1a Approval of MinutesCHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
SPECIAL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 15, 2003
Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 5:45 p.m.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman Lundquist, Councilman
Ayotte, and Councilman Peterson. Councilman Labatt was present for the first item and then left
the meeting.
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Justin Miller, Kate Aanenson and Todd Hoffman
JOINT MEETNG WITH COMMISSIONS.
Senior Commissioners Present: Dale Geving, Barbara Headla, Jean Mancini, Melvin Kurvers,
and Thomas Faust
Todd Gerhardt gave a recap of the meeting with himself, Mayor Furlong, Dale Geving and Tom
Faust regarding remodeling of the old library space. They discussed naming of the space and
how it will be used. There is a meeting scheduled on Thursday with the architect and Senior
Commission members. The seniors want the front door as close to the parking lot as possible,
and the need for a corridor so there's no interruption in activities that are taking place. It was
asked that at least the plumbing for a second kitchen be considered for the new space, even if the
appliances can't be purchased at this time. There was discussion over the restrictions on
commercial kitchens. Councilman Peterson asked if the senior commission had discussed
programming for the new space. Dale Geving stated the new space will be used daily and the old
space will be used more sparingly. Mayor Furlong stated funding sources haven't been identified
yet for the remodeling, so the additional time for planning will benefit everyone. Councilman
Lundquist asked for clarification on the commission's statement regarding having no control over
life cycle housing. Dale Geving stated the Senior Commission never gets to see the plans for
senior housing and would like to be included in the review process. Kate Aanenson explained
how the Centennial Hills apartments was a city project but as a general rule the planning staff
doesn't look at interior designs for buildings, but felt the Senior Commission would be valuable
in being an advocate of life cycle housing. The commission had concerns that there are
approximately 2,000 seniors in Chanhassen and maybe 500 participate in the senior center
activities and how can the other seniors be reached. It was suggested asking the Chanhassen
Villager to write an article or series of articles, possibly highlighting the tenth anniversary of the
Senior Center, and the need to hold a celebration and open house.
Park and Recreation Commissioners Present: Rod Franks, Jack Spizale, Tom Kelly, Amy
O'Shea and Paula Atkins
Councilman Lundquist stated he sensed the Park and Recreation Commission felt a loss of
direction and floundering from the bullet points under what's working and what's not. Rod
Franks stated there is a certain level of frustration, especially over the financial constraints of the
department and not being able to meet the demands of the citizens and dealing with safety issues
of playground equipment as an example. He stated the commission needed to develop strategies
for funding replacement of equipment. Councilman Peterson asked to see the implications of
spending money, and if this project gets done, what projects don't. Rod Franks stated he thought
the 5 year CIP plan showed that. Todd Hoffman explained that the Park and Recreation
City Council Joint Meeting with Commissions - September 15, 2003
Commission is being left out of the financial decisions. Rod Franks agreed that they felt they
were being left out of the loop as far as financial decisions. Councilman Ayotte stated his
concern was that the budget was 20% higher for Park and Recreation than for public safety, the
total life cycle costs aren't identified and the need for revenue generation, Councilman Lundquist
stated he was hearing a lot of "we" and "they" and how can the breakdown in communication be
addressed. Maybe the commission shouldn't be just project oriented but spend time on other
things. Rod Franks stated he also disliked the "we" and "they" which was due to two different
bodies with different objectives. Todd Gerhardt stated the best way to work together is for the
Park and Recreation Commission to lay out priorities and cost. Take inventory and attach life
cycle of park components, and then lobby the City Council for what is priority. Amy O'Shea
asked about paying for maintenance of trails. Mayor Furlong stated he thought the open house
held at the park and rec meeting was a great idea. Jack Spizale asked about where in the process
the City Council was with the new recreation center.
Environmental Commissioners Present: Dotti Shay, Ron Olsen, and Marcus Zbinden
Marcus Zbinden went over the Environmental Commission's list of accomplishments, and what
programs are working and which one's aren't. Dotti Shay stated one thing they haven't done yet
is establishing a farmers market in town. Todd Gerhardt stated the Chamber of Commerce was
also looking at a farmers market and maybe the two groups can have discussions. Councilman
Ayotte asked if the Environmental Commission was providing technical support for staff. They
stated they haven't been asked but would help. Todd Gerhardt stated staff could use help in
educating the public and backing up staff on environmental issues. Councilman Lundquist
commended the Environmental Commission for their creativity and fiscal responsibility. Mayor
Furlong stated the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is a great asset for the city and maybe the
Environmental Commission could work with them. Ron Olsen talked about providing his
expertise to such projects as the Market Street Station and carrying on the pedestrian friendly
theme from the new library project. Councilman Peterson suggested he attend the Planning
Commission meeting when it goes through the public hearing process and to call Chairman Uli
Sacchet. Mayor Furlong stated we don't need walls built up between commissions, but the need
to work together.
Plannin~ Commissioners Present: Uli Sacchet, Bethany Tjomhom, Rich Slagle and Craig
Claybaugh.
Public Present: Debbie Lloyd and Janet Paulsen
Mayor Furlong stated he valued the input and summary being provided with planning projects.
Uli Sacchet asked for clarification on the level of detail the City Council was looking for from the
Planning Commission. Councilman Peterson stated he liked the level of detail but was concerned
with the length of the meetings. Bethany Tjornhom stated she didn't know how the last meeting
could have been any shorter when you have numerous people from the public wishing to speak on
issues. Uli Sacchet expressed concern with engineering's performance with the golf course issue.
He also stated it's tricky on how to deal with people, on how much to listen and when to cut them
off. Mayor Furlong stated the Planning Commission was serving the residents so they need to
listen to them, but also need to run a meeting. He wanted people to feel they could speak at the
Planning Commission because they often aren't given that opportunity at the City Council.
Councilman Peterson suggested if a commissioner agrees with the comments from a previous
commissioner, not to re-state the same opinion. Uli Sacchet stated there was concern with
decisions made by the Planning Commission and then are overturned by the City Council and
asked if Planning Commission could get an executive summary of why City Council voted
City Council Joint Meeting with Commissions - September 15, 2003
differently. Councilman Peterson stated that was part of the Planning Commission liaison's job
was to provide feedback on City Council discussion and decisions. Councilman Ayotte stated he
liked the idea of having joint meetings on big projects, like the AUAR process and Market Street
Station. Councilman Lundquist stated he relies on the executive summary first and then if there
are issues of concern, he might glance through the conditions. He feels the Planning Commission
does a good job of interpreting the code without politics. Todd Gerhardt informed the Planning
Commission that he would be bringing in the downtown TIF district and explained the Planning
Commission's role in reviewing that.
Mayor Furlong adjourned the meeting at 8:45 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
WORK SESSION
SEPTEMBER 22, 2003
Mayor Furlong called the work session meeting to order at 5:45 p.m.
COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman Ayotte, Councilman Peterson
and Councilman Lundquist
COUNCILMEMBERS ABSENT: Councilman Labatt
STAFF PRESENT: Kate Aanenson, Justin Miller and Bob Generous
CITY CODE REVIEW, CHAPTER 18 AND REVIEW ORDINANCES AMENDMENT
CHAPTERS 1-19.
Kate Aanenson reviewed the city code update process the City Council has gone through to date
and outlined the approval process with a public hearing to be held at the Planning Commission.
Mayor Furlong asked staff to provide an executive summary of the issues brought up by City
Council, and how the issues were addressed prior to the public hearing process. Bob Generous
went through the proposed amendments in Chapter 18. Mayor Furlong asked for clarification on
the time line for items to get onto the Planning Commission agenda and if it was consistent with
other cities. There was discussion around the 60 by 60 building pad requirement on plans, and
changing it to 3,600 square feet or average minimum building area for specific house plans. Kate
Aanenson explained the building pad requirement was to calculate tree loss. Councilman
Peterson asked about the $500 penalty for tree loss and suggested adding the wording to say "up
to $500 fine". Councilman Ayotte asked how drainage swales were enforced between the
planning stage to final grading of site. There was discussion regarding sidewalks and where and
when they should be required. Mayor Furlong asked staff to provide guidelines when sidewalks
should be required for council review.
Mayor Furlong adjourned the work session meeting at 6:35 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
SUMMARY MINUTES
SEPTEMBER 22, 2003
Mayor Furlong called the work session meeting to order at 5:45 p.m.
COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman Ayotte, Councilman Peterson
and Councilman Lundquist
COUNCILMEMBERS ABSENT: Councilman Labatt
STAFF PRESENT: Kate Aanenson, Justin Miller, Bob Generous, Roger Knutson, Teresa
Burgess, Matt Saam and Todd Hoffman
PUBLIC PRESENT FOR ALL ITEMS:
Judy Siegel
Ken Wencl
Mildred & Wilbur Aydt
Steve Lillehaug
Jerry & Janet Paulsen
Shelley Murphy
411 Highland Drive
8412 Great Plains Boulevard
515 Del Rio Drive
Planning Commission
7305 Laredo Drive
6870 Redwing Lane
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Ayotte
approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City
recommendations:
seconded to
Manager's
bo
Approval of Minutes:
- City Council Work Session Minutes dated September 8, 2003
- City Council Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated September 8, 2003
- City Council Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated September 15, 2003
Receive Commission Minutes:
- Planning Commission Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated September 2, 2003
- Park and Recreation Commission Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated August 26, 2003
Approval of Extending a Previously Approved Variance to Encroachment and Bluff
Setback Requirements, Scott Broin, 3840 Lone Cedar Lane.
Resolution #2003-80: Amended Resolution 97-09 and Vacating a Sanitary Sewer
Easement over Lot 13 and a Portion of Lots 14 and 16, Auditor's Subdivision No. 2.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
l(a). APPROVAL OF TEMPORARY LIFTING OF NO PARKING ON LAKE LUCY
ROAD.
City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
Councilman Lundquist had concerns with the hours of operation requested by the Kendall's and
if the sheriff's department had any comments. Teresa Burgess stated they were only concerned
with the parking issue. Sergeant Jim Olson stated he and Teresa Burgess had visited the site and
will be in contact with the Kendall's over the next couple weeks to discuss options.
Resolution ~2003-81: Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to
approve the temporary lifting of no parking on Lake Lucy Road. All voted in favor, except
Councilman Ayotte who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 3 to 1.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
Susan McAllister, 2930 West 78th Street asked the council to consider installing a traffic signal at
the intersection of West 78th Street and Galpin Boulevard. Connie Hargest, Center Point Energy,
800 LaSalle Avenue, Minneapolis presented the City Council with a check in the amount of
$2,160 from their community partnership grant program to purchase trees for the new City Center
Park adjacent to the new library.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to accept a check in the
amount of $2,160 from Center Point Energy to purchase trees in the new City Center Park.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Sgt. Jim Olson reviewed the sheriff's office area report, citation list, bi-monthly update and the
crime alerts put out by Beth Hoiseth for the month of August. Councilman Ayotte asked the
sheriff's office to provide an analysis of the trends and convictions from the citations being issued
and suggested that the sheriff' s office work with the Villager to run articles regarding victims of
identity theft. Chief John Wolff provided the monthly report for the Fire Department.
PUBLIC HEARING: REQUEST FOR ON-SALE BEER & WINE LICENSE, FRANKIE'S
PIZZA, PASTA & RIBS, 7850 MARKET BOULEVARD, THOMAS O'MEARA (NEW
OWNER).
Justin Miller provided the staff report on this item and recommended approval of the liquor
license. Mayor Furlong opened the public hearing. No one spoke at the public hearing and it was
closed.
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Ayotte seconded to approve the request for an
on-sale beer and wine license for Frankie's Chanhassen, Inc., dba Frankie's Pizza, Pasta &
Ribs at 7850 Market Boulevard contingent upon receipt of the license fee and the liquor
liability insurance. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4
to 0.
PUBLIC HEARING: LAHAYE ADDITION, 7551 GREAT PLAINS BOULEVARD,
ERNEST PIVAC:
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VACATION OF A PORTIAON OF SANTA FE TRAIL.
APPROVAL OF PRELIMINARY & FINAL PLAT TO SUBDIVIDE 1.56 ACRES
INTO 2 SINGLE FAMILY LOTS WITH VARIANCES.
APPROVAL OF DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT & PLANS & SPECIFICATIONS,
PROJECT 03-07.
City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
Bob Generous provided the staff report on this item and the Planning Commission update.
Mayor Furlong asked staff to address the issue of the width of the private street. Councilman
Peterson clarified that the City Council will have a chance to address the width of the private
street when the property is further subdivided. Mayor Furlong opened the public hearing on the
vacation of a portion of Santa Fe Trail. Jerry Paulsen, 7305 Laredo Drive, handed out a copy of
page 6 of the staff report in which they had highlighted issues pertaining to the width of the
private street and if it met the 7 ton requirement and that variances would be required. Roger
Knutson stated, in his opinion it would not need variances. Teresa Burgess reminded the council
that the public hearing was pertaining to the street vacation.
Resolution #2003-82: Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Ayotte seconded that the
City Council approves Vacation #2003-1 for the partial vacation of Santa Fe Trail as shown
on the attachment, with the following conditions:
1. The applicant shall provide the city with the legal description of the vacated right-of-way.
The applicant shall dedicate a 30 foot wide drainage and utility easement, centered on the
sanitary sewer line.
3. Approval of the vacation is contingent upon approval of Subdivision #03-3.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Councilman Ayotte moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded that the City Council
approves the preliminary and final plat for Subdivision ~03-3 for LaHaye Addition for 2
lots and a variance to allow a double frontage lot as shown on the plans dated received
August 29, 2003, subject to the following conditions:
1. Install sod in all of the pavement removal areas.
If grading material will need to be imported or exported to construct the lots and street,
the applicant and/or the contractor must supply the City Engineer with a detailed haul
route for review and approval prior to site grading.
