CC 2006 12 11
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
DECEMBER 11, 2006
Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m.. The meeting was opened with the
Pledge to the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mayor Furlong, Councilman Lundquist and Councilman
Peterson
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT:
Councilwoman Tjornhom
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Gerhardt, Laurie Hokkanen, Roger Knutson, Kate Aanenson, Todd
Hoffman, Jill Sinclair, Greg Sticha and Paul Oehme
PUBLIC PRESENT FOR ALL ITEMS:
Jerry & Janet Paulsen 7305 Laredo Drive
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mayor Furlong: Good evening and welcome to everybody here joining us in the council
chambers, as well as those joining us at home. We're glad that you joined us. At this time I
would ask members of the council if there are any modifications or additions to the agenda. If
not then we'll proceed with the agenda as distributed. We've got some presentations to do this
evening under public announcements so we'll do that first. Let me go down in the front here and
have other people join me as appropriate.
PRESENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS.
Public Present:
Name Address
Tom, Pam & Andy Devine 7640 South Shore Drive
Jeff Grimm 435 Pond Promende
Trevor & Tressa Haugdahl 4003 Highland Road, Minnetonka
Jeremy & Debbie Scott 18528 Chennault Way, Eden Prairie
Bill Fouks 88 Castle Ridge Court
Lee Scholder 1521 Heron Drive,
Shirley McGee 1950 Andrew Court
Greg Fletcher 7616 South Shore Drive
Ron Olsen 1140 Willow Creek Street
Jim Sommers 8683 Chan Hills Drive No.
Evan Vaala 18860 Harrogarb Drive, Eden Prairie
City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Judi, Kelly & Adam Devitt 5246 Clear Spring Drive, Minnetonka
Penni Ruben Lakewinds Natural Foods
Katherine Roseth Lakewinds Natural Foods
Mayor Furlong: We're going to start this evening with Environmental Excellence Awards.
These are awards that are presented annually by the City of Chanhassen in recognition of
environmental improvements and stewardship throughout our county. The awards are designed
not only to recognize achievement but also to communicate new ideas and encourage other
members of our city to make a difference in their world. I'd like to invite some of the members
of our Environmental Commission to come up and join me here. I think they're here with us this
evening. Ron Olsen, Shirley McGee, Jim Sommers, Bill Fouks, and Lee Scholder. Good
evening everybody. The first award here I'd like to present and invite up Christine Nelson. Is
Christine here? This evening. She wasn't about to make it? Was somebody else here? Why
don't you come on up. You're with Lakewinds?
Penni Ruben: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Excellent. It's not surprising to many, why don't you stand here so people at
home can see us. It's not surprising to many that Lakewinds Natural Foods is here receiving an
Environmental Excellence Award. Their business is based upon organic, environmentally
friendly products but Lakewinds has gone above and beyond the usual expectations for such a
business. Among the many sustainable practices that sets their business apart are the extensive
reuse and recycling programs. They collect cell phones, reading glasses, plastic bags, batteries
from customers. The process by which the store uses to heat generated by refrigeration
compressors for pre-heating their water, and a number of others. Perhaps the most impressive
commitment is the installation of 57 solar panels on it's roof this year. These panels product a
tremendous amount of energy and Lakewinds hopes that they will be able to produce all of their
needed energy and sell back any excess to the utility company. They were installed this summer
and has already contributed an estimated, stopped an estimated 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.
So on behalf of the City of Chanhassen to Lakewinds Natural Foods, congratulations.
Appreciate your efforts.
Penni Ruben: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: At this time I'd like to invite Dan Rutledge to come forward from Rutledge
Construction Company. Good evening. Thanks for coming. We're honoring Rutledge
Construction Company this evening for using cooking oil as construction equipment fuel. A
friend told Dan about vehicles running on vegetable oil. Apparently an intriguing idea and after
doing some research he decided to try it on the company's Bobcat. As the story goes, he bought
a 5 gallon pail of vegetable oil. Poured it into the machine. Ran great. Apparently didn't smell
too bad, so that's good, and now you're running other equipments, skidders and other things on
the oil as well. Okay, so congratulations Dan on the award.
Dan Rutledge: Thank you.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Shawn Siders and Brandon Mall. Are they here? Okay, K.
Hovnanian Homes. Good evening. Good to see you without a site plan. K. Hovnanian Homes
is being recognized this evening for energy efficient homes and best management construction
practices. They have incorporated many of the best management practices into the construction
process and the company strives to exceed general requirements of practices. Each home built
within Chanhassen at Liberty on Bluff Creek earns an Energy Star designation for energy
efficiency. By working with the Environmental Protection Agency, K. Hovnanian Homes was
able to design and construct homes that exceed Minnesota Building Code, eliminate unnecessary
materials and enhance the performance of the home's insulation. The company also teams with
trade partners who employ environmentally friendly practices such as their lumber supplier who
recycles all the scrap wood generated on the site. So on behalf of the City of Chanhassen,
congratulations. Thank you. I think we have some members from Boy Scout Troop 346 here.
Why don't you guys come on up. Boy Scout Troop 346 is being recognized for their storm drain
marking and environmental education outreach program. The boys in Scout Troop 346 all enjoy
swimming, especially in Lotus Lake. This year they decided they wanted to do something to
help the lake and keep it clean and after talking about what a good project might be, they agreed
that educating the public about where the water goes when it enters the storm drain would be a
good place to start. They contacted the City and worked with staff about storm drain marking.
The project included cleaning the curb area around each storm drain in the project area and then
attaching markers to the structures that read, drains to wetlands. Dump no waste. They also
distributed door hangers that included education on water quality and what impacts the public
might have on the health of local lakes. It was a big job covering 150 storm drains and many
neighborhoods. So boys, on behalf of the City of Chanhassen, thank you. We appreciate your
efforts. Congratulations. Thank you all.
PRESENTATION OF MAPLE LEAF AWARD TO COUNCILMAN BRIAN
LUNDQUIST.
Mayor Furlong: Tonight is the last meeting for Councilman Brian Lundquist and so this evening
we're going to present him with our City's Maple Leaf Award. It is a pleasure to honor Brian this
evening for his service on the City Council these last 4 years. Brian, as a member of the council
you have demonstrated your dedication and commitment to the Chanhassen residents and
businesses by your words and by your actions. You provided strong leadership on the council in
pursuing our strategic initiatives and were committed to lowering property taxes while limited
overall spending growth. You did this by applying your business experiences to our city
government. We're going to miss your attention to details, especially with regards to spending
and checks being issued. And your focus on finding opportunities to balance the need for new
infrastructure and city services within our budget limits. Using your business approach and
applying private industry best practices, you helped strengthen our financial and operating
polices, and keep our budgets in line over these last 4 years. During his term Brian was
instrumental and provided leadership on many projects and policies that have improved our city
and the high quality of life that we enjoyed, and still do. Some of these projects and policies
include the completion of the new Chanhassen library. New commercial and residential
developments throughout the city. Construction of the city's water treatment plant. Construction
of City Center Park. Miles of new and reconstructed roads and trails and expanded and
refurbished parks throughout the city and developing sound fiscal policies and budgets in
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
difficult financial times. Brian, you should be very proud of the service that you have provided
Chanhassen and all that you've accomplished. We sincerely thank you for your outstanding
leadership service and dedication to the City of Chanhassen. We are going to miss you and your
talents and skills and the fun times we had together. Thanks Brian.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to
approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager's
recommendations:
a. Approval of Minutes:
-City Council Work Session Minutes dated November 27, 2006
-City Council Verbatim & Summary Minutes dated November 27, 2006
Receive Commission Minutes:
-Planning Commission Verbatim & Summary Minutes dated November 21, 2006
Resolution #2006-89:
b. 2005 MUSA Project 06-05: Re-call Public Hearing.
c. Approve Street Name Change from Lake Riley Road to Lakeview Road East.
d. Approval of City Code Amendments:
1) Chapters 1 & 4 Regarding Fees
2) Chapter 18, Subdivisions Regarding Final Plats
e. Custom Fab Solutions, LLC, 7600 Quattro Drive: Site Plan Approval for Expansion to
Existing Building.
Resolution #2006-90:
f. Resolution Approving Adjustment to Engineering Fees.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 3 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Mayor Furlong: Given the question from the audience, we will take public comment on the
items under new business. Items 2 and 3. The Chanhassen High School and the Autobahn
Metroplex, so if you're interested in talking about that, we will take some limited comment on
that. But if there's anything else you'd like to address the council, please come forward at this
time. To the podium. State your name and address.
Jon Day: My name's Jon Day, 8229 Stone Creek Drive. Chanhassen and I'd like to address the
council and the Mayor on the Autobahn Metroplex.
Mayor Furlong: Why don't we take that up when we're talking on that staff report. I'll save time
for public comment at that time. Then it will just be more consistent with the conversation at
that time.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Jon Day: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thanks Jon. Anyone else? Okay, seeing none we'll move on.
CHANHASSEN HIGH SCHOOL; LOCATED NORTH OF LYMAN BOULEVARD,
SOUTH OF THE TWIN CITIES AND WESTERN RAILROAD, AND WEST OF BLUFF
CREEK; APPLICANT ANDERSON-JOHNSON ASSOCIATES, INC., INDEPENDENT
SCHOOL DISTRICT 112: REQUEST FOR AN INTERIM USE PERMIT TO GRADE
THE SITE IN PREPARATION FOR DEVELOPMENT, REVIEW ENVIRONEMTNAL
ASSESSMENT WORKSHEET, AND CONSIDER APPROVAL OF A RESOLUTION
DECLARING NO NEED FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, and members of the City Council. This item did appear
before the Planning Commission twice. The subject site located on Lyman, south of the railroad
tracks… The applicant is Independent School District 112. This item appeared before the
Planning Commission twice. Based on some additional information that was requested.
Ultimately the Planning Commission did recommend approval of the…6 to 1. When this item
appeared before the Planning Commission the first time, there was an issue regarding potential…
that was presented to the Planning Commission and Planning Commission concurred with staff's
interpretation of the bluff. Or non-bluff… The definition was put in…and I'm not going to go
through that unless there's a specific request from the council to do that…the issue at hand which
is the grading permit…and some comments from the neighbor that… So the first step would be
the project itself and grading. I'm going to give, the overall site plan has not been approved. I
just wanted to put this up for a better understanding of the site. It's again Lyman Boulevard and
the access points. So because of the size of the building, over 400,000 square feet, it did require
an environmental assessment. Some of the issues that were brought by the neighbors were…can
the building be located somewhere else. If you recall the school district was looking…the city,
they were looking for a secondary school and they hadn't decided whether or not this site would
be a high school or not. It wasn't until they did their study and then went out to finalize it that it
would actually be a high school site. Being that it's a high school site, and they want…drove the
amount of design…regarding location of the access points. Audubon Road. Chaska…sub
station…The other place for access coming off of the Chaska Industrial Park, making that a T
intersection…so that's kind of the location, access points and the drive. The parking lot location
and then the building itself. In looking at the overall grading, up to the…as indicated in the staff
report, there is a gas line that runs through the property also…material will be stored on site. I
also wanted to point out in the staff report that because they are using a walk out on the back side
of the building…looking at the grading footprint itself. This project will come back before the
Planning Commission for the overall site design and the specifics regarding lighting, parking lot
and those sort of things…the question was raised regarding the amount of grading, but there's
still a 70 foot change based on this building being a walkout to the bottom of the creek, so they
are using the grade itself so it's not like it changes… So the grading itself, with the… So with
that, I'll move forward to the environmental assessment… There are three main issues that were
raised in the Environmental Assessment. The majority of that's regarding traffic and when this
project comes in for site plan review, we'll be attaching some conditions regarding the circulation
of traffic itself, regarding signalization…at Audubon and…so that's one of the issues that was…
The other was the wetland impact. Right now with the grading they're not impacting wetlands…
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
but based on the potential environmental impact…so we are recommending that no
environmental impact statement is required. So with that we put a resolution in the packet to that
effect, requiring no environmental impact statement… So with that, starting on page 8, the
recommendations for the two motions. Approve the Negative Declaration. Motion A. And you
would also be approving…and B which would be the approval of…regarding the Interim Use
Permit for the… So with that I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for staff. Ms. Aanenson, I guess with regard to storm
water runoff and the amount of grading and such like that, what precautions are place? I saw
some things in the staff report with regard to, we've had some history in the past where we have
developers start the grading before all the improvements are there to manage the storm water
when we get the storms, and so I guess the, especially with the wetland and Bluff Creek corridor
to the east of this site, what precautions are put in place here from storm water measures.
Kate Aanenson: We're over sizing the temporary basins, and that's the only…so that these
temporary basins will be super sized to manage that catastrophic event. And then also make sure
that we've got…
Mayor Furlong: Such as silt fencing and those sorts of things.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, and also the row fencing. Some of…
Mayor Furlong: Okay. So we'll work with the applicant or inspect the site.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah…
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any other questions at this point for staff? Okay. Is the applicant here?
Anything that, Mr. Pomeroy anything you want to add or others?
