaround back here to get, you know for snow plowing. I think we also talked about this then that there be some additional capacity for removing snow because this part, the public part, would be plowed but then this area here. So they would have to put together an association to manage that. That’s a good question. That was also brought up and the Planning Commission. That association would also manage this property here to make sure that it stays in good shape. Mayor Ryan: Go ahead, Councilwoman Rehm. City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 21 Rehm: So my other question is, like I said I skimmed the information on it and it seems like there had been public hearings. If someone could summarize how the neighbors, I know there’s been a neighbor that did present tonight to the Council, but if I can get a little more information about how the neighborhood is perceiving that and, I’m assuming you did have a public hearing on this? Aanenson: That’s correct. That public hearing was held at the Planning Commission meeting on December 1st. Again, the one main issue that was brought up was the same as Mr. Meyers, was managing the stormwater. That was the main issue that was brought up at the public hearing. There wasn’t that many people that commented on it. I again would maybe let the City Engineer address that. Rehm: Okay. Mayor Ryan: Mr. Howley? Howley: All right, I’m here. Can you hear me? All right. The question had to do with stormwater, correct? So this development, with any other development in town that triggers permitting through us and the Watershed District would have to meet all the rules. The applicant isn’t asking for any sort of variances from those rules at this point. The plans are still preliminary but there is two stormwater BMPs being shown to manage the runoff from all of the private areas, meaning the houses and the private street, and then there will be a little bit of water that would be directed east to Yosemite and there will have to be some sort of a sump structure or something put down there to manage the public stormwater. When you think of stormwater, it’s not going to make anything worse. I think that’s the way you have to think about it because there are rules in place for rate control, volume control, water quality, erosion sediment control and the like and they’re not asking for any variances on those rules so we didn’t have any issues with the stormwater design. Mayor Ryan: Anything further? I have a couple of questions on stormwater but Councilwoman Rehm, do you have any further questions with stormwater or any other questions on the development at this time? Rehm: I would like to hear a little bit more about the private street and how that works but I can listen to the responses later. Yeah, that would be my other concern about that street and how that would work for the houses there. Mayor Ryan: Okay, Charlie? Thank you. Charlie, I know you’re going to be on for the entirety of the call here but just since we are talking about the stormwater basins, when you look at the grade and I know that it said that the stormwater runs predominately north and I’m guessing that’s where Mr. Meyer lives, to the north of the property, and you know we look at normal rates of stormwater when we do grading, but how about know that we’re plowing these streets and we City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 22 have excess with snow pileup. Is that also considered as part of the, when you’re sizing these basins? Howley: Yes, Madam Mayor. Part of the rate control calculations is to not only look at just two- year, ten-year, hundred-year events but also a 10-day snowmelt event and so the engineers when they’re designing their stormwater system account for that and it’s just handled within the modeling. These basins, don’t really think of them as ponds, they’re not going to be holding water. These will probably be filtration-type basins. Infiltration if they could get it so it would detain the water and release it at a slower rate to mimic existing conditions. Mayor Ryan: And so with the, when you go through excavating of this property and I know it’s kind of rolling back there so now there’s a little bit of a dip but then it leans, kind of tilts back towards the north and the water runs that direction, is there anything going to be built up then on the north side of the road so it doesn’t have a greater impact to any of the properties to the north? Again, looking at those grades, I know it was a challenge when we were looking at the Nye property and just how those houses sit in there. In support of this plan my biggest concern always is having the tree loss and the grading that now all of a sudden water is being pushed on other properties, and although we go through some of the process of kind of doing the study of the rate of water to leave the property, residents always are concerned that water is now going to be dumped onto their property. Can you address that? Howley: Yes. As part of the stormwater design the engineers, who is the developer’s engineers, not our engineering staff, we don’t design it, we just review it. You look at the existing conditions and you map drainage areas and on this property there’s a drainage divide the very south end would go south and the north part would go north. In the proposed condition when all the grading changes, you still have to look at what water went north and what water went south and you have to meet existing conditions and not exceed those. The two basins for the private stuff which is the vast majority of all of the new development, there’s two basins up there and there on the north end so that even on that very north end there would be a little bit of a berm built up on the north end that would make sure that all the water does get into these basins and then it gets piped, their current layout is piping the discharge to the north in a controlled way. You could think of it as there would be a berm on that very, very, very north end that would stop any sort of surface water from going to north before it is treated and managed. Mayor Ryan: Perfect. The last question as it relates to stormwater you said that some of it then will go to the east and so we’ll just have to maintain that from our public, I don’t remember what word he used, some fancy engineering word, that then came onto Yosemite and we would have to manage that as a city. What were you talking about there? Howley: There is storm sewer infrastructure in Yosemite already. There’s quite a bit of it, actually. It’s a pretty elaborate design. What we would do is because downstream of all that infrastructure we already have ponds so what we want to do is install pretreatment, and the term I used was a sump, and I’m guessing that’s the way the developer will want to manage it. It’s that City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 23 east/west driveway that’s going to be fairly flat and that