The new turnaround on Great Plains Boulevard shall be constructed to current city design
standards with 28 foot wide pavement, B-618 curb and gutter and concrete driveway
aprons.
A minimum 30 foot wide drainage and utility easement is required over the public
sanitary sewer line in the vacated road area.
Any grading or utility work outside of the property limits or right-of-way will require a
temporary easement.
6. Revise the grading plan as follows:
ao
Add a benchmark and legend to the plan. The legend should define all of the
different line types, easements, silt fence, etc.
Show all existing and proposed easements on the plans.
Add tree preservation fencing around any and all trees to be saved.
City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
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10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
d. Show the existing storm sewer and culverts under the existing driveways.
Revise the utility plan as follows:
Add a legend to the plan.
Label the existing size and type of pipe for both the sanitary and watermains.
Show the existing storm sewer and culverts under the existing driveways.
The water service for Lot 2 will be coordinated with the City.
The proposed private street upgrades shall include a 20 foot wide pavement, built to a 7
ton design, and a 30 foot wide private easement dedicated to the benefiting property
owners. In order to save the two existing oak trees on each side of the private street, the
street width may be narrowed in this area. The developer shall provide inspection reports
for the private street to the City.
Detailed street construction plans and specifications in accordance with the City's latest
edition of Standard Specifications and Detail Plates will be required for review and
approval by the City Council at the time of final plat consideration. Since the street
improvements will become owned and maintained by the City, the applicant must enter
into a development contract with the City and provide financial security in the form of a
letter of credit or cash escrow to guarantee construction of the public improvements.
Permits from the appropriate regulatory agencies will be required, including but not
limited to Watershed District, MPCA, etc.
The site will be subject to one sanitary sewer and water connection charge for the new lot.
The 2003 connection charges for both sanitary sewer and water are $4,513. The property
is also subject to sanitary sewer and water hook-up charges for the new lot. The 2003
trunk utility hook-up charges are $1,440 per unit for sanitary sewer and $1,876 per unit
for water. The 2003 SAC charge is $1,275 per unit. These charges are collected prior to
the building permit issuance.
Tree preservation fence shall be installed at the edge of the grading limits prior to any
construction.
Building official conditions:
ao
Final grading plans and soil reports must be submitted to the Inspections Division
before building permits will be issued.
Each lot must be provided with separate sewer and water services.
Retaining walls over 4 feet high require a permit and must be designed by an
engineer licensed in the State of Minnesota.
Fire Marshal conditions:
An address monument sign shall be installed at the common driveway entrance
where they split. Plans must be submitted to the Chanhassen Fire Marshal for
review and approval. Also, if the address numbers installed on the houses are not
visible from the common driveway, additional numbers will be required at the
driveway entrances. These requirements are pursuant to Chanhassen Fire
Department/Fire Prevention Division Policy//29-1992. Copy enclosed.
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City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
15. Storm water calculations should be submitted to demonstrate that the proposed
subdivision maintains existing runoff rates and volumes.
16.
Impervious surfaces should be minimized to the greatest extent possible due to the lack of
storm water infrastructure. This includes the construction of Alternate A (Hammerhead
Turnaround) instead of Alternate B (Complete Circle).
17. The bluff impact zone and bluff setback should be shown and labeled on the grading plan.
18.
Based on the proposed developed area of 1.57 acres, the water quality fees associated
with this project are estimated at $1,490 and the water quantity fees associated with this
project are estimated at $3,686. The applicant will not be assessed for areas that are
dedicated outlots. No credit will be given for temporary pond areas. At this time the
estimated total SWMP fee, due payable to the city at the time of final plat recording is
$5,176.
19.
Approval of the subdivision is contingent upon the City Council approving the vacation
of the right-of-way.
20.
Full park and trail fees will be collected in lieu of land dedication for the newly created
lot in the amount of $2,400.
21. Access to Lot 2 shall be prohibited off of Frontier Trail.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Ayotte seconded to approve the construction
plans and specifications for LaHaye Addition, Project No. 03-07 dated September 11, 2003,
prepared by Gronberg & Associates, Inc. and the development contract dated September
22, 2003 be approved conditioned upon the following:
The applicant shall enter into the development contract and supply the City with a cash
escrow or letter of credit in the amount of $54,109.00 and pay an administration fee of
$9,517.00.
The applicant's engineer shall work with city staff in revising the construction plans to
meet city standards.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
PUBLIC HEARING: APPROVE FEASIBILITY STUDY; AUTHORIZE THE
PREPARATION OF PLANS & SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE 2004 RESIDENTIAL
STREET & UTILITY IMPROVEMENTS, PROJECT No. 04-01.
Public Present:
Name Address
Doug Rasmussen
Kathy Blettner
415 Santa Fe Trail
509 Del Rio Drive
City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
Mildred & Wilbur Aydt
Fred Lambert
David Hans
Matt Johnson
Jim & Marianne Moline
Brian McCarthy
David Miller
Carroll Hanna
Ron Mielke
B. Clayton
Julia Pims
Roberta & Tom Brunberg
Steve Rosas
Gordy Nagel.