Jay Pomeroy: Good evening Mayor and councilmen.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening.
Jay Pomeroy: I am Jay Pomeroy with Anderson-Johnson…so if you have any questions, we can
certainly answer them. The traffic consultant as well…
Mayor Furlong: Traffic, obviously there were two things brought up there. I think one was
during construction traffic issues, as well as post construction.
Kate Aanenson: That's correct.
Mayor Furlong: So are we comfortable there that they've got plans in place to.
Kate Aanenson: Correct, and keeping the streets clean and those sort of issues that engineering
will be monitoring.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any questions for the applicant at all from the council? Okay. We had
two evenings of Planning Commission hearings on this.
Kate Aanenson: That's correct.
Mayor Furlong: And discussions so we're not going to have a formal public hearing here but I
guess, what we have as a council we've received the verbatim minutes of those meetings so if
anybody, if there's any new information, if somebody would like to make sure the council's
aware of on this, we'd be happy to take some public comment now. But again we received and
reviewed the information at the Planning Commission as well as some of the emails that
residents sent to staff raising questions as well. So if anybody would like to address the council
on any new matters here on this item. Okay, very good. Thank you. With that, if there's no
other questions for staff or the applicant at this time, thoughts. Discussion. Members of the
council.
Councilman Lundquist: Mr. Mayor, one quick question. Probably either for Kate or the
applicant. Kate, what do you expect, or Mr. Pumper, what's the duration of time that you'll have
the excavation? When do you plan to start? When do you believe it will be substantially
complete?
Jay Pomeroy: I'm almost Mr. Pumper. This Phase I, or this first part of the project we anticipate
starting grading in the next few weeks…until about mid-March, as I understand. And then the
next phase will start. We'll be back in front of you in March with a full site and landscaping,
lighting. The whole ball of wax. That part of the process will take place right after this first
phase, so once we start it's going to continue until the school opens in 2009. Fall of 2009.
Construction will pretty much complete in May of '09.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay. So you're 2, a little over 2 years? 26, 27 months. Something
like that? Okay. Thank you.
Kate Aanenson: Back to your question Brian, I think too, when we look at the site plan and
there's more construction activity, we'll probably re-evaluate access points and if that's adequate.
Right now what we're addressing for access would just be for the grading. And once they get the
equipment on, it will stay on site so there won't be quite as much, I mean they don't intend to
export a lot but I think when we look at the next iteration of the site plan, there will be a lot more
construction traffic but I think we'll have to look a little more carefully at. For access.
Mayor Furlong: Thoughts. Comments.
Councilman Peterson: Mr. Mayor, I think that the staff and Planning Commission certainly did
due diligence on it for the amount of time they spent on it and presenting. I certainly can't argue
anything different than that so I would certainly recommend approval.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Councilman Lundquist.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Councilman Lundquist: I would concur and I think, you know this is a big first step and as we've
received some comment, it will have a big impact and as you talked about before Mr. Mayor and
me and my details, 350,000 cubic yards is what they're talking about, which is a little over a
million and a half wheelbarrows full. But maybe to put it more in perspective, if you imagine the
size of a football field being 100 yards by 50 yards wide, that's approximately a football field by
70 feet high for a pile of dirt, so as we're driving around in that area over the next 2 years, we're
going to see a pretty dramatic change to the landscape out there and I think it's important and
encumbent upon us to make sure that we do keep up the erosion control and a lot of the stuff
that's out there in that wetland because 350,000 cubic yards is a lot of dirt to be pushing around
and it will have impacts that we, if we don't stay on top of it, it will anyway but certainly will
change things a lot so, just ask that we stay on top of that and people should be prepared I think
to see a lot flatter ground out there in that big, big pile of dirt but am in favor of moving forward.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. And I think, you know as Councilman Lundquist as you just
explained or painted the picture, the whole reason to make sure that we're aware and that staff is
aware and confident in terms of some of the issues if there is store problems and such, and we've
got, as a city we've got a great working relationship with the school district. We've had a number
of meetings already and I assume that those are going to continue throughout the process and I'm
confident that they'll be able to work with us and we'll work with them and in the end it's going
to be a new high school. A Chanhassen High School that everybody's going to be proud of so,
but these are details that we need to work with and I'm glad that everybody is working together
and as much as the goal is to get the new high school there, we need to focus on the details and
get it done right too, so I concur with your thoughts there. And to Councilman Peterson, I'm glad
that the staff and the school district, their advisors and their Planning Commission are spending
the time that they are to get into the details because it saves us time. I am supportive of this. I
think the questions raised have been answered satisfactory and I think it's, I would move to, that
we move forward with this this evening. The motion starts on page 8 of the staff report. 175 in
the electronic copy. Is there a motion? We have two before us this evening requested.
Councilman Peterson: To that end Mr. Mayor, I would move and recommend that the City
Council approve resolution of negative declaration. City Council also approve Interim Use
Permit with conditions 1 through 25, subject to the findings of fact as supported by staff this
evening.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Lundquist: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on that motion? Hearing none we'll
proceed with the vote.
Resolution #2006-91: Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded that
City Council approve a resolution of Negative Declaration of the Need for an
Environmental Impact Statement for the Chanhassen High School Campus. All voted in
favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 3 to 0.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded that the City Council approve
an Interim Use Permit to permit grading on the property in preparation of development,
plans prepared by Anderson-Johnson Associates, Inc., dated 10-19-06, subject to the following
conditions:
1.The 50-scale plans should be revised to clearly depict the wetland boundary and wetland
buffer areas.
2.Wetland buffer areas at least 16.5 feet in width should be preserved, surveyed and staked in
accordance with the City’s wetland ordinance prior to grading commencing. All wetlands and
wetland buffer areas should be protected by silt fence during grading.
3.The applicant should keep the goals set forth in the Bluff Creek Watershed Natural
Resources Management Plan (BCWNRMP) for the Lowlands Region in mind as a plan is
developed for the site and should work with staff to achieve these goals for this property.
The Primary Zone boundary and the 40-foot setback should be shown on the plans. No
grading is permitted within the first 20 feet of the 40-foot setback.
4.The erosion and sediment control plan should be aimed at minimizing the amount of exposed
soil at any given time and preventing erosion of exposed soil. Sediment control (especially
perimeter controls such as silt fence) should be viewed as a last resort. The applicant, the
contractor and all subcontractors should recognize that one silt fence at the bottom of a large
slope of exposed soil will not be sufficient to protect down gradient resources in even
moderate precipitation or snowmelt events. To decrease the potential for discharge of
sediment-laden water off-site, the applicant should prepare a plan for phasing the grading of
the project. In general, the areas within 200 feet of wetlands should be graded first and
permanently stabilized as soon as possible. Disturbed areas should be stabilized as soon as
possible after grading to minimize the total amount of exposed soil on site. New areas
should not be graded until after previously graded areas are stabilized.
5.Sediment & Erosion Control (SWPPP) Note 2.a.2 on Sheet C1.2 states that slopes steeper
than 6:1 should be “cat tracked.” The applicant should take extra measures to ensure that this
occurs because cat tracking has been shown to significantly decrease the potential for erosion
on long, steep slopes. A detail should be provided for cat tracking.
6.The haul route between the Construction Staging Area and the Temporary Stockpile Area
should be shown on the 50-scale plans.
7.All upland areas disturbed as a result of construction activities shall be immediately restored
with seed and disc-mulched, covered with a wood-fiber blanket or sodded within two weeks of
completion of grading in each disturbed area. If practical, a seed and blown-compost mix
should be considered in lieu of dormant seed and straw mulch. The plans should be revised to
call out erosion control blanket locations and to provide a detail for blanket installation.
8.Chanhassen Type II silt fence should be provided adjacent to all areas to be preserved as
buffer (both 16.5-foot wetland buffers and the 20-foot “no grading” zone around the Primary
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Zone). The silt fence should be installed in overlapping “J-hooks” to break up the sections
and provide additional water and sediment retaining capacity. Orange tree protection fence
should be installed upslope from the Type 2 silt fence around the wetland between
Temporary Sediment Basin No. 3 and Temporary Sediment Basin No. 4 as added protection
so equipment operators do not impact the wetland by driving heavy equipment through it.
9.The plans should be revised to include Chanhassen’s standard details where available (e.g.,
Detail 5300 for silt fence; Detail 5301 for rock construction entrance). It appears that detail 3
on Sheet C1.4 is intended to depict the proposed checks within the temporary drainageways
shown on Sheet C1.2. This should be clarified and the checks should be installed as often as is
necessary to minimize the velocities of runoff in the drainageways. The plans should be revised
to show a minimum 75-foot long rock construction entrance.
10.In lieu of the proposed outlet pipes for the temporary sediment basins, temporary perforated
risers and stable emergency overflows (EOFs) are needed; details should be included in the
plan. The basins should be properly sized for the watershed areas, according to NPDES
requirements (i.e., the basins should provide storage below the outlet pipe for a calculated
volume of runoff from at least a 2-year, 24-hour storm from each acre drained to the basin,
except that in no case shall the basin provide less than 1800 cubic feet of storage below the
outlet pipe from each acre drained to the basin). The outlet pipes should discharge upstream
from the edge of the receiving wetlands and should be stabilized with riprap.
11.In the present design, water is routed into the wetland in the northeast corner of the site
instead of into Temporary Sediment Basin No. 4. The grading in this area of the site should
be revised to ensure that all discharge from disturbed areas is directed into either Temporary
Sediment Basin No. 3 or Temporary Sediment Basin No. 4 prior to discharge into the
wetland.
12.Street cleaning of soil tracked onto public streets shall include daily street scraping and street
sweeping as needed.
13.The applicant shall apply for and obtain permits from the appropriate regulatory agencies (e.g.,
Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency) and
comply with their conditions of approval.
14.All temporary stockpiles shall be temporary seeded and mulched within 7 or 14 days, in
accordance with the NPDES Phase II construction site permit.
15.Rock dissipation shall be installed at all pipe outlets within 24 hours of placement of the
outlet pipes.
16.Slope lengths greater than 75 feet shall be broken up with a minimum 12-foot wide bench
every 75 feet.
17.A minimum12-foot buffer area shall be maintained between the perimeter control and all
stockpiles to provide access around the stockpiles for maintenance purposes.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
18.Dewatering activities shall only be allowed after consulting with the on-site city inspector of
the project to ensure compliance with the NPDES permit for dewatering activities.
19.Silt fence shall be placed parallel to contours. In locations where silt fence will cross
contours, J-hooks shall be installed at 75-foot intervals. Silt fence shall not be staked on site
by scaling off the proposed plan, but shall be staked by the survey crew taking shots in the
field. The applicant shall contact SWCD staff prior to silt fence installation so staking on site
can be reviewed to ensure compliance with this request.
20.Drainage swales and ditch cuts shall be employed during mass grading to maintain a positive
flow of stormwater to the temporary basins.
21.During final grading of the site, the height of the berm over the sanitary sewer shall be
reduced to the maximum extent practicable, otherwise additional drainage and utility
easements may be required.
22.The developer is required to televise the section of sanitary sewer over which grading
operations will occur before and after construction to determine if the site grading damaged
the pipe.
23.ISD 112 shall be responsible for repairing any sections of sanitary sewer damaged during
construction.
24.The developer must place sanitary sewer manhole sections on the existing manhole to bring
the top of manhole up to the existing grade.
25.No more than eight inches of rings is allowed on the sanitary sewer manhole.”
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 3 to 0.
AUTOBAHN MOTORPLEX; LOCATED ON THE WEST SIDE OF AUDUBON ROAD
NORTH OF TWIN CITIES AND WESTERN RAILROAD; APPLICANT BRUNO J.
SILIKOWSKI/G.E. OSMONICS:
A. REQUEST FOR REZONING OF THE WESTERN PORTION OF THE SITE
FROM AGRICULTURAL ESTATE DISTRICT (A2) TO INDUSTRIAL OFFICE
PARK (IOP);
B. REQUEST FOR A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR MULTIPLE BUILDINGS
(UP TO 14) ON ONE PARCEL;
C. SITE PLAN APPROVAL FOR 12 BUILDINGS (ONE CLUBHOUSE/MUSEUM
BUILDING AND 11 STORAGTE BUILDINGS TOTALLING APPROXIMATELY
150,000 SQ. FT.); AND
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
D. CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE BLUFF
CREEK CORRIDOR WITH A VARIANCE TO LOCATE THE STORM WATER
POND WITHIN THE BLUFF CREEK PRIMARY ZONE.