is the public drainage and that’s going to end of going east towards Yosemite and if we put in, for example, a sump structure, what that is it’s an oversized catch basin that has a depressed bottom that allows the water with the sediment to accumulate in it before it goes downstream down the pipe. That sump structure would be a piece of public infrastructure that we would add to our list when we run around in the fall and vac out all of our sumps. It’s a pretty standard way to do things and sounds to me like the appropriate approach due to the constraints of available right-of-way and lands that put in another sort of pond or filtration basin that then we would have to maintain. We would much rather just maintain a structural sump than any sort of a surface basing. Mayor Ryan: Okay. Makes sense. Thank you Mr. Howley. Councilwoman Rehm, I’ll go back to you unless somebody else had a question on the stormwater. Does anyone else have? Councilman McDonald? McDonald: Thank you, Madam Mayor. The one thing that I’m kind of concerned about is that we’ve had a lot of discussions about the use of our ponds and about monitoring them. I understand that these are going to be private ponds but they do have an impact on the City infrastructure. Are we going to monitor these ponds at some point if we feel that… Howley: Again, they need to be cleaned out or reach capacity that we would inform the homeowners association that that work needs to be done. Yes, Councilmember McDonald, the developer or the homeowners association ultimately would be party to an operation and maintenance agreement for those basins and that requires them to annually inspect them and maintain them as necessary. We, as staff look every year to receive these reports and if they for some reason don’t live up to their obligations, the agreement would allow us to do the work and then invoice them or assess them to offset our costs so it’s a formal agreement that gets recorded at the County with the property and we monitor it annually. McDonald: Okay. Thank you. Then the other question I’ve got concerning stormwater is that the current situation as I understand from the gentleman that came up is that he does get water during any kind of a rain event. By putting these ponds in do you feel that we are going to make the situation a little bit better as far water drainage. Howley: It would be tough to say that we are going to make it better from a rate or volume control. We will be making it better from a water quality control, meaning how clean the water is that would be coming to the north, it is going to be better than it is today. The rules don’t make the developer make it better, if I’m saying that correctly, but we’re not going to certainly make it any worse. McDonald: Okay. That’s important. I have no further questions. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilwoman Rehm I’ll go back to you. I know you had a few other questions, one concerning the sizing of the street? City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 24 Rehm: Yeah. What I read was that street’s pretty narrow and I would like to hear a little bit more about the street and how they are planning on working that. I know I had heard that the garbage trucks would be able to get in there, the fire trucks would be able to get in there but I would like to hear a little bit more about how that will be handled? Aanenson: I’ll take it at first and if Charlie wants to add to it. You have to first look at the existing conditions and as I mentioned the property coming in, trying to make sure I’ve got the two slides. Maybe I’ll start with this. Existing Conditions. We’ve got a significant amount of trees in the area so looking at the existing driveway which already is using that same right-of- way making it the right-of-way and preserving these trees along here. That created the outlot. Because we already have 33 we are going to 24 on this north portion which is the driveway, being used as a private drive but it’s technically a public right-of-way of only 33 feet making that 24 feet. Because of that, if I can illustratively show it staying with that 24 to 20 feet so that’s where that came into play. So the 20 feet is the standard, that’s the pavement width. 30 feet of right-of-way, 20 feet of pavement width for a public street. Again, the benefit of that would be preserving the outlot where those significant trees are and then also doing the custom grading so that’s kind of a trade-up when we look at that variance for that. I’ll let the City Engineer comment a little bit more on the existing right-of-way and why he felt the 24 feet was the right transition for that. Howley: Yeah, you bet. So what’s not shown on that diagram we’re looking at there is where that big arrow is at the north where the green turn to the south goes, is there needs to be a design to accommodate a turnaround there and that’s one of the conditions of the approval of the final design. It is because our City operations need to maintain the green and so if we are driving down westerly with a snow plow, we’ve got to get out of there. Then we back up to the south and then pull out and head east again. So we need a turnaround on the green and that would accommodate some lost vehicle that doesn’t know where they’re going, they have the ability to turn around or what have you. We would maintain that street. Now, we can’t build a bigger street than 24 in that available right-of-way. I mean, it is what it is. The adjacent property owners reportedly aren’t on board with giving any more right-of-way so we’ve got a narrow public right- of-way and the original thought was that this whole thing would be a private street, meaning there wouldn’t be any green there, it would all be yellow and it could have just been 20 feet wide the who way. Well, the City Attorney informed us that we can’t put a private drive in a public right-of-way so that is the reason for the variance as for the narrower street. Staff supports it. It’s manageable operationally. You can grade it in there. We can get the drainage to work. Utilities, all that good stuff. The developer does need to acquire a little bit of a roadway easement. That’s what’s shown on the left-hand side of slide there. There has to be a little piece of rectangular roadway easement from the property owner to the northwest and that has been tentatively agreed upon and the legal documents have be written up, they just haven’t been executed yet. So, 24 feet for the public road, we can manage that. So then once it turns private and goes to the south, the code allows a private drive to be 20-foot wide so why go any wider than that? It just adds impervious. It adds more tree removal. More grading. So if the homeowners association wants to manage a 20-foot wide road, great, right? At the very south end of that yellow private road City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 25 though there needs to be another turnaround for fire code and that’s what Kate is highlighting there. They are providing all of the accommodations that they need to and the roadway widths are absolutely in our opinion reasonable and prudent for the challenging existing conditions that exist. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Howley. Any other questions, Councilwoman Rehm? Rehm: No, that’s it. Thank you. Mayor: Great. Thank you. Councilwoman Schubert? Schubert: No other questions. Mayor: Thank you, Councilman McDonald? McDonald: No further questions. Mayor: I have one, well two questions actually. Mr. Howley, you weren’t here but I know you would remember this Ms. Aanenson. In terms of the sanitary sewer, I know on the property to the south, that development to the south. I know I walk by it every day so I can’t believe I can’t. Not Anthem. Was it Anthem? Anyways, they had to have a gravitational sanitary sewer pump because of the elevation change. Is that something that is part of this development as well? Howley: Madam Mayor, no. To my knowledge everything can be drained via gravity sewer. In the green that’s highlighted there? They will extend gravity sewer all the way around and then to the south and then those homes can hook up to that without the need for any pumps. Mayor Ryan: Okay. Perfect. I remember that being a concern in the other development. Then, and the last is actually for the City Attorney, and Mr. Meyer I know one, we’re neighbors and I walk this area all the time and so I know the amount of development that has taken place in this area has been a lot for that area to just kind of take in. And it’s actually a conversation that I had with our City Attorney and City Manager a couple months ago about the development of private property and what we can say yes to and what we can say no to and what our obligation as a Council are. The legal rights of a private property owner and what basis do we have to deny an application. So, if the City Attorney wouldn’t mind just kind of going through the rights of a private property owner when it comes to developing their land and what we can and can’t approve as a Council. Poehler: For property rights, you have the right to make an application for an sort of permit or land use under the City Code and then it’s up to the terms of the City Code that this Council has set in the past, to apply that to whatever the land use application is. So you’ve got your requirements that you need to apply to whatever the specific application is. In this case it’s a rezoning and a variance and a preliminary plat. Your ability to deny is limited when you have City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 26 specific applicant in front of you and you have to tie any basis for denial to some element of the Code that that application does not meet. In this case you’ve Planning staff and the Planning Commission that has indicated that it is there opinion that this meets those requirements and then it’s up to you to decide if you agree with their interpretation and their application. Mayor Ryan: Thank you for that clarification and it’s not only helpful for new Council members as well, but you know it’s not to… Mr. Ashfeld I know you’ve been working with staff for quite some time on your piece of land, your property, and what to do with it. I know there’s been a lot of changes along the way but I also know that it’s sensitive to neighbors that all of a sudden once was an empty open space now has a number of houses in it, whether it’s a small parcel of land or a large parcel of land like we have experienced off of Galpin with that development. So there is a lot a change in development; however, City Council is restricted to allow individuals to develop their property to whatever our City Code is and I wanted to make sure that was very clear. I appreciate the hard work that done by City staff to make sure that the impact in tree loss was minimal by doing the individual grade of the different lots and then allowing that private street again to have tree preservation along the east side. Thank you for explaining that about the private property rights. I’ll go around and see if there is any other questions from any Council member, before I ask for a motion. Councilman Campion? Campion: No additional questions. Mayor Ryan: Okay, thank you. Councilwoman Rehm? Rehm: No additional questions for me. Mayor Ryan: Councilwoman Schubert? Schubert? No additional questions. Mayor Ryan: Councilman McDonald? McDonald: No additional questions at this time. Mayor Ryan: And I don’t have any further questions either. With that, I would stand for a motion. Council McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approves the Zoning Ordinance rezoning the property from Rural Residential District (RR) to Single-Family Residential (RSF); and The preliminary plat to create four lots and one outlot with a variance for the use of a private street to provide direct access to the four lots and a variance to use the 33-foot City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 27 right-of-way and 24-foot street section subject to the Conditions of Approval in the staff report; and Adoption of the Findings of Fact and Recommendation. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5-0. Mayor Ryan: Thank you, Mr. Ashfeld for being on the call tonight. I appreciate it. Ashfeld: Thank you Mayor and Council. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS Mayor Ryan: I just want to say again congratulations to our three new, one returning, but three new Council members. I’m really looking forward to having a full City Councilo moving forward. We have obviously a lot on our plates starting with finishing up with hiring the City Manager, going through that process, which will continue next week so it will be great to have a full Council on board and I just want to, again, extend my congratulations to all of you. Councilman Campion, it’s great to working with you this year. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS Johnston: Madam Mayor, just a little teaser that Feb Fest is going to happen. It will look different and there will be some virtual events as well but I’m going to leave the bulk of the excitement for you formally invite folks at our next meeting. Mayor Ryan: Perfect. And it’s fully virtual? There’s no gathering? Johnston: That’s correct. Mayo r Ryan: Okay. I just wanted to make sure to clarify that. Are there any questions on the Correspondence Discussion, Councilman Campion? CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION – None Mayor Ryan: With that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn? Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Schubert seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The council meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. Submitted by Heather Johnston Interim City Manager City Council Meeting – January 11, 2021 28 Prepared by Kim Meuwissen