Nancy Weibel
Tom Lentz
Nicole Renny
Rich Engelhardt
515 Del Rio Drive
618 Santa Fe Circle
406 Santa Fe Circle
424 Santa Fe Circle
507 Del Rio Drive
513 Del Rio Drive
420 Santa Fe Circle
400 Santa Fe Trail
405 Santa Fe Trail
405 Santa Fe Circle
408 Santa Fe Circle
402 Santa Fe Circle
7520 Frontier Trail
514 Del Rio Drive
415 Santa Fe Circle
404 Santa Fe Circle
412 Santa Fe Trail Circle
403 Santa Fe Trail
Teresa Burgess provided a brief discussion on pavement management and then discussed each
neighborhood improvements specifically. Mayor Furlong opened the public hearing. The first
neighborhood was Kiowa, Iroquois and Huron Drives. There was no one wishing to speak from
this neighborhood. The next neighborhood was Santa Fe Trail and Del Rio Drive. Councilman
Ayotte asked for clarification on the installation materials and the current condition of the
watermain and sewer system in the area. David Miller, 420 Santa Fe Circle felt the $15,000
assessment was unfair given the current economic times and pending school referendums and
additional taxes. He asked the City Council to look at the city picking up the expense like they
did in the Chan Estates development. Mayor Furlong asked staff to finish with the staff report
and then he would open up the public hearing to everybody in the area. He also asked staff to
address the issue of the city picking up the sewer and water improvements for Chan Estates. Tom
Brunberg, 402 Laramie Circle, or 402 Santa Fe Circle, commented on sidewalks and connection
between neighborhoods, speed and the use of Santa Fe Trail as a cut through for traffic. Gordy
Nagel, 514 Del Rio Drive asked for clarification on the proposal having 33 lots and the
assessment being divided by 32. Nancy Weibel, 416 Santa Fe Circle read a letter from her
neighbor at 414 Santa Fe Trail who was not able to be at the meeting stating her agreement for
the need for street and utility improvements at a reasonable cost, but was not in favor of the
installation of sidewalks. Tom Lentz, 404 Santa Fe Circle has lived in this neighborhood since
1968-69 and would like to see the streets and stormwater drainage problems addressed and fixed
to current standards. Dave Hans, 406 Santa Fe Circle stated he agreed with Mr. Miller on the
concern for the exorbitant amount of the assessment and did not favor the installation of
sidewalks. Mel Gibbs, 405 Santa Fe Trail also had a concern for the kids in the neighborhood
and felt there were other ways to control speed, i.e. speed bumps or more police patrolling rather
than the installation of sidewalks. Matt Johnson, 424 Santa Fe Circle seconded what other people
were saying and was concerned about losing trees in his front yard. As far as cost for the project,
he was hoping it's open for future discussion. Vernelle Clayton, 422 Santa Fe Circle discussed
the assessment amount and the city's practice of 60/40 assessment. Nicole Renny, 412 Santa Fe
Trail Circle stated a sidewalk would be so close people could look right into her house and the
financial hardship it would cause on her, her family and her neighbors. Rick Engelhardt, 403
Santa Fe Trail moved into his home a year ago and chose the neighborhood because it was old
style with mature trees and homes and it is a big hit with the financial burden. Carroll Hanna,
400 Santa Fe Trail stated he is attempting to sell his house and has been informed by his realtor
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City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
that he needs to put 1 1/2 times the amount of the pending assessment into escrow and believes it is
a hardship and the City Council should reconsider this practice. Betty Jorgenson, 401 Santa Fe
Trail is a comer lot so she had a question whether she would be assessed when Great Plains
Boulevard is improved also. Cathy Blettner, 509 Del Rio Drive stated she's a single income
household and couldn't afford to stay in her house if this assessment goes through. She also felt a
3 way stop sign would help with the traffic safety in the area more than installing sidewalks.
Bonn Clayton, 422 Santa Fe Circle wanted to emphasize that the cost was too much and the city
should look into options to fix the water problems with the pipes first. Mayor Furlong closed the
public hearing and brought it back to the City Council for discussion. Council and staff discussed
the different funding options available and how to reach a cost reduction in the project.
Resolution #2003-083: Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded that
the City Council approve the feasibility study, authorize the preparation of plans and
specifications for the 2004 Residential Street and Utility Improvement Project No. 04-01
including five separate and distinct cost saving options for commencing the project. Ali
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
PUBLIC HEARING: APPROVE FEASIBILITY STUDY; AUTHORIZE PREPARATION
OF PLANS AND SPECIFCATIONS FOR THE 2004 MSA STREET IMPROFVEMENTS,
PROJECT 04-02.
Public Present:
Name Address
Jason Sprague
Aaron Ditzler
John M. Smith
Ross & Mary Jo Kamerud
Jack Thien
SEH/2578 Aldine, Roseville
SEH/10901 Red Circle Drive,
Minnetonka
1072 Meadow Street, Cologne
413 Santa Fe Trail
7570 Canyon Curve
Suite 200,
Teresa Burgess presented the staff report on this item. Mayor Furlong opened the public hearing.
No one spoke at the public hearing and the public hearing was closed.
Resolution #2003-84: Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded to
approve the feasibility study, authorize the preparation of plans and specifications for the
2004 MSA Street Improvements Project No. 04-02 including five separate and distinct cost
saving options for commencing the project. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
PRELIMINARY PLAT APPROVAL TO CREATE 2 LOTS ON 5.13 ACRES, SITE PLAN
REVIEW FOR A 3 STORY 89-UNIT HOTEL ON 3.01 ACRES WITH VARIANCES FOR
SIGNAGE AND DESIGN STANDARDS; SE CORNER OF TH 5 AND CENTURY
BOULEVARD; STEINER CONSTRUCTION SERVICES, INC., AND STEVE SLOWEY,
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS.
Bob Generous presented the staff report and Planning Commission update on this item. Phillip
Bloom, President of Steiner Construction Services was present representing the applicant. Steve
Lillehaug was present representing the Planning Commission and provided the City Council with
7
City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
an update on the actions taken by the Planning Commission. He emphasized the Planning
Commission's support of the entrance onto Century Boulevard being right-in/right-out.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Peterson seconded that the City Council
approves the preliminary plat Subdivision #2003-13, shown on plans prepared by Schoell &
Madsen, Inc., dated received August 1, 2003, and dated 7/01/03 respectively, based on the
findings in the attached findings of fact and recommendations and subject to the following
conditions:
The development of the individual lots must comply with the Arboretum Business Park
Development Design Standards.
The developer shall be responsible for planning, engineering, and constructing the
"wetland trail". The city shall compensate the developer full costs of trail construction
plus a 10% design and construction management fee.
Full trail fees shall be collected pursuant to city ordinance for all lots in the Arboretum
Business Park 6th Addition.
If the trail alignment is within property not owned by the City, then the developer shall
dedicate a 20 foot wide trail easement centered on the trail alignment.
Vacate the permanent roadway, drainage and utility easement on the southwest comer of
the parcel and dedicate the public right-of-way, drainage and utility easement with the
plat.
Public utility improvements will be required to be constructed in accordance with the
City's latest edition of Standard Specifications and Detail Plates. Detailed construction
plans and specifications will be required at the time of final platting. The applicant will
also be required to enter into a development contract with the City and supply the
necessary security in the form of a letter of credit or cash escrow to guarantee installation
of the improvements and the conditions of final plat approval. Before building permit
issuance, permits from the appropriate regulatory agencies must be obtained, including
but not limited to the MPCA, Department of Health, Watershed District, MnDot, etc.
A private storm sewer easement against Lot 1 must be obtained from the owners and
recorded before the building permit issuance.
o
The underlying property has been previously assessed for sewer, water, and street
improvements. The remaining assessment due payable to the City is $137,272.40. This
remaining balance may be re-spread against the newly platted lots on a per area basis. In
addition, the sanitary sewer and water hookup charges will be applicable for each of the
new lots. The 2003 trunk hookup charges are $1440 for sanitary sewer and $1876 for
watermain. Sanitary sewer and watermain hookup fees may be specially assessed against
the parcel at the time of the building permit issuance.
o
The proposed sanitary sewer and watermains in the main drive aisle will be considered
public utility lines since they will serve more than one lot. A minimum 35 foot wide
public utility easement will be required over the public sewer and watermain. The end of
the public sewer and watermain shall be at the property line between Lot 1 and Lot 2.
City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
Erosion control measures and site restoration shall be developed in accordance with the
City's Best Management Practice Handbook (BMPH). Staff recommends that the City's
Type III erosion control fence, which is a heavy duty silt fence be used for the area
adjacent to the existing wetland just south of the site. In addition, erosion control
blankets will be required on the steep slopes on the site.