Public Present:
Name Address
Jon Day 8229 Stone Creek Drive
Mark Zitzewitz 1930 Bluff View Court
Laurie Tofteland 8325 Stone Creek Drive
Bruno Silikowski 3615 Zircon Lane North, Plymouth
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. This item appeared before the
st
Planning Commission on November 21. The Planning Commission recommended 5-0 to
approve the project. One issue, a couple issues that were brought up. Maybe…show you where
we are. Off of Audubon Road, and just south of General Mills. The railroad tracks would be the
southern boundary. The application is a permitted use in the district…one of the issues that were
brought up. One was the security…by neighboring residents. A storage built facility that will be
condominium type owners so it doesn't… A second issue that was brought up is you have an
existing wetland…and based on the city's estimation in reviewing the plans, we believe that this
project itself, with creation of the storm water pond we're creating… And then the third issue
was the screening of the project, and that we are asking for additional landscaping and… So
again this is a permitted use in the district so they have a right to proceed, so with that we believe
that they meet the criteria for the site plan and the conditional use… So with that I'll start out
talking about exactly what the use is. It's 12 storage buildings on the site. And then two
additional buildings that would be…so there'd be 12 buildings. 11 storage buildings… The
proposed operation from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.. Again in the IOP District there is a restriction,
we do… We did talk about the two building pads. We don't know what those would be right
now. They are not subject for site plan review right now, so when they do, something does get
proposed on those two sites, it will be back before the Planning Commission for public hearing
and then ultimately for your approval for the site plan. And then again, the project is
encumbered by the Bluff Creek Overlay District and we'll talk about that again in just a minute.
The retaining walls, there are some retaining walls and we've identified those on the bottom of
the staff report, page 4. There was some question about the…more stability. I think we're also
looking at some, when they're taller and then…so we have put a recommendation in there to
work, to terrace those walls where, between the stages so maybe break them up to 8 feet, so that
would be our last condition… So there are retaining walls based on the topography itself.
Mayor Furlong: Can you show on the plan where those are?
Kate Aanenson: Sure.
Mayor Furlong: There's two of them aren't there?
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: The biggest one's on the back side of the buildings here. So this is…so that
would be in this area here…retaining wall here. There's also a large retaining wall on the side.
The site is dropping. If you…coming down Audubon off of General Mills, there's a significant
grade change.
Councilman Peterson: So Kate, sorry to interrupt but give me a sense as to who's going to
visualize that wall? Are the residents to the west?
Kate Aanenson: No. I'm sorry, you can't really see it. It's internal.
Mayor Furlong: Which one? The one on the east or the one.
Kate Aanenson: Well most of these are inside, on the internal side because you'll have the
buildings blocked. I think we looked…the architecture. We did…visibility on the architecture
but for the most part, they won't probably be seen from outside. If you going up Audubon… I'm
on page 5 of the staff report. There was wetlands identified…there is no wetland impact. There
is, if you look at the variance is, it's regarding the Bluff Creek Overlay District. So there's… So
let me talk a little bit about the architecture of the buildings themselves. Again…material
samples over there but…clubhouse building. And then one of the issues that we addressed on
the extras that they have…looking at the short end of the building. So this would be the internal
side. The external side of that…They also have cupola's so they look for residential in
appearance. Again meeting the standards, architectural standards…again meeting the
architectural standards. I've got the color pallets over here if anybody's interested in that but
again, trying to mix up some of the colors and some of the… The building height is about 30
feet. Again this district does allow up to 50 feet so with the change in grade, you're not going
to…on top, up here but a majority of the… And then lighting itself, which could be additional
impacts, they'll be wall packs on the building… One of the issues the neighbors have…some
additional landscaping so the applicant is working to put some additional landscaping on this end
right here, and… So I'll take a minute now and talk about the conditional use, unless you have
questions on the architecture or site plan.
Councilman Peterson: Kate the only question I had was on the club house. When I looked at it
the first time I was surprised at the lack of windows. Was there, is there a rationale for that? I
mean the club house you would assume you want something brighter but again not knowing
what the concept of club house for that is.
Kate Aanenson: It meets the fenestration…but I'll let the applicant… Again we did a compliance
table…the overlay district and if you can see, this is the primary line right here. This blue line
right here. And the secondary line here. So the Overlay District itself is…there actually is
activity occurring within the overlay district, and we have that…in almost every project we've
done… In this circumstance we are putting in these storm water pond…spending a lot of time,
walking the site… Working with the applicant's engineer as determined by the Water Resources
Coordinator…storm water itself. We went through a lot of designs…so it's not impacting our
wetland. It's the primary corridor itself. …primary district before. If you remember Pioneer
Pass, we had a…sewer line that was pinching there that we wanted to be able to get to the pond
without impacting, without interrupting… Again looking at the Bluff Creek ordinance, the
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
overlay district itself. With each project that comes in, we look at how to extract it. If you go
back…overlay district…we look at each project incrementally. How can we get the overlay
district, and this project itself was a condition of approval, is that we get…
Mayor Furlong: Excuse me for interrupting. Can you point on the map where that is.
Kate Aanenson: So that is the rest of this area here. There is some upland area down here so this
area here, all in green, following this line would be the overlay district that would be now…no
disruption to that. Typically what we do…donation to the city or extraction to the city. So in
looking at that, we felt a reasonable condition for the variance was extracting that, so there was
some discussion about the cost… So again looking at the valuation of the pond itself and…
Councilman Lundquist: Where's the delineation of the wetland? Is that.
Kate Aanenson: This is the black line. Now there was a piece here that showed a part of that,
but that was…and that's also addressed in the staff report under wetland, that was exempt.
Mayor Furlong: Kate, could you point out on the map where the secondary Bluff Creek corridor
is.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah…
Mayor Furlong: Just kind of run your pencil.
Kate Aanenson: so this is the incidental part. You can see this black line of the wetland, and it
goes back to the Water Resources Coordinator… Again we noticed it originally, just originally
there was a question as to whether or not…wetlands. We went through the exercises and
evaluation… So with that, the other conditional use was that there's more than one…
Councilman Peterson: How big is that lot going to be?
Kate Aanenson: These two, because it's all under one, I guess they'd have to make it big enough
to make…which it does right now from the perimeter. It just has to make the area requirements
and the impervious surface requirements.
Mayor Furlong: So the proposed motions this evening in the staff report would allow 2
additional buildings on this single parcel?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Or if they wanted to.
Kate Aanenson: They have to come back.
Mayor Furlong: They could create a subdivision. Subdivision approval if they wanted to.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: …they're just showing them as potential. They were asked to come back for a
site plan review…
Mayor Furlong: For those 2 additional buildings?
Kate Aanenson: That's correct…
Mayor Furlong: But we're approving the concept of adding 2 additional buildings, is that what's
being requested in the motions this evening? I thought I saw 14 buildings with 12 being built.
Kate Aanenson: Well we're approving the site on the 12 buildings… So what they're showing is
that they can put 2 in the future, and we have…
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Kate Aanenson: So with that, I did mention the multiple buildings on that site, so with that
we've got several recommendations. First would be the rezoning itself. Again…comprehensive
plan and then B is for the variance of the overlay district. Conditional use. Up to 14 buildings.
Again they'd have to come back…
Councilman Lundquist: There's 12 on that drawing right there now?
Kate Aanenson: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: So Motion C should be adjusted to up to 12.
Bruno Silikowski: Kate actually there is 14.
Kate Aanenson: Okay…
Mayor Furlong: We'll need to clarify where the boxes are. Which boxes are there.
Kate Aanenson: Under the Motion D, which is for the site plan itself. So it'd be the
architecture…the Planning Commission added the retaining wall, the standards. So on page 16
of the staff report we have the retaining wall follow the standards…and again that's mostly for
reinforcement… I think there was some question on whether or not we wanted that…
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Mayor Furlong: Any questions for Kate that we haven't interrupted her presentation with?
Councilman Lundquist: Back on the drawing Kate the, somewhere in here it talks about the
distance to neighboring houses. I think it's 500 and something from Stone Creek over there, or
Creekside, I'm sorry, and then.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: Maybe it'd be shown on this one. So we're up in this area, so this would be the
closest home is here. They don't show up on the other…if you could zoom back out. This is an
area of upland trees at this end down here, so that's a little bit higher in elevation so that provides
some buffer. What the Planning Commission and the neighbors discussed is providing
additional landscaping in this area here to help to buffer that. So additional landscaping will be
placed around here and around the pond…
Councilman Lundquist: So the closest houses are going to be the ones to the south there thought
right? Across the railroad tracks.
Kate Aanenson: This is an industrial park here.
Mayor Furlong: I don't know if you can slide it over.
Councilman Lundquist: So that's Creekside to the west.
Mayor Furlong: Can you pick up the homes to the west on your picture. Zoom back out if you
would. No, that's too tiny. Keep that same.
Councilman Peterson: The one across doesn't have houses on it I don't think.
Kate Aanenson: …houses that are closest down at this end…
Councilman Lundquist: Okay. But roughly from the westerly building to the lots of Stone
Creek, or Creekside there. Is that, what was it, 500?
Kate Aanenson: 520.
Councilman Lundquist: Is that what it was? Okay.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Councilman Lundquist: Alright.
Councilman Peterson: Is that from the lot or from the house, do you know?
Kate Aanenson: To the closest building. It's about, from the clubhouse, excuse me. That's their
clubhouse. That'd be their point. A couple hundred feet. That's the clubhouse which is sitting at
the high, based on that.
Councilman Lundquist: That's all I have.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Councilman Peterson, any questions?
Councilman Peterson: No.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Mayor Furlong: A couple additional ones. With regard to the pond, and it's capacity. One of
the items that I noticed in the staff report, which is on page 4 of the staff report, speaks to the
design of the pond to handle, provide rate control for 2, 10, 100 and two back to back 100 year
rainfalls. I guess one of my question is the two back to back 100 year rainfalls, is that an
additional standard? Historically have we been designing this much?
Kate Aanenson: We have been using that…
Mayor Furlong: Okay. So that's part of the SWMP plan that we approved this last year to, and I
read that, I assume that that means that this pond has greater capacity than historically maybe the
pond we would have required the pond to be.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. In terms of the elevations of the pond, help me understand, I mean I
pictured the pond kind of like a bowl and as the water goes into it, it, and when it reaches a
certain level it will go out but if it overflows or if you get those big rains, you know how, what's
the difference in height of that wall relative to the land below. What's the separation there? Can
you zoom out a little bit on the camera if you would please. Okay. No, that'd be fine.
Kate Aanenson: So this is the out, you're at 906. The bottom of the pond is, yeah. Or 900. So
the…of depth to this pond itself and typically that's what we put on, the wetland is pre-treated
before it goes into the wetland. It enters the wetland here and varies from the high side here at
906 down to 899 down…changing topography as it goes up again. Again in working with the
applicant's engineer…so we feel pretty confident about that, and it's got a 10 to 1 bench in here
so we believe that that should be more than adequate. 100 year event, whether it's overflow or if
you have a 4 inch rain…but hopefully those will be pretty rare. But we know that did happen
once before.
Mayor Furlong: And again getting back to the issue of the staff report, I think you mentioned
this but to clarify the expectation is that this pond will not only manage the rate control of runoff
for the entire site, but also obviously provide water quality as it then leaves the pond and goes
into the Bluff Creek corridor wetland.
Kate Aanenson: That's correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Okay, any other questions for staff at this time?
Kate Aanenson: Let me just go back to the 14. Some of those squares were pretty small.
They're small, skinny buildings but there are 14. There's a couple narrow ones. These over here.
So I think that's what…
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Okay. If there's no other questions for staff at this time, is the
applicant here? Any comments you'd like to make?
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Bruno Silikowski: Good evening. I'm Bruno Silikowski. You know there's a couple things I
promised to share with you because there's actually been some new developments since Kate
seen these plans so. One of the things I want to show you is that the clubhouse, and I don't know
if this will come up.
Kate Aanenson: Yep, he can zoom in on it.
Bruno Silikowski: The design is revolving but we're going to a much, it's a higher end, more of a
creative style to the types of things we're trying to come in there with. This is meant to be a
higher end storage for obvious collector vehicles, things of that nature. You asked a question
about windows. The reason why we don't have a lot of windows, we actually have, the way this
is set up, this will be the entrance. This is the museum portion of it and these are display
sections. We really don't want windows. These are very expensive vehicles that are in the
museum and chances are we want, you know people want the privacy and only club members to
be able to see it. There is an alternative design for the club house that we're kicking around, but
you can see that it's sort of the type of detail we're talking about is significantly different than
what we submitted. That was just to give us some flexibility but our intention, our direction is
going this way. Another point of clarification, the distance to the far west neighbors is 720 feet.
The 500 was to the property line. It's approximately an eighth of a mile and then when you go,
actually Bob Generous, one of the city staff had asked us to do a cross section and we did that.
It's someplace in the plans, but the other one is a quarter mile away. And then we've also agreed,
and I told the neighbors this as well to, we're going to put up quite a bit of screening. As much
as possible to create a dense opaque view from where the neighbors homes are going to be. But
at that point if there's any questions, I'd like to try to answer them but…
Councilman Peterson: I think Kate pointed out earlier, could you take a little bit more time and
point out where you're going to put the additional screening.
Bruno Silikowski: We're going to try to, we need to do a little study. We don't know exactly
where so we need to go out to the neighbors properties to take a look at what it looks like coming
this direction. Once we do that we'll commensurately try to set up the landscaping screening
properly.
Councilman Lundquist: Kate do you know off hand, if you look at the total acreage of the site
versus the amount that's built, did I see 47? Is that what I saw?