The main drive aisle through the site will be a private street since it serves multiple lots.
As such, the road must be a minimum of 26 feet wide, built to a 9 ton design and enclosed
within a 40 foot wide private easement. A cross access easement must be obtained and
recorded before building permit issuance. The developer must submit testing reports
verifying that the driveway is built to a 9 ton design.
The full access driveway onto Century Boulevard will be allowed; however, should the
driveway cease to operate in a safe manner in the opinion of the property owner, or if any
of the following conditions are met, the property owner shall be assessed 100% of the
costs incurred to correct the conditions in a fashion acceptable to the City of Chanhassen:
ao
Level of Service "F" at the intersection during peak AM and PM times.
Level of Service "D" or below at the intersection during non peak times.
Significant accidents that are attributed to the configuration of the intersection
occur that indicate a mutually recognized safety concern at the intersection.
Prior to final plat approval, a professional civil engineer registered in the State of
Minnesota must sign all plans.
Storm water calculations should be submitted to ensure the downstream storm water
infrastructure is sized adequately for the proposed development.
Drainage and utility easements shall be provided over all existing and proposed storm
water infrastructure.
Private easement for the shared storm sewer must be obtained and recorded against the
lots before building permit issuance.
Erosion Control Note//4 should include straw mulch (MnDot Type I mulch) application
with seed for stabilization.
Category 3 (straw or wood fiber) blanket should be applied following seeding in the
proposed swale in the northeast corner of the site.
The silt fence used should be heavy-duty machine sliced silt fence, metal T-posts with 4
to 6 foot spacing. Existing vegetation should be conserved as much as practicable while
installing and during construction.
The silt fence end in the southwest comer of the site should be angled up slope to inhibit
water from flowing around the silt fence.
Inlet control is needed following installation of inlet structures. Inlet control methods will
be varied before and after pavement of the parking lots. Before pavement, inlet protection
could consist of heavy-duty mono-mono silt fence with 4 foot spacing of metal T-posts
City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
and 1" rock around silt fence material. After paving of parking lots, mulch socks, sand
bags or rock and wire could be used as temporary inlet control.
22.
Based on the proposed developed area of 5.13 acres, the total SWMP fee, due payable to
the City at the time of final plat recording is $51,772.
23.
The owner/operator of the proposed development must apply for and receive the NPDES
permit prior to beginning construction activities.
24.
The applicant shall apply for and obtain a permit from Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek
Watershed District and comply with their conditions of approval.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Peterson seconded that the City Council
approves Site Plan g2003-8, plans prepared by Schoell & Madsen, Inc. and Lightowler
Johnson Associates, Inc. dated received August 1, 2003, and dated 7/1/03 and revised
8/25/03 respectively, with a 15 percent variance from the 50 percent fenestration
requirement to permit 35 percent fenestration on the northern building elevation on Lot 2,
Block 1, Arboretum Business Park 6th Addition based on the findings in the attached
findings of fact and recommendation and subject to the following conditions:
The developer shall enter into a site plan agreement with the City and provide the
stipulated.
2. The developer shall record the final plat for Arboretum Business Park 6th Addition.
The developer shall plant 13 overstory trees in and around the parking lot to meet
minimum requirements.
At least three grouping of overstory trees, with a minimum of three trees each, shall be
located along the south curb line.
The slope located along the southern and eastern property lines shall be left natural. The
applicant will be allowed to mow along the parking lot and trail if necessary.
6. A revised landscape plan shall be submitted for city review and approval.
Two landscape peninsulas shall be added, one in the northern parking lot and one in the
southern parking lot.
8. The developer shall install site furnishing including benches, bicycle racks, and tables.
The internal sidewalk system shall be constructed to bring pedestrians from the public
trails on the west and south sides into the site.
10. All signs shall require a separate sign permit.
11.
Show the driveway dimensions on the site plan to read 26 feet in width and the access
corner radius.
10
City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
Storm sewer design data will need to be submitted for staff review before City Council
approval.
Sanitary sewer and water hookup charges will be applicable for each of the new lots. The
2003 trunk hookup charges are $1,440 for sanitary sewer and $1,876 for watermain.
Sanitary sewer and watermain hookup fees may be specially assessed against the parcel at
the time of the building permit issuance.
On the grading plan:
Add storm sewer schedule.
Add silt fence around proposed storm sewer line from MH1 to the existing
manhole.
Revise the erosion control fence from Type II to Type III per city plate 5300.
Show all proposed 2' contours.
Show the pedestrian ramps at both sides of the access off Century Boulevard.
Show all existing and proposed easements.
Revise the flat elevation in the northeast portion of the parking lot.
Revise the side slope to 3:1 maximum along the north side of Lot 2.
On the utility plan:
o
Show the public drainage and utility easement.
Show the existing and proposed storm manholes rim elevations.
Show the water and sanitary sewer services size, type and class.
Relocate Sanitary MH3 to the property line between Lot I and Lot 2 where the
public sewer line must end.
All of the public watermain will be PVC C-900 pipe. Revise where necessary.
Add all applicable City of Chanhassen latest detail plates.
Show Century Boulevard existing street lights.
Seed and mulch or sod the site within two weeks of grading. If dirt is required to be
brought into or out of the site, provide a haul route for review and approval.
Installation of the private utilities for the site will require permits and inspections through
the City's Building Department.
Concrete driveway apron, per city detail plate 5207 is required at the proposed access
point to the site.
The building must be protected with automatic fire sprinkler system.
The building plans must be prepared and signed by design professionals licensed in the
State of Minnesota.
Five accessible parking spaces must be provided.
Accessible guest rooms and accessibility to recreation features must be provided in
accordance with Minnesota State Building Code, Chapter 1341.
11
City Council Summary Minutes - September 22, 2003
25.
The building owner and/or their representative should meet with the Inspections Division
to discuss plan review and permit procedures.
26.
The plans were reviewed for general building code compliance only. A detailed plan
review cannot be done until complete plans are provided.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Ayotte seconded that the City Council
approves a sign variance to permit signage on the western building elevation based on the
findings in the attached findings of fact and recommendation. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Councilman Ayotte reported on a meeting he held with the residents of Lake Susan Association.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. None.
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Mayor Furlong seconded to adjourn the City Council
meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried. The City Council adjourned at 9:45
p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
12
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
SEPTEMBER 22, 2003
Mayor Furlong called the work session meeting to order at 5:45 p.m.
COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman Ayotte, Councilman Peterson
and Councilman Lundquist
COUNCILMEMBERS ABSENT: Councilman Labatt
STAFF PRESENT: Kate Aanenson, Justin Miller, Bob Generous, Roger Knutson, Teresa
Burgess, Matt Saam and Todd Hoffman
PUBLIC PRESENT FOR ALL ITEMS:
Judy Siegel
Ken Wencl
Mildred & Wilbur Aydt
Steve Lillehaug
Jerry & Janet Paulsen
Shelley Murphy
411 Highland Drive
8412 Great Plains Boulevard
515 Del Rio Drive
Planning Commission
7305 Laredo Drive
6870 Redwing Lane
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Ayotte
approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City
recommendations:
seconded to
Manager's
Approval of Minutes:
- City Council Work Session Minutes dated September 8, 2003
- City Council Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated September 8, 2003
- City Council Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated September 15, 2003
Receive Commission Minutes:
- Planning Commission Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated September 2, 2003
- Park and Recreation Commission Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated August 26, 2003
Approval of Extending a Previously Approved Variance to Encroachment and Bluff
Setback Requirements, Scott Broin, 3840 Lone Cedar Lane.
Resolution ~2003-80: Amended Resolution 97-09 and Vacating a Sanitary Sewer
Easement over Lot 13 and a Portion of Lots 14 and 16, Auditor's Subdivision No. 2.
Ali voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
l(a). APPROVAL OF TEMPORARY LIFTING OF NO PARKING ON LAKE LUCY
ROAD.
Councilman Lundquist: Mr. Mayor, my concern was more around, well two things. The hours of
operation during week nights with the Kendall's put on quite a good show. However, at that time
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
of night my concern was that there would be some distractions in the neighborhood and as well,
didn't see any comments in the staff report about, comments specifically from the sheriff's office
to look and make sure that they were comfortable with everything that's out there and to see that
they're comfortable with that. It's kind of in a bad spot on there. That they're in favor of that as
well.
Teresa Burgess: I apologize, I was next door with the neighborhood that's up for the public
hearing.
Mayor Furlong: Two issues that were raised. One, the hours of operation requested on the
application which Monday through Thursday and until 11:00 p.m., all times starting at dusk.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday til midnight was the question.
Councilman Lundquist: Yep.
Teresa Burgess: Under this application they are, we are only considering the temporary lifting of
no parking. We lift the parking for the entire 7 days a week, 24 hours because otherwise it would
require us to go out and cover the signs back up to be able to ticket. The other option would be to
have special signs put up that would allow parking at other times. The operation would be
governed by the existing ordinances in place and the noise ordinance requires a permit, which I
believe has been issued, and Sergeant Olson can better answer the hours of operation of that
permit. The light ordinance that is in place does not allow nuisance light after 11:00 p.m. so it
would be determined whether it was nuisance or not would be whether they could continue to
operate after 11:00. We are only concerned with parking this evening.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay. Sergeant Olson, any comments on the parking there along that
particular intersection?
Sgt. Jim Olson: This display has been going on for quite a few years. Teresa and I went out and
took a look at it. Had some ideas to sit down and maybe go over with the Kendall's with, and I
think that's something that we're going to be doing over the next 2 weeks, is sitting down with
the Kendall's and talking about some other ideas.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay. Good enough.
Mayor Furlong: Any other questions or discussion on the item? If not is there a motion?
Councilman Lundquist: Motion to approve item l(a).
Mayor Furlong: Is there a second?
Councilman Peterson: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Any discussion? Hearing none we'll proceed with the vote.
Resolution g2003-81: Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to
approve the temporary lifting of no parking on Lake Lucy Road. All voted in favor, except
Councilman Ayotte who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 3 to 1.
2
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
Susan McAllister: Susan McAllister. My address is 2930 West 78th Street. I didn't realize I was
going to be standing here but I do have an issue that has come to my mind quite often and that is
the intersection of West 78m Street and Galpin Boulevard. I believe that definitely has to be a lit
intersection. There's so many cars coming every possible way you can imagine. I mean
sometimes there's like 6 or 8 cars doing different things at the same time and I don't know what
can be done, but that's a real concern for me. Seeing that my last 3 years of my life have been
nothing but car accidents, I just feel it needs some attention. And I don't know what you can do
about it.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Well we can certainly ask staff to look into it. Come back with some
suggestions on what can be done.
Susan McAllister: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Okay? Thank you. Thank you, are there any other visitor presentations? We do
have tonight with us Connie Hargest from Center Point Energy. Connie, if you'd like to come
forward.
Connie Hargest: Thank you Mayor Furlong, City Council members. My name is Connie Hargest
and I don't know if the clerk needs the address. It's 800 LaSalle Avenue, Minneapolis. I'm here
for one of the more fun things that I do as part of my job and that's to deliver a check to the city.
This is a partnership grant. Community partnership grant program that we instituted this year.
It's a pilot program and what we've asked is that all of the cities that we serve have the ability to
apply for this particular grant. Todd Hoffman, in your parks department, your parks director, saw
that we had this available and he applied for the grant and there are some trees evidently that are
needed for your central park project and we have agreed to help you purchase some of those trees.
We're very pleased tonight to be able to present this check to the City in the amount of $2,160.
Mayor Furlong: Great, thank you. From a formality standpoint, I understand we need a motion
to accept the check. Is there such a motion?
Councilman Lundquist: So moved.
Mayor Furlong: And a second?
Councilman Peterson: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Any discussion? I'll just say thank you very much as part of the discussion.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to accept a check in the
amount of $2,160 from Center Point Energy to purchase trees in the new City Center Park.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: We're still on visitor presentations if there's anyone else that would like to come
forward at this time, this would be their opportunity. Very good. With that we'll close visitor
presentations and move on.
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Sgt. Jim Olson: Good evening. With my packet I have included the office area report for the
month of August. The citation list for the month of August. There was also an update that Beth
Hoiseth put out and also a bi-monthly update that Beth put out. I'll go over the numbers briefly
with the, in the area report for the month. Our total calls for service were up by 190 for the
month. Year to date for the calls for service we're up by 1,366 also. We've had 8,186 calls for
service this year already. For the month, the increase attributed to higher traffic details. Up from
22 to 48. Our traffic stops were up by 81. Citations were 230 for the month and that compares to
183 for last year, and just from a citation standpoint, we're already up over the total that were
written all of last year. Last year we wrote 1,543 for the entire year and this year we're at 1,606
already through the month of August. Burglaries for the month were up by 8 compared to last
year from 2 to 10, and burglaries unfortunately were also up for the year from 27 to 47. On the
good side, damage to property was down for the month from 33 to 28. Theft was down for the
month from 48 to 38, and motor assists were up from 19 to 52 and I don't have a real good reason
for why those went up so much. ! don't know. More people's cars breaking down for the month
there. I don't have a good handle on that. Any questions at all from the monthly number
standpoint?
Councilman Ayotte: Is there a way Sergeant Olson that now that we've been collecting data, and
I know you have a year to date that shows the months, but some analysis. Can we have an
outside set of eyes take a look and see what are the trends. Formulate recommendations to deal
with the unknowns and to also in that report can we also get an idea of the success, you folks do
the arresting but in terms of conviction so that we get an idea of the results of the arrests. So
that's one question. Another question I have, we're seeing an awful lot of juvenile drinking. We
know in Carver County that we have a big problem with not only underage drinking but driving
while under the influence and I would really wonder if we could get some sort of analysis with
respect to that chronic problem.