Bruno Silikowski: 47 percent.
Councilman Lundquist: 47 percent, and what's the total site size?
Bruno Silikowski: The total site is 38 point something acres.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay. So you're 19 acres out of, or 18 acres out of 40 or so.
Bruno Silikowski: Yeah, and then just because I know this, I think they're allowed 75.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: 70.
Councilman Lundquist: 70. 70 in the district. Okay.
Kate Aanenson: Just to clarify the landscaping again, because the buildings are being done in
phases, we do want the landscaping put in right-of-way but we do want to meet with the property
owners to get the best, to place that, to provide the best screening. Once we get some of that
grading done and then go from there.
Bruno Silikowski: Right. You know one other points that kind of didn't come through clearly.
On the site now there's drainage coming off the railroad tracks that's being untreated going
directly into the wetland and it also is going into the creek. The ponding plan actually takes that
water and treats it before it ever goes into the wetland so it's another step we're trying to take in
terms of being economically. Rather eco friendly in terms of what we're doing. Actually it's
costing us but it's the right thing to do. What Kate talked about, this…where the pond is at, it's in
a wetland. It was only caused because of the drainage coming off the tracks, and that's what was
determined by not only the engineers but city staff so, just as a point of clarity. You know we've
been given grades to work with and I think we've come up with a good compromise that makes
sense. And the way it turns out, about 75% of the pond actually will be in buildable land and
only a smaller, that smaller portion will be in that Bluff Creek Overlay Corridor. If there's any
other questions feel free, otherwise I'll sit back down.
Mayor Furlong: Couple quick ones. Just issues that were brought up by residents. Hours of
operation. Your expectation again is?
Bruno Silikowski: Normal business hours. I mean we kind of jotted down there was what
typically you might see. We're business guys and we work during the day. You know we're not
going to be there all night. We've got to get up in the morning just like everybody else does.
You know we just happened to put our, we want to put our cars in a place and it's safe and secure
and you know we want to go, so it's really only during the day times.
Mayor Furlong: Do you, in terms of access, it's going to be a controlled access I assume for the
owners?
Bruno Silikowski: It's all gated, the entire facility is gated and it's you know electronic code…
Mayor Furlong: Okay, with the electronic code them, is there a way to track who's there if there
is a noise issue? Are you going to be able to work with the people?
Bruno Silikowski: Yes. In fact the security system that we're reviewing their proposal right now
but our intent is to have knowledge of who's in. For how long. When they came. When they
left. Basically get a full profile of, and we'll know what units they're in and so we can ever trace
back if there are issues. And that's not just for that reason of noise but other reasons.
Mayor Furlong: Right, other issues as well. Security as well.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Bruno Silikowski: Yep.
Mayor Furlong: Yep, good.
Bruno Silikowski: And to just give you a little sense of the quality that we're looking for there.
Beyond just a normal security we're actually putting web cams and this entire complex is going
to be very secure in terms of watch. In each unit has an option, the owner will be able to put a
web cam so that when they're out, if they're out traveling and they want to look on what's going
on with their car, they can do that. More importantly if somebody actually accesses it
inappropriately, it actually starts streaming the data, video through the web. Stores it so they can
go back and find out what just happened. Email their home. Emails their computer to let them
know something's going on. And the whole intent here is security, security…we know that our
stuff is safe and secure. Because the people we've got coming in here are real collectors. You
know they have very nice vehicles and they come in and want to keep private. They're not the
type of rowdy that you might think might take…
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. I think those are my questions. Anything else at this time?
Okay, thank you. At this time, as I mentioned earlier, I'd be happy to take some public comment
again. The public hearing took place at the Planning Commission. We did have access to those
minutes so we're aware of your issues and concerns that were raised. I think some of those have
been answered in the staff report but there may be additional comments. If there are, I'd be
happy to take those at this time so Mr. Day, I think you wanted to make some comments.
Jon Day: My name is Jon Day from 8229 Stone Creek Drive and thank you Mr. Mayor and
councilmen for letting me speak. I was not able to attend the Planning Commission meeting. I
did submit an email there and Bob was very accommodating on that. I did have a question, if
you wouldn't mind. You mentioned something about a conservation easement here. Is that in
the agreements?
Kate Aanenson: It's a condition of approval. We have standard language that we use for
conservation easement. It's conditioned on page 12, condition 3. The property owner shall
dedicate a conservation easement and utility easement over that. And those are reviewed by,
typically we have a standard one drafted by the city attorney. And that would be executed. That
is a condition of approval.
Jon Day: And also Bruno mentioned that there has been a new drawing submitted that shows a
rear elevation of the, I think it was a cross section that was submitted.
Bruno Silikowski: No, we don't have a rear elevation.
Kate Aanenson: That should be, did you get the downloaded packet?
Jon Day: Yep.
Kate Aanenson: It's in there. I didn't show that but yeah.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Jon Day: The biggest issue, you know the homeowners in our neighborhood, and I'm not
speaking for all of them but we all got together. We asked Bruno to join our meeting. We had a
good conversation. The biggest concern we have of course is the impact on property values.
The proposal does request a conditional use…but if you could.
Kate Aanenson: He's looking for it.
Jon Day: Alright. And so from our back yards, what we, the site falls away from the railroad
tracks to the buildings and then it falls away into the wetlands. Okay. This is what we're going
to see from our back yard, are these rows of doors. The front elevation here will probably be
something like the front of a club house would look like or something that you might see along
Audubon. This is what we see from our back yards here. Rows of doors. What we would like
to see happen here is some sort of berming effect that might block some of these doors so that,
because you're not, you're going to have a parking lot out here. Asphalt falling away. This is our
concern. This is what we see. This has been kind of the stipulation that we've asked for when
we met with Bruno and so forth. I'd like to submit the appraiser's commentary here. We did
have a certified appraiser come out. Look things over. His comments are in here. He says, I
believe the proposed commercial improvements will have an adverse impact on the homes that
currently enjoy their historic scenic views overlooking the specified wetlands areas. He goes on
later to say that in general I believe the berm, it is my opinion that there is an economically
viable remedy for the potentially adverse impact of the proposed commercial buildings on the
home values along Stone Creek Drive. I believe a suitable earth berm would for all intensive
purposes reduce the impact of…acceptably negligible margin. We feel, at least, I can't speak for
the whole neighborhood but that that type of remedy should be included in the conditional use
permit.
Kate Aanenson: Mr. Mayor, can I just understand where they are because.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah.
Kate Aanenson: I think they're looking at the backs of the, I'm not sure. Which?
Mayor Furlong: Which buildings?
Kate Aanenson: Which buildings? You're looking at the end.
Jon Day: These buildings here.
Mayor Furlong: Can we zoom out there so we can, thank you. That's a little far. There we go,
thank you.
Jon Day: All the homes are along this street here.
Kate Aanenson: So you're talking about this.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Jon Day: This is the outside of the, you know where the doors would be for the cars to pull into
and then it all slopes away from here down grade into the wetlands. And then all these homes up
here rise up and so the back doors of our house we would look across this creek bottom, up the
side hill and right into all these overhead garage doors.
Mayor Furlong: To the issue, are those two to the southwest that you're referring to Mr. Day.
Jon Day: Exactly.
Kate Aanenson: There is a cross section… So this is the ridge…
Jon Day: And those, actually that building there is.
Kate Aanenson: The club house.
Jon Day: It's the club house, yeah.
Kate Aanenson: But they're looking down this way, and that was the area that I had mentioned
before that we had agreed to, as did the applicant agreed to, where we want to push the additional
landscaping. We want to get the finalized grading plan…set of conditions and then meet with
them. I just want to make sure that we've gotten…the acceptable level of…be clear on what the
expectation is there, but I think we've agreed…additional screening but I just want to make clear,
because there are other circumstances where we've done this and sometimes people aren't
happy…
Mayor Furlong: Different assumptions as to what was…
Jon Day: When the General Mills facility expanded, which is north of here, in 2003, we dug up
the minutes from staff and Planning Commission and they required General Mills to increase
berming 4 feet and to add additional screening views of truck loading/unloading areas to mitigate
sound and also sight lines so there's a little bit of precedent there for some berming and that.
Kate Aanenson: Sure. Since I worked on that project, the issue there is, General Mills was a
sound, noise issue. It's some areas of the city it can be chronic, especially this time of the year
when it's quiet. There's no leaves on the trees so really the issue there, as a requirement for all,
just to be clear on that, in the industrial standards we try to screen all loading and unloading
facilities. It's a little bit different circumstance here. I just want to make sure that's clear, that's a
standard requirement. But we'd be happy to work with the landscaping.
Mayor Furlong: This is a view issue and that's an operation…
Kate Aanenson: Thank you. That's what I was trying to say.
Councilman Lundquist: Could you put that cross section back up Kate?
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: Sure. Yeah, as Mr. Day pointed out, this is a little bit north of the area. This is
going towards the club house, so this would be those lots, but...if you're looking this way, then
you're looking into the back of those garages and we believe that that, and as did the Planning
Commission, that's an area we can put additional landscaping.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay. And it's wide open. I mean I've driven past there a lot because
it's…
Kate Aanenson: And again let's go back to this one, we have the primary zone. We want to stay
out, you know kind of just on the edge of that where they're following that topographic line and
we could look at that to provide some additional…
Councilman Lundquist: But across that conservation easement, if you go straight to the west
from there, that's wide open the whole way?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, then we've got this upland area of trees.
Mayor Furlong: We can't, we can't see your finger. There you go.
Kate Aanenson: The area right in here. The outline, but it's this area that's the…looking across
and that's what we're trying to solve. This area here. And we've got that marked and the
applicant's aware of that. It's just, I'm not sure that we can try to do the design right now. We
want to wait until it's graded. Where we actually see how much…
Councilman Peterson: But Kate, if we do berming, or try to do berming, assuming, isn't that
logically going into the setback farther?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah. That's why I say we want to look at, we want to look at what we can
accomplish with vegetation's our first choice so I think we need to see exactly where those
buildings are sitting. What the view lines. How many homes it's affecting. What's the most
effective way to do it.
Todd Gerhardt: And the grades may not lend to a berm either.
Kate Aanenson: Correct. It's dropping, I don't have the grading plan here but it is dropping in
some of those areas. Towards the tracks.
Bruno Silikowski: May I add something…
Mayor Furlong: Okay. I'm sorry, yes.
Bruno Silikowski: The other thing I'd like for a perspective is, you know there's many of us,
including the neighbors, this is probably the lightest use they're going to see on this industrial
property and in terms of the buildings, we are making them attractive looking and we're trying
our best to do that. It's meant to be attractive looking. So we would agree to do what we can in
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
terms of, it could only get worst if it was somebody else coming in so. But our intention is to be
a good neighbor. Do the best we can.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Okay, thank you. Any other public comment?
Laurie Tofteland: My name's Laurie Tofteland: I live at 8325 Stone Creek Drive, and just for
clarification so that maybe…visualize a little bit better. My, looking out my deck, I'm counting
myself and Jerry Cornell, who is not here this evening, are most impacted as far as visually.
This, and I can certainly bring this around to you if you'd like to see it. This actually here is the
corner of this building here. And that is what I see directly out. That's the 720 feet. So it really
does, it is a lot closer than what you would think. And we've been very accommodating to all the
things that he is you know. We talked it out if there wasn't enough over grown trees in the
original proposal, and he's been very accommodating and says he'll do that. Originally we were
told that there'd be a possibility of eliminating these two buildings and having additional square
footage somewhere else to compensate for the loss of those two, but at that time he said it was an
all or nothing deal. So you know so they can visualize a little bit better. Also I have some
pictures on here too…and how they affected our properties as well. This is…but it shows, you
know this is the edge of my sod and it shows the water all the way up to the edge of the grass…
Mayor Furlong: Was this after the Labor Day storm?
Laurie Tofteland: And the time before that as well.
Mayor Furlong: When was that, do you recall?
Laurie Tofteland: One was Labor Day and one was Memorial Day?
Mayor Furlong: It was Labor Day and then in October. Okay.
Laurie Tofteland: But that's just to help you visualize how close those buildings really are.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Anyone else?
Mark Zitzewitz: Councilmen and Mayor. My name is Mark Zitzewitz. I live at 1930 Bluff
Creek Court. I don't want to belabor points but I do believe that one thing is being talked over I
think and given short trip. The proposed views of this property, we hear well it's going to be
business hours, although at the same time it's been said well these are business men so I think it's
reasonable for the neighbors to assume that they will be at this site not during business hours,
when they're working, but early in the morning, late in the evening. It's been mentioned, at least
in the Planning Commission minutes, these facilities will be used for maintenance of these
vehicles. And these are noisy activities. These are not just people coming to look at their cars.