Sgt. Jim Olson: What type of analysis are you thinking of sir? Let' s say the drinking problem.
Councilman Ayotte: Cradle to grave. We have a number of arrests. There should be some
number of convictions associated with that. The number of convictions that we get as a result of
those numbers of arrests, good, bad and from there a recommendation of what can be done to deal
with the issues so when we look at public safety we should not be looking at public safety simply
from the standpoint of being able to do a lot of arrests. We ought to see how we can stop the
problem and the problem has not been stopped as far as drinking goes in Carver County.
Sgt. Jim Olson: No, it has not.
Councilman Ayotte: So, what we want to do is figure out and analyze what the problem is and
come to some resolution. How to fix the problem.
Sgt. Jim Olson: Let me sit down with our records people and let me see what kind of reports I
can run and then from there sit down and take a look at it. With any number of programs, I don't
know if we're going to be able to fix or solve the juvenile drinking problem but let's take a look
and see if we can reduce it and lower it somewhat.
Councilman Ayotte: Have a target and see if we can shoot at the target and leave it.
4
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Sgt. Jim Olson: Let me, I'll see what I can come up with on that. And I'll get back to you next
council session with that or do you want something before that? Maybe in my report for the next.
Councilman Ayotte: I'd rather work to standard rather than time line so let's not hold you to a
time line. Let's hold you to a standard.
Sgt. Jim Olson: Okay. Okay, thank you sir. Any other questions at all from a numbers
standpoint? No? Okay. One thing that we had 2 weekends ago, we had a problem with some
thefts from vehicles that occurred around the city and most of those were, or happened through a
window being smashed and valuables being stolen out of the car. These were vehicles that were
in residential areas, where they would go to the people's houses, break a window and take things
that were inside of the car. I would highly recommend for people to remove their valuables from
their cars, even when it's parked in the driveway and that would help with a lot of this. People
are missing everything from expensive camera systems to laptop computers, CD's and all these
items were visible from outside of the car. If people can remove those valuables from inside the
car, and I would also highly recommend if people even put their cars in the garage, if that's a
possibility and that's an option. That would certainly help with a lot of that. Also, even with the
windows being smashed into residential areas, and this being at night when people are home, we
did not receive any phone calls at all with people hearing anything, and I know that this time, a
lot of people are starting to close their windows and it's getting cool out at night. But if people
hear anything I would encourage them to give us a call. Call 911. That's something that
certainly is applicable for 911 and give us a call and we'll see what we can come up with with
that but I highly encourage people to call 911 if they hear anything. Another thing that we had
this past week was theft to mail from mailboxes where people going through mailboxes in a
couple areas of the city. Some of that mail was actually even found in Eden Prairie. Along with
the theft from vehicles, you know I would highly recommend that people not put their mail in
their mailbox for the mailman to pick up. When people put mail in their mailboxes, they lift that
little red flag up and tell the mailman that they've got mail there, and that's a target for other
people also. Other people know that the mail's in the mailbox and that goes hand in hand with
our identity theft problem that we've had. People take that mail and take the checks from the
mail and they can get your checking account number, your bank routing number, name, driver's
license, phone number, everything off of that check. There's software that's available that you
can buy at a retail store to be able to make up their own checks and they have all that information
available to them and all of a sudden they're writing checks, and until you get a bank statement or
bank overdraft notices, you'll never know that this was done. So I'd encourage people to mail
their mail in a post office mailbox or take it straight to the post office. This is something that
we're certainly looking at. Also if you see somebody by a mailbox, neighbor's mailbox, your
own mailbox or whatever, that you know is not the mailman, again give us a call and let us take a
look at that and we would certainly appreciate that. Crime Prevention Specialist Beth Hoiseth
this past Friday had a Senior Safety Seminar that she did and she actually went over identity theft
in that and talked about that with the seniors. Identity theft is certainly a problem not only
locally, or statewide but even nationwide. Identity theft is a problem and it's something that law
enforcement all over the country is trying to get a handle on so, but one thing that you can do is
keep your mail out of your mailbox and mail it at a post office mailbox so. Anything else for the
law enforcement, for sheriff s office at all?
Councilman Ayotte: One more thing. I happen to talk to one of the victims of identity theft.
This particular individual had thousands of dollars put at risk and had stated at one point
willingness to share their story. I was wondering if it's at all possible that you could see whether
or not that's doable and maybe work in concert with the Villager to get a little bit more personal
attention to that. I know some of the victims may have a willingness to share their plights so that
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
we maybe we can get these folks to stop putting the flags up on the mailboxes. It's still a big
problem.
Sgt. Jim Olson: People don't realize the expense that they have to go through to try to, you know
maybe the bank will pick up some of the charges if you file some of that, but there's still a huge
expense in your credit history and there's so many things that get affected by this that I think
that's a good idea. I'll talk to Melissa from the Villager about that. Anything else for us at all?
Mayor Furlong: I don't think so. Thank you very much Sergeant. Appreciate all your efforts.
Chief John Wolff: Mayor, council members. For the fire department, since last month, our
staffing's at 42. We have 4 on leave. That leaves us 38 available. We anticipate a need to hire
for the next fiscal year and we'll start some work to that effect to bring some new folks on for
next year. Haven't done that in 3 years and that's typically an annual activity for us. We've kind
of had a moratorium on that for expense reasons, but we're now getting to the point where I think
we need to initiate that practice again. Through September 15th we're up 27 percent on call
volume at 611. Last year we ended the year at 699. And this time last year at 481 so call activity
is up. It's up relative to last year which was a down year but it's also up relative to any year. 10
percent higher than any prior year. Late October, we anticipate that the new radio tower that
we're using our water tower for will be available for the 800 megahertz system which is the new
radio system we have in the county. We anticipate that this will, while the system's working very
well, this will have a positive impact on the efficiency of the system and our ability to use it deep
inside some of our larger structures in town. So we're looking forward to that. It's been a good
partnership between the City of Chanhassen, Carver County Communications and the Metro
Radio Board in terms of kind of coming up with the resources to pull that one off, and everybody
benefits. Not only Chanhassen but the rest of Carver County so there' s a real positive there. Fire
Prevention Week is October 4th through 11t~. We'll culminate the week with open house on
October 12th, which is a Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and we have a whole host of events for
that afternoon. A number of activities during the week will include visiting with a lot of the
schools in town and targeting certain age groups for certain kinds of fire prevention, fire ed
programs. Look forward to that every year. Get approximately 25 members from the department
to volunteer their own personal time to teach the kids during the week so it's a real positive event
for the city. Our training program this past month, we've done a lot of work with basic skills, fire
fighting skills. Working with our extrication tools for car accidents. These are things that we do
on an ongoing basis to just maintain skill level. We've also worked with hazardous materials
training for our specialists and we've begun our WMD awareness training. We did a class on
explosives and sort of identifying the kinds of destruction that you see from an explosive event,
and also what to look for relative if you think you're in a situation where there might be an
explosive that caused the fire or the damage to kind of keep an eye out for secondary devices, that
sort of stuff so that's the kind of training that a lot of public safety organizations are taking
advantage of. The government actually has grants and programs that they've put together and we
applied for a grant and received some money to put this training on for our members and some of
the area fire departments. Our citizen fund raiser will be shortly going out to all the residents.