These are people come to work on their cars. I think it's also reasonable to assume that someone
who's paying for a storage facility is going to use it for whatever they want. They've got access
to these facilities 24/7. If they want to keep their snowmobile there, and tune it up at 5:00 a.m.,
there's nothing to stop them from doing that and so this suggestion that this is merely a passive
use of this facility, the least intrusive use of this, I think doesn't actually speak to the way it's
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
actually going to be used. This is a 24/7 storage facility. And for the people who live on the
back side of that, all of the noise is going to come across this wetland basin right into our
neighborhood. All of the light pollution's going to come straight across that wetland basin into
our neighborhood, and so I think those use proposals haven't been adequately addressed. Mr.
Silikowski has been gracious enough to talk to us about this and we appreciate that but his
suggestions to us that well there will be covenants imposed upon these properties. Well, sounds
like a great idea. We don't have an opportunity to speak to those covenants. We're not a party to
those contracts and frankly I wouldn't expect to be consulted when those covenants are drafted.
This is our opportunity to have the council to speak for us to those covenants as far as restrictions
on noise and uses that would lead to offensive noise and light pollution that will affect the
neighborhood. So I would ask that the council consider imposing use restrictions and noise
restrictions on this facility so that we don't have 5:00 a.m., 10:00 p.m. muffler work across our
back yards.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. I guess some questions, and maybe this is a question for the
city attorney with regard to our noise ordinance. What protection is currently available there
with our current ordinances with regard to noise.
Roger Knutson: We do have restrictions on creating a nuisance and we have a bunch of other
very specific restrictions I think on operating and doing repair work. If you'd just give me a
minute I'll find that out.
Mayor Furlong: And I guess while he's doing that with regard to light, I think you mentioned a
little bit about the lights. They're on the buildings?
Kate Aanenson: They're on wall packs, yeah. With a down cast, as opposed to parking lot lights
for example which you'd have in a normal situation so it's, it should be less intense for the
lighting.
Mayor Furlong: So I'm sorry, but these are down, lights that are mounted on the building.
Kate Aanenson: Correct. Wall packs. Shining down.
Councilman Lundquist: Security lighting not…
Kate Aanenson: Correct. Correct. Correct, and we also talked to the applicant regarding
possibly doing the more motion detector types so they wouldn't have to be lit but for motion on
the property itself.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright, what's the, with regard to ordinances. With regard to light at the
property line. Are we, is that…
Kate Aanenson: He's have to have half foot candle at the property line.
Mayor Furlong: At the property line or at the.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: Half foot candle of lumens. In this circumstances they should be significantly
less, especially with the additional landscaping that we'll be requesting. And I'm talking on the
most westerly side. Will there still be some ambient light if you look across the way? More than
is there today? Yes. There would be no matter what went in there, there'd be some ambient but
it's at the half foot candle at the property line, which this will meet.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. Looking at these pictures that she brought in. On this one here
she said that's kind of where the corner is. Is this railroad tracks coming across here?
Kate Aanenson: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: And then those are the existing buildings south of the railroad track I assume.
What sort of lighting do that they have on those buildings there currently?
Kate Aanenson: Some of those have wall packs too and there's also parking lot lighting on
those.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. So it's similar. Yeah.
Laurie Tofteland: In the night that there's actually…wetland area…to the.
Mayor Furlong: On the south side of the railroad tracks? Yeah, okay.
Laurie Tofteland: And I just want to point out too that you know, our neighborhood as a group
has never really been opposed to the development altogether because it is, you know in light of
what could be there, it is relatively pleasing to the eye…pleasing to look at, and we enjoy that.
So I don't want to come across I mean we're being negative or you know…we appreciate that.
And I do feel he is trying to be a good neighbor. I just wanted you to have a view from my
vantage point, from my window, from my back yard and my investment and house to take into
consideration the additional berming and… Follow up that yeah, he is going to actually go ahead
and do that and having that cross section did help with the visualization so, thanks.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other public comments? We'll take one, at the most two more.
No? Okay. Okay, very good. Anything at this point Mr. Knutson?
Roger Knutson: Yes Mayor. I was just trying to refresh my recollection. We have hour
restriction on repair activities with power equipment. No person shall engage in a permit
construction, maintenance, repair including noise but not limited to any electric, diesel, so on,
gas machine other, or any kind of equipment except between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 9:00
p.m. on the weekdays, or between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. on Saturday. So that
should give quite a bit of protection.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Any follow up questions for staff? Or the applicant. Any comments
you'd like to make in response?
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to indicate, in reviewing the conditions,
certainly we have the condition regarding the conveyance of the conservation easement, and that
is why we wanted to get that in control so we continue to have that wildlife corridor. That was
the whole goal of the Bluff Creek plan. But in looking through here, I don't see the condition
regarding the additional landscaping, unless I missed it so I would recommend a spot for that.
That would be.
Mayor Furlong: There was one on the additional landscaping and then you talked about the
terraced wall too.
Kate Aanenson: Yep I've got it, I've got a spot for that. Yeah, that's number 7. The last
condition on page 16, but if you look at the forester's condition, the last one, I would add, so it's
(d), (e), (f). Provide additional buffering along the western, most westerly and northerly edge of
the development. And that we would work to increase the landscaping and I want to include,
and may include berming. May include berming so we have to look at that. We certainly
understand what our residents concern is on that regarding the noise and the visibility and that's
what the goal will be.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Councilman Peterson: You're suggesting putting that where?
Kate Aanenson: Under the forester's condition regarding landscaping. So that would be on page
15 of 16. It'd be (f), right before 6.
Councilman Peterson: Under 5.
Kate Aanenson: 5, thank you.
Bruno Silikowski: Excuse me Kate.
Kate Aanenson: Yes.
Bruno Silikowski: Actually Generous, Bob Generous did get it in there. It's on, I'm not sure
what page it is…This is what we had put in and then this is what they required.
Kate Aanenson: Correct, but it's not in a condition of approval and I need to convey it in a
condition because you're going to sign a site plan agreement that says I'm bound by those
conditions of approval.
Bruno Silikowski: That's fine.
Kate Aanenson: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: So it was in the staff report.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: In the staff report. It just wasn't in a condition. And just to be clear, for the
resident's edification too then, a site plan agreement is signed and executed that says this is how
it will be, follow these terms and conditions and the buildings will look as presented.
Mayor Furlong: And so in terms of managing expectations, and I guess we can talk about
whether it's our expectation that you know, complete screening where you wouldn't be able to
see a building or just you know some screening so we can get that, but we should probably in
that language build in you know, that the applicant would work with staff and residents but my
suggestion would be that we leave it to staff's discretion in terms of managing that process as
well. I think the expectation, and I'll kind of slide into comments. I think the expectation of
complete screening is probably not attainable. But certainly there could be some improvement
and I think I'm going to guess that we'll be supportive of that. Along that entire western side of
the development.
Kate Aanenson: Again with that Mayor, because this is a phased project, our goal is to get that
out there right away so it's mature before those buildings go in place, and so again that would be
the goal so that would give some growth years by the time we get down to those buildings.
Councilman Lundquist: You're going to have some unique opportunities with fence all the way
around this thing to do all kinds of stuff. Vines and you know drive down Dell Road along
Bearpath. That is, with a fence there, at least it's, like the pictures they have in their other clubs,
I mean there's all kinds of opportunities for doing things. That are both screening and pleasing
and not intrusive to the project.
Todd Gerhardt: Kate maybe that's something we can add to that section instead of maybe
berming. Maybe it can be fencing.
Councilman Lundquist: Well you're going to have a fence around the whole thing anyway.
Kate Aanenson: Well that wasn't their intent to put a fence up around the entire project at the
beginning. Yeah, I think there's just.
Mayor Furlong: Around a portion of it?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, I think just some portions of it right now. Correct.
Bruno Silikowski: The wetland provides a natural barrier.
Kate Aanenson: Right. And we also want to keep that wildlife corridor, that's the other goal so
we don't have, obviously deer can jump up but there's the little critters that may not be able to
make it through our fence if we have an open style, so we will look at those opportunities.
Provide the best barrier that we can, whether it's even fencing on that part still might be an
optimal thing with a berm. Something. We'll look at that.
Kate Aanenson: You represent everybody don't you.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: I do.
Mayor Furlong: Even the little critters.
Kate Aanenson: All the little critters.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. We've kind of slid in, a little bit into comments but.
Councilman Peterson: We're still in questions. I've got one. Kate, one of the things we talked
about, and we've done it in other projects too on conditional use permits is hours of operation. I
don't want to limit the salability of these but can we talk about that any of the units facing west
can't have their garage doors open and activity can't be happening after 9:00 or 10:00 in the
evening so that we get, we have that as a conditional use. It's a slippery slope but Roger, maybe
you can answer the question.
Roger Knutson: Well, maybe if you would zero in on repair activities that's audible outside of a
building after a certain hour, because again I've never seen one of these things. I don't know how
they operate but I can envision someone on a summer evening I suppose. Opening up the garage
and bringing their friends over and saying, look at my wonderful cars or something at 10:00 at
night, I don't know. I don't know if people do that or not, but that would be one thing. But repair
activity that's audible, you could also make that a condition that there can be no repair activity
that's audible outside the property line after 9:00 in the evening or before 7:00 in the morning for
example.
Councilman Peterson: But essentially that's redundant to our statute.
Roger Knutson: It's an added protection. It just reinforces it. Some people.
Bruno Silikowski: We have the, again my.
Mayor Furlong: If you could come to the microphone. Why don't you come to the microphone
if you would please.
Bruno Silikowski: We probably have one of the best attorneys in the state, David Ines writing
our condo documentation. He virtually wrote condo law in Minnesota. You know we are
putting in a significant amount of covenants inside of our facility and this is where it belongs.
You can't, I mean it makes sense to be able to have it self policed. There is, as we talked about,
there is nuisance noise taking place, there's due course for that. We can certainly deal with a
problem person but you're talking about people who aren't interested in working on our cars at
11:00 at night. You're thinking of the wrong kind of people, and so all I can tell you is that in
our condo documentation, the covenants, restrictive covenants are going to protect that kind of
thing… We don't want having the council, we don't want this. We don't want that. You know
we're talking about vehicles that are irreplaceable and so we're not interested in having issues.
So you know it sounds like we're trying to legislate something. This is an industrial zone
property. We have to give our clients some flexibility. If they need to drop something off at
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
11:00 at night, well they shouldn't be restricted from doing that, but it's certainly common sense
is they're not going to be working…
Kate Aanenson: Let me just add to that.
Todd Gerhardt: I think you were recommending that we…
Kate Aanenson: No, and I think too also, we have to look at long term because the property
could be sold. It could be a different owner and also we don't enforce covenants. Those would
be your enforcement tool. Not the City's enforcement tool. We can only enforce our city
ordinance, so we have to protect ourself, whether it's you or somebody else that owns the
property. So I think it's fair and reasonable to say, well as a staff we don't want to be down there
because of a bunch of people standing around talking and looking at a car. I think it's reasonable
to say, if they're working on a car, making noise, as the city attorney suggested, that we will be
able to enforce that. If they're disturbing the peace and enjoyment of the neighboring properties,
and I think that's our rule.
Mayor Furlong: And does our ordinance already provide that disturbing and…
Kate Aanenson: Correct, and I think as Roger's pointing out, the city attorney's pointing out, it
might help to put it as a condition of the site plan so we can also say that you're in violation of
that portion too just as a clear, and again it's the working on. It's the motorized. If they're talking
and visiting and not disturbing anybody, I don't think we want to have to send the sheriff down
for that. If that makes sense.
Bruno Silikowski: Actually it's a big gray area. You've got General Mills running trucks day
and night, 24 hours a day. And they're making noises. Why can't we complain about them?
That's where it's going to go to. I mean it seems a little overkill to be honest with you. I mean
it's just not going to be something that… There's an occasions where somebody does drop
something off and they bring the car in at 11:00 at night, and I just don't want to be getting calls
in the middle of the night about complaints. It's unlikely to happen. It's extremely unlikely to
happen and there's another avenue that could resolve issues if it does occur.
Kate Aanenson: Again I'll go back to my point and that is, our interest is to protect the property
owners and this property, this developer may not always be the person in charge and we're bound
by what we decide today, and I think it's prudent, as the city attorney advised, maybe to put it in
there and, nobody wants to be down there if…but it's a level of protection.
Councilman Peterson: I originated the question. I don't know how I'd phrase it anyway other
than replicating what our current, what our current ordinance is and…
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Bruno Silikowski: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions? If not, comments. Thoughts. Thank you.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Bruno Silikowski: I guess the only comment I'd like to make, you know we are selling these
things. If we start having all these lists of restrictive covenants that seem to be unreasonable, and
I think this is an unreasonable one, I think our clients will. They may have issues with some and
I don't want to be encumbered with something that's going to probably not be able to…it's just
not fair.
Councilman Peterson: Well to replicate what our current ordinance is, then I've got a problem
with it so.
Bruno Silikowski: You know and it came up, the whole noise issue and what the planning group
talked about was if there is an issue, there's a due course. You can call the police. There's a
nuisance noise, and the issue will be resolved… We'll make sure we apply that restrictive
covenant and…but you have to give us some latitude. We're not evil people.
Councilman Peterson: Well we're not going to give you latitude more than our ordinance
provides so, again you had me. Now you're losing me so.
Bruno Silikowski: Well I give up. Anything else? Okay, thank you.
Jon Day: Can I make one last comment?
Mayor Furlong: Is it a new issue? Please. Short.
Jon Day: The applicant is asking for variances of conditional uses. He's asking for exceptions to
the rule. Our duty, our citizenship needs your help in enforcement rules. Okay? He wants
exceptions. If this property is going to stay over here, where it's currently zoned, we probably
wouldn't be having any of these concerns. These two buildings here are the issue. These are the
ones that infringed out here and into the neighborhood the closest. So Mr. Bruno, I mean I
know what you're saying is you want latitude and so forth, but you're asking for the city to give
you all kinds of exceptions to the rule so we need your help in enforcing the rule.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Day brings up a point. They're asking for a conditional use permit. I'm
looking at the four motions. Help me understand what the conditional use permits relate to. It
looks like motion B relates to.
Kate Aanenson: Two of them. The conditional.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Summarize those for us quickly.
Kate Aanenson: Well the conditional use is one conditional use is for activity within the
corridor. Bluff Creek corridor. The other one is for 14 buildings on one single lot.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And within the Bluff Creek corridor, that at this point is relating to the
storm pond.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: Correct, a variance for the storm pond.
Mayor Furlong: Because if I followed your pencil correctly, all the buildings are outside the
secondary.
Kate Aanenson: That's correct.
Mayor Furlong: Corridor. Okay. And then the second conditional use was relating to 4 on 1.
Or 14, excuse me, on one parcel. The option there would have been to subdivide and have
separate parcels with cross access easements.
Kate Aanenson: Correct. So B includes a variance for the storm water pond and for the
conditional use to grade within the Bluff Creek. C is for the 14 buildings. Those are the two, but
they're put in one motion because actually activity, all the conditions in B are interrelated.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. So I guess the question that I would consider is with those conditional
use permits, if those are pertaining to the use. That would be an opportunity to do that. I don't
know if other users within this, these business parks have hours of operation as well. Part of my
concern is, it's my understanding Mr. Knutson, if we put in something specific to noise of
operations here, in a conditional use permit, that would override a future change potentially of
the city's ordinance, and that this would be the only thing on it forever. If there's nothing
mentioned and our ordinance would fall off, if that was changed, either more restrictive or
otherwise, then they'd be subject to the new ordinance. Is that correct?
Roger Knutson: If you adopted a new ordinance and it was more restrictive than the condition in
the conditional use permit, the more restrictive ordinance would apply. You'd have to comply
with both basically.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: Let me back up and clarify something. The conditional use is not for the use.
This is a permitted use of the district. The conditional, yeah. The conditional use is for grading
in the Bluff Creek. What you're trying to do is bridge an nexus to say, I'm going to take that
conditional use and now apply it to the standards of the use itself.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, and I guess that gets back to my first two questions.
Kate Aanenson: And I'll let the city attorney decide if that's an appropriate nexus or not but it's
for the grading activity.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, and I guess that gets back to my first question. What the conditional use
permit…
Kate Aanenson: I'm sorry I didn't make that clear, yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. It's for grading and it's the fact that.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: In the overlay district.
Mayor Furlong: One parcel.
Kate Aanenson: And the other one is for 14. Instead of subdividing, our ordinance does allow,
it doesn't say you have to subdivide. It does allow, under a conditional use, which you can only
attach conditions to, and that you know, I'll let the city attorney again address what.
Mayor Furlong: No thanks. I'm comfortable then at that point, if others have questions. So,
okay. Any other questions? Let me, let's get an opportunity for the council to discuss this here.
Comments. Discussion. Thoughts.
Councilman Lundquist: Mr. Mayor, addressing overall project first, then going into more detail.
Overall I think, I'm pleased with the project. I like the additional renderings or sketches that
were brought for us showing some more of the upgraded detail. I think it's an interesting use so
intrigued by that. As far as overall the site plan, again I like the pushing the majority of the
development towards the road. Being that that's a county road and you know more business
there away from the residential I think is, I'd like to see that. I want to see some type of work,
additional work put in to some screening. Some berming. Doesn't necessarily have to be that. I
think you've got a multitude of options. We understand the concept of you know something to
break up that view. I believe that once that is in place, that that will also have a significant
impact in reduction on not only the just the general view but light penetration. Sound
penetration. All of those things. And on the last issue we were talking about on the noise piece,
not in favor of additional constraints here. We've all, the three of us have been part of a
significant amount of work to that nuisance and noise ordinance based on things that have
happened over time that we've learned and I'm comfortable with that, with where we're at now.
And not in favor of restricting, you know the ability to come and go and things like that. I
anticipate that you know, especially at the beginning there, you know people are going to learn
what's acceptable and not acceptable. And being that we've got that ordinance in there, I think
it's already pretty restrictive and we have used it in the past. It's there for a reason and I don't
want to you know, get too onerous and restrictive of the owner's ability to use his property as
well. I don't anticipate that you're going to have a lot of things going on out there and if we do,
we've got those in place. And again, I think that additional screening will also help shield some
of the noise and light as well. I do want to make sure that we try to balance the residents that are
there now and their view with the ability of this property owner to have a reasonable use of his or
their property as well. It's always difficult and we've had you know this isn't the first time in the
Stone Creek neighborhood that we've had industrial development going on around it and have
had these types of discussions so, you know it ultimately ends up being a little bit of give on each
side. For the residents to understand that that owner had the ability or right to develop their
property as well, but the expectation is that you know, there's some respect there for addition for
existing homeowners as well, and I think with the commitment and the additional condition to
put additional screening in there, that that should satisfy everyone's concerns.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Mr. Peterson.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Councilman Peterson: I trying to think of something to add to that. It was one of his finest.
Mayor Furlong: Well it's about time.
Councilman Peterson: It is. Took him 4 years to do it but he did it well. I really don't have
much to add. I agree with Councilman Lundquist. The only thing that I would offer, as just
ancillary advice would be, in just thinking about the screening, putting a fence, a non-connected
fence back where the berm might be potentially and screening that with vines might be a more
cost effective way and get more screening done effectively so.
Kate Aanenson: I think there is an intent to put a screening in for security purposes at the end of
those buildings but we can certainly look at that.
Councilman Peterson: But I mean that's another option so the one thing I wanted to add to it so.
Kate Aanenson: Okay. Thank you mate. I think overall, you know it is a permitted use and
that's one of the things we have to judge and I think they've met the standard there. It's also a
less intrusive use than what alternatives could be in, and in looking at some these pictures, there's
some pretty big buildings on the south side of the railroad track that I understand would also be
permitted use on this property too and so while there are issues to deal with, I think they've made
some good progress. I do concur with adding in the condition with regard to the additional
screening on the southwest buildings. Whether that's buffering or fences as well. I think as
Councilman Lundquist mentioned, you go through some of these and you learn and you see
developments after they're built. The comment was made about the retaining walls and there are
two in particular. One's a 14 foot wall. The other's a 15 foot wall. The other ones are 4, 5 and 6
feet. And I think that was something that we should amend that. The one condition with regard
to the retaining walls. Not only going with the standard but including the terracing there. That
provides an opportunity for it to break that up by view across the wetland. Where at this point it
might be engineering, from an engineering standpoint fine to go 15 feet, but let's break it up a
little bit and add the additional landscaping, so that's the other condition. Noise is going to be an
issue. Anytime you have new neighbors move in, that's a potential issue and I guess at this point
I'm comfortable staying with our ordinances for reasons that we talked about before because I
think we can enforce those and. The other thing that gave me some comfort was the applicant's
response that they would, with the entrance and access system, they'd be able to track who was
there and who was not there so there'll be a way to find out if there's a problem. Who's causing
it, especially if it's a repeat offender, and then work within that so. But overall I think, as a site
plan we are gaining some benefit publicly with regard to the conservation easement over the
corridor. There is no building taking place in the secondary corridor in terms of building. The
pond is I think engineered as well, or even better in terms of handling storm runoff than some of
our other ponds so I think that there's a little bit of work to be done but what I'm hearing is that
has to be done on site with regard to the screening and determining that and I know our staff is
very competent and capable of getting that done so. I guess with regard to the conditions, it
sounds like what I'm hearing is we need to add condition (f) under the forester conditions on the
site plan, and then also under condition 7 under the engineering modifications so. Do you have
some, you gave some suggested language on that. Do you have something on the terraced wall?
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: Yeah. On number 7, what I was suggesting is that the retaining wall follow
standards incorporated in the subdivision regulations, which is the MnDot standard.
Mayor Furlong: That's what here now.
Kate Aanenson: And then also retaining walls shall be terraced. The question is where you want
that to occur. Greater than 8 feet or 8 feet plus because there's an 8 foot, a 14 and a 15 so where
you want that break to occur. In anything over 4 foot has to be engineered.
Mayor Furlong: Right.
Kate Aanenson: So where you want that break.
Mayor Furlong: I thought you said there's an 8 foot wall as well. I think there was 14, 15 and
then.
Kate Aanenson: If you go to page, engineering, staff identified those walls. If you go to page 4.
On the bottom there's a chart. There's an 8 foot that's 120 foot on the south side of the pond.
And then.
Mayor Furlong: Show where that 8 foot is. I think my thought is, I'll defer to the rest of the
council. The 15 and the 14 certainly.
Bruno Silikowski: If I could make some comments. The one wall that's on the inside which is
the 15 foot, no one's going to see except for the people inside the condo. If that, putting terrace
there would actually be really detrimental to the development.
Mayor Furlong: Well, that is if I understand correctly, I'm sorry. Show me where the 8 foot wall
is.
Kate Aanenson: This would be the south side of the pond. There's a wall right here.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And what's the wall just to the west of the pond right there in front of the
club house? Is that the 15 foot?
Kate Aanenson: 9. 12, 14. Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, and that is, I'm assuming here that the building is higher than the pond, is
that correct?
Kate Aanenson: The finished floor elevation right there, you are correct.
Mayor Furlong: So that wall faces west.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And then the one to the north of the club house.
Kate Aanenson: This one.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah. Isn't that the other 14 or 15 foot?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: And again, are the buildings higher than the wetland I assume.
Kate Aanenson: Finished floor elevation, correct.
Mayor Furlong: So that faces to the northwest. I guess those were the ones that I was looking at
and to the extent that they're facing away from the property, I think terracing.
Kate Aanenson: Right over here is where it gets pinched based on the…
Mayor Furlong: Now the other retaining wall to the east there, if you can zoom out on the
camera please. Yeah. Now which way, that faces into the development so the road is higher
than the building to the west of that wall?
Bruno Silikowski: The buildings are quite a bit higher than.
Mayor Furlong: Than the road?
Bruno Silikowski: No, the road's actually, it's close.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: This elevation on this side is.
Mayor Furlong: But that might be one of the shorter walls.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, so this is 934 so this is one of the, yeah. This is actually a 3 to 1 slope.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. So the issue is on the west side of the property near the clubhouse.
And again I'll defer. It appears that those would be reasonable to terrace because they're facing
out away from the property.
Councilman Peterson: If you've got the space to do it.
Mayor Furlong: If you've got the space to do it, and I think that's what we have to.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, and what the visibility is up in this area.
Mayor Furlong: And that may not be as critical as the one down by the pond.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: So I guess to the extent it's engineeringly possible to terrace. I'm sorry? With
that qualification.
Councilman Lundquist: Options of terracing?
Mayor Furlong: Yep. Terrace if possible.
Bruno Silikowski: And we'll…to the neighbors, I'd be more than happy to try to make that look
really attractive.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, and I think those were the ones that I'm thinking about. That's great,
thank you.
Kate Aanenson: So can we modify that just so we're clear for the language on the site plan
agreement. That the retaining walls meet the standards, and those walls that have exterior
elevations facing neighborhoods be terraced.
Councilman Lundquist: If that's the option of terracing.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah, if possible.
Kate Aanenson: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: My expectation if they can be terraced, that they should be. Any other thoughts
or discussion? If there's none, motion begins on page.
Kate Aanenson: 11.
Mayor Furlong: Where is the motion? Page 11 on the staff report, and 251-252.
Councilman Peterson: Mr. Mayor, I'd move, do you want to do them all four at once or one at a
time? What's your pleasure?
Mayor Furlong: Let's do them all. Unless there's a reason to separate them?
Councilman Peterson: I would move that City Council approve the rezoning the western portion
of the Ag Estate District (A2) industrial to office park IOP. I also move that we approve the
conditional use permit, conditions 1 through 6. I would also move that we approve the
conditional use permit for allowing multiple buildings, up to 14 on one parcel, subject to one
condition. I also finally approve that the City Council adopt a site plan for 12 buildings, 11
storage buildings totaling 177,000 square feet subject to conditions 1 through 7, with the
addition, changes and additions of 5(f) and 7 as noted by staff this evening. Subject to findings
of facts.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Lundquist: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on that motion? Hearing none, we'll
proceed with the vote.
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded that the City Council
approvestheRezoningof the western portion of the site from Agricultural Estate District, A2,
to Industrial Office Park, IOPAll voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a
.
vote of 3 to 0.
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded that the City Council
approves Conditional Use Permitfor development within the Bluff Creek Corridor with a
Variance to locate the storm water pond within the Bluff Creek primary zone, in conformance
with the grading plans prepared by Sathre-Bergquist, Inc., dated 10-19-2006, subject to the
following conditions:
1.The plans shall be revised to show the correct Bluff Creek Overlay District primary zone
boundary. Additionally, the primary zone boundary shall be terminated at the property lines
for the subject property because the above description of the primary zone boundary is not an
accurate description of the primary zone on adjacent properties. Signage for the Bluff Creek
Overlay District shall be posted at least every 300 feet along the primary zone boundary.
2.The applicant shall develop a restoration plan for the upland areas within the primary zone that
includes native plants for the Bluff Creek Overlay District. The plant species shall be selected
from the Bluff Creek Management Plan Appendix C. The final plan shall be reviewed and
approved by the City before installation.
3.The property owner shall dedicate a conservation easement and a drainage and utility easement
over the primary zone of the Bluff Creek Overlay District.
4.Chanhassen Type II silt fence shall be provided adjacent to all areas to be preserved as
buffer. The silt fence shall be installed in overlapping “J-hooks” to break up the sections and
provide additional water and sediment retaining capacity.
5.Erosion control blanket shall be installed on all slopes on site steeper than 3:1. The plans
shall be revised to depict blanket locations and shall provide a detail for blanket installation.
6.Street cleaning of soil tracked onto public streets shall include daily street scraping and street
sweeping as needed.”
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 3 to 0.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded that the City Council
approve of the Conditional Use Permit for multiple buildings (up to 14) on one parcel subject
to the following conditions:
1.Development of the two buildings immediately adjacent to Audubon Road shall require a
separate site plan review.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 3 to 0.
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded that the City Council
approve the Site Plan for 12 buildings (one clubhouse/museum building and 11 storage
buildings totaling approximately 177,000 square feet of building area), plans prepared by
Sathre-Bergquist, Inc., dated 10-19-2006, subject to the following conditions:
1.Additional windows or doors must be incorporated in the clubhouse eastern building
elevation to comply with the 50 percent transparency requirement.
2.Water Resource Coordinator conditions:
a.The plans shall be revised to show how the water routed through Wetland Area B will be
conveyed to the proposed stormwater pond.
b.The plans shall be revised to show only non-exempt wetlands. Wetland buffer areas at
least 16.5 feet in width shall be preserved, surveyed and staked in accordance with the
City’s wetland ordinance prior to grading commencing. All wetlands and wetland buffer
areas to be preserved shall be protected by silt fence during grading. All structures shall be
set back at least 40 feet from the wetland buffer edge.
c.The plans shall be revised to show the correct primary zone boundary. Additionally, the
primary zone boundary shall be terminated at the property lines for the subject property
because the above description of the primary zone boundary is not an accurate
description of the primary zone on adjacent properties. Signage for the Bluff Creek
Overlay District shall be posted at least every 300 feet along the primary zone boundary.
d.A conditional use permit and variance shall be obtained prior to alteration within the Bluff
Creek Overlay District primary zone.
e.Drainage and utility easements over the stormwater pond and areas necessary for pond
access (including an easement over the main drive aisle through the site from Audubon
Road to the pond) shall be dedicated to the City prior to recording the site plan. The
parking areas and drive aisles shall be swept each spring to prevent sand from leaving the
site. Documentation of sweeping activity shall be submitted to the City annually.
f.The plans shall be revised to include Chanhassen’s standard details for stormwater
infrastructure and erosion and sediment control, including 3107, 3108, 3109, 5300, 5301
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
and 5302A. A detail for the proposed temporary perforated riser pipe shall also be included
in the plans.
g.A temporary perforated riser and stable emergency overflow (EOF) is needed; a detail
shall be included in the plan. The basin shall be properly sized for the watershed area,
according to NPDES requirements (i.e., the basins shall provide storage below the outlet
pipe for a calculated volume of runoff from at least a 2-year, 24-hour storm from each
acre drained to the basin, except that in no case shall the basin provide less than 1800
cubic feet of storage below the outlet pipe from each acre drained to the basin). The
outlet pipe shall discharge upstream from the edge of the receiving wetland and shall be
stabilized with riprap.
h.Chanhassen Type II silt fence shall be provided adjacent to all areas to be preserved as
buffer. The silt fence shall be installed in overlapping “J-hooks” to break up the sections
and provide additional water and sediment retaining capacity.
i.Erosion control blanket shall be installed on all slopes on site steeper than 3:1. The plans
shall be revised to depict blanket locations and shall provide a detail for blanket installation.
j.Street cleaning of soil tracked onto public streets shall include daily street scraping and
street sweeping as needed.
k.The applicant shall apply for and obtain permits from the appropriate regulatory agencies
(e.g., Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District, Minnesota Pollution Control
Agency) and comply with their conditions of approval.
l.A Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) shall be developed for the site and
approved by City staff prior to issuing a permit. The SWPPP shall include a provision that
requires temporary seeding of stockpiles if left exposed for more than 14 days.
m.The plans shall be revised to include energy dissipation on all inlets and outlets within 24
hours of installation.
n.The plans shall be revised to replace hay bale curbside inlet controls with Wimco-type inlet
controls. A detail shall be provided. The controls shall be installed within 24 hours of
installation of the inlets.
o.All perimeter controls shall follow the City’s specifications. The perimeter controls shall be
inspected by the City and the SWCD prior to grading.
3.Fire Marshal conditions:
a.Additional fire hydrants will be required. Please contact the Chanhassen Fire Marshal for
exact location of additional hydrants.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
b.A 10-foot clear space must be maintained around fire hydrants, i.e., street lamps, trees,
shrubs, bushes, Xcel Energy, Qwest, cable TV and transformer boxes. This is to ensure that
fire hydrants can be quickly located and safely operated by firefighters. Pursuant to
Chanhassen city Ordinance #9-1.
c.Yellow curbing and no parking fire lane signs will be required. Contact Chanhassen Fire
Marshal for exact location of yellow curbing and signs to be installed.
d.No burning permits shall be issued for trees to be removed. Trees and shrubs must either be
removed from site or chipped.
e.Fire apparatus access roads shall be designed and maintained to support the imposed load of
fire apparatus and shall be serviced so as to provide all-weather driving capabilities.
Pursuant to Minnesota State Fire Code Section 503.2.3.
f.Submit radius turn dimensions to City engineer and Chanhassen Fire Marshal for review
and approval. Pursuant to Minnesota State Fire Code Section 503.2.4.
4.Building Official Conditions:
a.The buildings are required to have automatic fire extinguishing systems.
b.Building plans must be prepared and signed by design professionals licensed in the State
of Minnesota.
c.Retaining walls over four high must be designed by a professional engineer and a permit
must be obtained prior to construction.
d.Every building containing any plumbing fixtures and/or receptors, must have its own
independent connection with a public or private sewer, except that a group of buildings
may be connected to one or more manholes which are constructed on the premises and
connected to a public or private sewer (MSPC 4715.310). No building sewer shall be less
than 4 inches in diameter (MSPC 4715.2310). Building drain must be by gravity (MSPC
4715.2430). The distance between cleanouts in horizontal piping shall not exceed 50 feet
for 3-inch or less in size and not over 100 feet for 4-inch and over in size (MSPC
4715.1010.
5.Forester conditions:
a.All existing boulevard trees along Audubon Road shall be preserved and protected with
tree preservation fencing during construction. Any City boulevard tree that dies or is
removed will be required to be replaced.
b.The applicant shall revise the landscape plan to show a total of 82 overstory trees within
the vehicular use area.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
c.The applicant shall revise the landscape plan to show a total of 23 overstory trees along
the northwest property line buffer yard.
d.The slope along the Bluff Creek primary zone shall be seeded with an approved native
seed mix.
e.Plant selections for landscape requirements shall incorporate native species for buffer
yard and parking lot landscaping
f.Increase the buffer planting along the westerly and northwesterly portions of the site.
Buffer may include berming, landscaping or fencing.
6.Engineering Conditions:
a.The grading plan must be revised to show proposed pavement grades for the driveway
access to the northern office/warehouse.
b.The grading plan must show proposed pavement grades.
c.Pavement grades must not exceed 10%.
d.The private streets within the development must be constructed to a nine-ton design.
e.An additional spot elevation must be shown on the south end of the storage building
immediately west of the northern office/warehouse to ensure positive drainage.
f.Note the proposed rim and invert elevation of the storm sewer located at the driveway
intersection south of bore hole location #3.
g.The developer must coordinate with City staff to ensure that pond maintenance and
emergency vehicles will be able to access the gated area.
h.The width of the drive aisle southeast of the pond must be minimum 26 feet wide in addition
to the proposed parallel parking stalls.
i.If fire code permits, staff recommends that the private watermain be six-inch diameter for
water quality purposes.
j.The City’s construction observer shall be present for all sanitary sewer and watermain
testing to ensure that the proposed connections to the City facilities are in conformance with
engineering standards.
k.The developer shall pay for the inspection bills and submit a $5,000.00 security to ensure
payment of these bills.
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
7. The retaining wall shall follow the standards for retaining walls incorporated in the subdivision
regulations. The applicant shall also investigate the terracing of walls over eight feet in height.
(Visibility of the walls to the west is a factor to determine the need for terracing.)”
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 3 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you everyone. Appreciate your comments and your help. Noting the
time, let's take, you want to take a quick recess? Let's take a 5 minute recess subject to the call
of the Chair.
ADOPTION OF THE 2007 BUDGET AND LEVY.
Greg Sticha: Good evening Mayor and council. The item we're discussing tonight is the 2007
proposed budget and CIP. I'm just going to give a quick history of what happened…to get to this
point for those that have not been involved in this process so far. Early this summer staff and the
City Manager met to discuss the 2007 budget and the department heads, along with the city
manager came up with a proposed 2007 budget which we discussed with City Council in August
th
of this year. In September we passed a preliminary levy September 15 which sets the
preliminary levy at $9,575,778. In September, October, November we held each of the
department heads, department meetings that discussed each individual part of the budget in detail
in work sessions with the council. Last week we held a Truth in Taxation hearing to give the
public an opportunity to comment on that budget. At that hearing we did not receive comments
from the public about the budget, and this week we are going to pass that levy and CIP proposed
for 2007. Just want to go through a quick slide presentation of what we are levying for next
year. What are percentages…are going to be. As you can see, our 2006 budget had total
expenditures of $8.9 million which included a $285,000 debt transfer. 2007 we have a total
expenditure general fund budget of $9,062,000. The changes within types of expenditures, the
largest increase is in public works area and those costs are for fuel costs, street lighting, salt for
our roads and a few other items that we had discussed…over the last few weeks. The other
departments saw minimal increases for wages and some supplies but in total the increases were
kept generally at or near cost of living. Revenues. Two revenue items to note that we did
increase substantially from the prior year are our permit revenues. With anticipated development
in the 2005 MUSA area, it is our projection that permit revenues will be increasing to over
$800,000 in 2007. Up from $600,000 in 2006. In addition fines and penalties revenue has been
increasing over the last year. We have it in the budget now for fines and penalties in the amount
of $130,000. Staff has just recently gotten some additional numbers and we do believe that that
number could exceed or be near $150,000. Bringing our total increase in revenues up 5.2%.
Here's a look at our general fund expenditure history. The blue bar would be actual general fund
expenditures. The yellow bars would be transfers we made in those years for debt service
payments out of the general fund using cash reserves. What factors change the budget for 2007
versus 2006? While we saw an increase for personnel costs. Also heating and fuel costs which
we discussed earlier. The total general fund expenditures will increase 5.19%. That number, if
you exclude the debt service transfer that we had made last year, the increase would be 5.19%.
If you include that transfer, which we did not make the transfer to debt service out of the general
fund this year, the increase is 1.82%. What are we levying for? $6.5 million we are levying for
general fund operations. This number is basically backed into after we calculate what our
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
estimated budgeted revenues are going to be for the year. This number helps make the general
fund flush or a zero budget for 2007. A capital replacement fund levy, $824,000. A slight
increase from the prior year to help pay for our equipment expenditures… A small levy for seal
coating our street pavement management, and then we see a number of levies for the debt
payments. Those are our total tax capacity levies. In addition to those levies we do have some
market value levy… Park referendum, which we refinanced the bond for in 2006. The bond
payment is $600 and some thousand and change. $633,500. The amount that you see last year is
the amount we actually levied for..bond came in a little higher than that. We used cash reserves
to buy down that payment basically. And the library referendum. One thing you will note the
bond payment for the park referendum for 2009 is substantially higher. It's the last year of the
bond payment for the park referendum and we set up that debt intentionally because that's when
additional levy becomes available from losing other levies, debt levies that we have on the
books. What is the effect of these levies? General fund is showing a slight increase in the levy
of 2.5%. Debt service levies remain relatively flat at 1/10 of 1% increase. The total tax levy
increases to the City of Chanhassen for 2007 compared to 2006 is $220,000 or 2.4%. What will
the average property owner see for the city's portion of their property tax bill increase? Based on
our calculations, the average home will see a 0% increase, and in most cases we're finding that
they'll probably even see a very slight decrease in the city portion of their property tax bill.
Recommendation. That we adopt the tax levy budget and CIP as presented this evening. At this
point I will take any questions.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Sticha? The city's been through it a few
times.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor I just want to jump in and thank again the council for your time and
energy that you put towards the 2007 budget. You know we started this process really back in
June when we started talking about some preliminary numbers and I think since August it was on
your agenda almost every night so appreciate your time and effort. I'd also like to thank the
department heads for the time and energy that they put in to the overall budget. I just want to
note that again this year's budget, there is an increase in there but a lot of that can pretty much be
related back to all new growth that's occurred in the community. The additional lights. The
additional roads that we put in. Trying to keep up with our legal services, which we were just
negotiating here, but I want to counter that other guy. I think we have the best attorney in the
state so, but. Roger can handle anything.
Councilman Lundquist: That's why he charges so much.
Todd Gerhardt: But I just want to, I think this was a great process that we used this year and you
know, we spent a lot of time on this and I think you see the results and it just was a great process
and thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you and we appreciate staff's effort as well. This is a lot of work
and it's not just in the finance department. It's throughout the organization that starts early as
well and we appreciate everybody's efforts and diligence. Comments or discussions?
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
Councilman Peterson: It has been a long journey and we set the bar high again and staff met the
challenge and I'm pleased to support staff's recommendation.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Councilman Lundquist: I would concur as well. I think it has gotten a little bit easier every year
that this has gone along. A lot of the things that we put in place you know key financial
strategies and some of the priorities that we set early on I think help that. As we talked about at
work session, when I look at a $221,000 levy increase at 2.4%, effectively inflation there. But
over half of that, about $120ish thousand or so is for electricity for additional street lights that we
put up as we built roads. Pavement management increases as we build more roads and trails,
we've got to take care of them. And also for more equipment to take care of those so it comforts
me I guess to see that we're there and you know that we're holding that growth of government in
check to this year really a less than inflationary increase in salaries, which is the biggest piece of
our budget given the fact that we've got to spend more money on some of these other things so,
done a nice job Todd and staff has done a nice job of finding ways to provide the same or more
service. Continue to pay our employees and increase that pay and benefits, yet finding ways to
not put that full burden directly onto the taxpayers, on the property tax levy so like I say, it's not
zero like I had hoped as far as percent increase, but we're holding that absolute dollar value in
check and given some of the increases, I think that's, it's reasonable so I'm happy to support it.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. My comments are similar. This has been, as I mentioned before, a
long process and, but I agree with Councilman Lundquist that this process has become easier,
certainly for the council and I think for staff too is my assessment. Of following long term
planning, which we've been doing these last few years, and looking not just at what the next year
budget and levy needs to be, but looking forward on what our demands are going to be as we
continue to grow. With the adoption of this budget, this will be the fourth year in a row that
we're limiting the levy growth to an amount equal to or less than the real growth in tax base. Not
even dealing with the inflationary growth and the tax base, and yet in doing so we're continuing
to fund increased level of services, investment in equipment, roads, parks, trails and continuing
to provide the needs that people are looking for. We are in a period, Mr. Sticha mentioned about
the debt. We're using some funds to get us through a short term spike in some debt payments. A
year ago, if memory serves, the amount that we thought we'd have to spend this year to do that
out of cash was somewhere between $250,000-$300,000. Through efforts on the part of staff to
refinance some debt, they knocked that down by about $100,000 before we even started this
process. We were about $174,000 of cash that we thought we'd have to use to meet our goals.
As we sit here tonight, that's down $63,000 and that $110 plus thousand that was found was
again through the diligence and work of the staff. In our work session tonight council challenged
staff to find the rest of it and that's something that they're going to be working on and maybe
starting with Mr. Knutson, but. There's a lot of opportunities I think in the size of the budget to
find that amount of funds and I'm confident that we'll be able to do that. There's certainly a need
and within street repairs and reconstruction that we have going forward so. The process was
long but was worth while because every time we looked at it we seem to make some progress
going forward and that's good and still adhering to long term needs of the city, not just short term
whims and reaction. So with that I am happy too to support both the CIP proposal as well as the
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
city budget and levy this evening. Is there a motion? We've got staff's recommendation to adopt
the budget, CIP and the final levy. Is that correct Mr. Sticha?
Greg Sticha: Yep.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Is there a motion?
Councilman Peterson: Motion to approve 2007 budget and CIP and the tax levy of, I was going
to say the amount but I can't find it. $9,575,778.00.
Mayor Furlong: He's nodding yes so you got the right number. Is there a second?
Councilman Lundquist: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion?
Resolution #2006-92: Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded to
adopt the 2007 budget and levy in the amount of $9,575,778; and Resolution #2006-93: to
approve the 2007 CIP as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously
with a vote of 3 to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS:
ANNOUNCE RESULTS OF THE CITY MANAGER'S PERFORMANCE
EVALUATION.
Mayor Furlong: I will start with the first one, if I may, and that's regarding the City Manager
th
performance review. The City Council met in executive session on November 27, December
th
4 and again this evening discussing Mr. Gerhardt's performance and compensation as our city
manager. Following is a summary of those discussions. Mr. Gerhardt has completed another
year of excellent work for our city. He accomplished his personal goals and those of the City
Council and together with the City Council and staff coordinated and executed on a number of
strategic initiatives for our city. Some of the major accomplishments this year included
advancing utility, street and trail improvements in the city's 2005 municipal utility service area in
accordance with our comprehensive plan through an inclusive process with property owners and
developers. Adopting and beginning to implement the City's updated surface water management
plan. I haven't asked for the motion yet.
Todd Gerhardt: He put the camera right on me man.
Kate Aanenson: It's his last meeting.
Todd Gerhardt: Kind of scary.
Mayor Furlong: Anybody mind if I continue? And also approving over 1,100 new residential
units for it's industrial commercial mixed use developments in the city. Completing the annual
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
public safety work plan with Carver County Sheriff's Department that tailor's the sheriff's
department's activities to the city's public safety needs and increases emphasize on our priorities.
Managing the construction of the city's first fresh water treatment plant, which will be completed
within weeks. Completing the planned 2006 street and trail improvement projects. Working
with MnDot on the design and beginning construction of the new Highway 212. And on other
mutual projects of interest with MnDot and Carver County, including the scoping activities for
the Highway 101 corridor between Lyman Boulevard and the Minnesota River. Improving
Chanhassen's position and outlook by adhering to our comprehensive 5 year financial budget,
debt service and property tax plan, the results of which were demonstrated just a few minutes
ago as we approved our 2007 budget and tax levy. And as demonstrated earlier this year by
Standard and Poor's reaffirmation of their AA- credit rating. A rating that only the top 5% of the
cities in the state receive. The list of accomplishments for Mr. Gerhardt and his staff are too
numerous to state here, but as quoted Mr. Gerhardt's leadership and strategic initiative help to
make Chanhassen a better place for all of us to live. In consideration of his performance, the
City Council discussed increasing Mr. Gerhardt's total compensation in 2007 by 4.5% above that
which he received in 2006. At this time I would move that the City Council approve the changes
in Mr. Gerhardt's compensation for 2007 as we discussed in executive session, as I have
summarized here. Is there a second?
Councilman Lundquist: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any discussion on that motion? Hearing none we'll proceed with
the vote.
Mayor Furlong moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded to approve increasing Mr.
Gerhardt's total compensation in 2007 by 4.5% above that which he received in 2006. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 3 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Gerhardt, thank you. On behalf of the Chanhassen City Council and the
residents we are proud to have you as our city manager and we thank you for your continued
service and commitment to the City of Chanhassen.
Todd Gerhardt: And I want to thank the council for your support over the years, especially this
last year. I think the list that you went through is pretty comprehensive. There were some
major, major projects in there, especially the 2005 MUSA area. I've got a great staff here. Very
supportive council so without those efforts I don't think we would accomplish those things so I
want to thank you and my staff for that support.
Mayor Furlong: You're welcome. Any other comments or discussion on that issue? If not, other
council presentations?
Councilman Peterson: I have a couple comments. I got an email from Councilwoman Tjornhom
this afternoon regarding just her regrets of not being here, and I'd like to read it to you if I could.
It says due to family commitments made months ago I'm saddened that I will not be able to
attend tonight's meeting and wish you farewell Brian. Mr. Lundquist. Now'd be a good time to
zoom in on Brian. You leave behind some very big shoes to fill. You are a rare breed due to
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
your gifted ability of leadership and your keen knowledge of fiscal details. While we at the city
will miss you, I will miss you personally and miss your advice and no longer being a human
calculator sitting next to me. Brian, this is not a final good-bye. Please remember me when
you're governor. Warmest regards, Councilwoman Tjornhom. I'm not that eloquent. I will just
say, well done and thank you.
Councilman Lundquist: Appreciate it.
Mayor Furlong: And I will concur. I had a chance to review and draft the comments made
tonight during the award presentation but you and I joined the council at the same time. Went
down the winding trip together and I think that it is, I know that we have had a chance to work
together for these last 4 years on a number of issues and I'm going to miss that opportunity to do
that so. Whether you knew it or not, we're already trying to think about ways to keep you
involved so, with that hopefully this isn't good-bye but you know, we'll see you soon.
Councilman Lundquist: Good, thank you. Comments. I was going to release my speech to the
newspaper but she left so I guess we'll forget that one.
Todd Gerhardt: We can email it to her.
Councilman Lundquist: Yeah. Just make sure she gets the numbers right. So that was my Kofi
Annan blast. And but Tom, Craig, Todd and all of the staff, thanks for your help and guidance
and you know patience. We all have our little quirks and I guess they come out, but it's been
mostly fun. A little bit frustrating at times but overall it's been very rewarding. And something
that I'll look back on fondly. It's going to be fun to sit over there like Workman now and harass
from a distance as you probably will expect that I will continue to stay involved so maybe gone
but not forgotten so. But appreciate everything both of you gentlemen and all the staff have done
and look forward to continued success as you go forward and train up the two rookies that are
coming on board. So best of luck to all of you as well. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other comments? Council presentations.
Councilman Lundquist: And I was supposed to say hi to the kids watching me at home but it's
after their bedtime.
Mayor Furlong: It will be on tape. They can watch it again. One other quick wrap up, just
because this last week Mr. Gerhardt and I attended the National League of Cities Conference in
Reno, Nevada. Reno is not richer by virtue of our gambling, not that we were that good at it, but
we just didn't do much of it. We spent a lot of time in the conference of course and it was a good
conference on that part. I think Mr. Gerhardt agrees, a lot of pertinent issues, topics were
discussed. Things that we're dealing with all the time. Infrastructure, financing and funding
requirements, storm water management, communication, emergency preparedness, housing, a lot
of the issues. It was good from a networking standpoint. We ran into and talked and shared
stories with other elected and officials from Minnesota and across the country, and I guess just to
summarize what I recognized is that we're doing a lot of things right. We can always listen for
and find opportunities to do some things better but most importantly we are way better off than a
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City Council Meeting - December 11, 2006
lot of other people. So as much as we deal with issues and focus on challenges before us, which
we need to do, we need to keep it in perspective that we've got a pretty good thing here, and that
was clear to me coming out of there. Are there any other comments on that or other discussion
items?
Todd Gerhardt: You covered it. Nothing to add. Met a lot of new friends. That was key I
thought. That was part of our networking. When we're going through Nebraska, we have a
place to stay.
Councilman Lundquist: Someone who gets there quite frequently…
Todd Gerhardt: We'll give you a name and a number.
Mayor Furlong: Anything else under administrative?
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS:
Todd Gerhardt: I just want to thank Brian for his leadership and dedication these past 4 years. I
mean just take a look at some statistics. We've accomplished a lot fiscally. I think we've
developed some real sound financial policies and I think Brian should take a lot of credit for that.
I know it's a team effort but no question that was Brian's strength and dedication in that. He also
looked at the accounts payables and challenged us on those and I'll keep emailing those to him so
he can take a look.
Councilman Lundquist: They're online, I can get them.
Todd Gerhardt: And, but I want to thank you again for your leadership and dedication. You
know it's difficult in these times, how busy we get, to find leaders like yourself and being the city
manager I appreciate the knowledge and experience that you 3 have and Bethany and it's made
my job a lot easier so thank you. And now after we adjourn I invite everybody here to stay and
have cake with Brian and the rest of us. We have this picture cake.
Councilman Lundquist: Rub it in my proverbial face huh.
Todd Gerhardt: As long as I don't drop it, but Byerly's has the skills to put a picture of Brian on
there. We're going to cut into him.
Councilman Peterson: That we may have to get on camera. Motion to adjourn.
Councilman Lundquist: Second.
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded to adjourn the meeting. All
voted in favor and the motion carried. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 9:25
p.m..
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt, City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim
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