We put on a little raffle. There's a number of gifts and financial awards for people that win the
raffle. They don't need to be present. We do the drawing on open house Sunday. Last year we
used the money to purchase a new boat. A new rescue boat and motor and it was a real worth
fund raiser. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $21,000 and we spent most of that on the boat.
Part of that money was also spent on a thermal imaging device which allows the fire fighters to
go inside a smoky environment so we anticipate continuing that program this year too. And then
finally your packet includes some customer comment cards, survey data. We send these out to
everybody that receives services from us and we probably see maybe 25 percent back. I think
6
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
this is the most recent sampling or quarter sampling for your, just for your viewing. What I want
to implement next year is where we're going to start rolling this data up and tracking it so that we
can maybe measure it relative to how the performance is going over time. I'll take any questions
or comments from council.
Mayor Furlong: Questions for the Chief.
Councilman Peterson: In the surveys that you did get back, I couldn't see anything in there that
was really negative, but do you see anything in there that you'd like to improve on from a general
perspective?
Chief John Wolff: The survey cards are interesting. I've been looking at them you know, over 5
years now and it occasionally will target something like gee, the attire of the individuals, because
we asked that question. Question of response time, appearance of the personnel, professional
mannerism, first aid skills, and follow through at the end. Occasionally you'll get a comment
about appearance and because we're paid on call, we sometimes we're up at 3:00 in the morning.
We don't have our hair all done up for the responders but, so I sort of take into consideration
what time, and was it a day call. Was it a night call. Other things that we do keep an eye on
though are response time, professional mannerism. If there's an issue, a pattern around
professional mannerism or response time then we try to investigate that and just see if there's
something we can do to maybe improve those areas. But if you have suggestions or thoughts
around maybe other things that we could ask or should ask, we'd be open to that and we'd look
forward to your input too.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Other questions? Chief, with regard to the number of calls. 25 percent
higher you mentioned that it was low last year. Is it typically volatile from year to year?
Chief John Wolff: No it's really not. It's been pretty consistent up until last year which we had a
drop, and quite frankly we don't know why, but metro, actually statewide, even like Minneapolis
fire went from 40,00 to like 32,000 calls and everybody's back up this year. Really gosh, we just
really don't know why because it's one block of calls if you start striating them by type of call or
what have you. So it's just the volume is up, which is typically this growing community has seen
now since I've been on the department 18 years, it's gone up 5 to 10 to 15 percent a year with an
average around 8 to 10 percent. And we are on that track. We're back on that track. We dropped
off last year.
Mayor Furlong: And that was my question. Even though it looks like a tremendous increase
from one year to the next, we're back on the trend line.
Chief John Wolff: Really back on the trend line and from a budget perspective we've been
planning for in terms of, trying to put in the cost allocation next year. Not to try to trend it off of
last year' s budget but really to trend it off of the trend line.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Very good, thank you. Any other questions? Very good, thank you very
much.
PUBLIC HEARING: REQUEST FOR ON-SALE BEER & WINE LICENSE, FRANKIE'S
PIZZA, PASTA & RIBS, 7850 MARKET BOULEVARD, THOMAS O'MEARA (NEW
OWNER).
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Justin Miller: Mayor, Council. Frankie's Pizza, Pasta & Ribs is changing ownership and with
that requires a renewal or a new application for a liquor license. There has been a background
check on the new owner, Mr. Thomas O'Meara. The background check came back clean. Public
hearing notices were sent to all property owners within 500 feet. We did not receive any negative
comments. Staff is recommending approval and would recommend that you open up the public
hearing.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there any question for staff at this time? If not we will open the
public hearing. This is an opportunity for people to come forward and speak on this issue. And
this is the public hearing for the on-sale beer and wine license for Frankie's of Chanhassen. If
there's nobody that wants to come forward, we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to
council for discussion. Bring it back. Is there any discussion on the matter?
Councilman Peterson: Motion to approve.
Mayor Furlong: Is there a second?
Councilman Ayotte: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Any discussion on the motion made. Hearing none we'll proceed with the vote.
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Ayotte seconded to approve the request for an
on-sale beer and wine license for Frankie's Chanhassen, Inc., dba Frankie's Pizza, Pasta &
Ribs at 7850 Market Boulevard contingent upon receipt of the license fee and the liquor
liability insurance. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4
to 0.
PUBLIC HEARING: LAHAYE ADDITION, 7551 GREAT PLAINS BOULEVARD,
ERNEST PIVAC:
Co
VACATION OF A PORTIAON OF SANTA FE TRAIL.
APPROVAL OF PRELIMINARY & FINAL PLAT TO SUBDIVIDE 1.56 ACRES
INTO 2 SINGLE FAMILY LOTS WITH VARIANCES.
APPROVAL OF DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT & PLANS & SPECIFICATIONS,
PROJECT 03-07.
Bob Generous: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Council members. As you stated there's a public hearing
required as part of this due to the vacation of a portion of Santa Fe Trail, It's a paper street in the
community. Right now it ends just east of Great Plains Boulevard. It's a very steep slope from
Great Plains Boulevard down to Frontier Trail so the city would never develop it. We are
recommending approval of the vacation of the right-of-way and retention of a utility easement so
that a sanitary sewer line can be run down the hill. Again we won't need that for a public right-
of-way purposes and so we're vacating it. The second part of the request is a subdivision review,
preliminary and final plat approval with a variance for a double fronting lot. This is a 1 ¥2,
approximately 1 ¥2 acre site. Previously there was an existing house on the northern part of the
property. That house has been demolished. That site was accessed via an existing private street
which serves this property as well as one house in the back and another one over here. Previously
the house in front was accessed off of this driveway, but they have eliminated that access point.
The new lot is to the south of the existing, or the previously home site. It fronts on Santa Fe
Trail, the vacated portion, and Frontier Trail. Again this is a very steep site so the city was trying
to look at preventing removal of the trees and creating a steep driveway situation, so accessing off
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
of Great Plains Boulevard made a lot of sense. However, because it had two frontages it required
a variance...frontage on one public street unless it's a collector or arterial. Staff is recommending
approval of the subdivision with the variance as well as approval of the development contract and
plans and specifications for the utility improvement. With that I'd be happy to answer any
questions.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Are there questions for staff? The issue with the public, or excuse
me the private street and it's width, that was a question raised I think at the Planning Commission
as well as other times. Could you address that a little bit please.
Bob Generous: Yes. The existing or the previous house site on that was, they access via an
existing private street. They're not changing that condition. There will be one house on this
property accessing it. The applicant has agreed to make some improvements to that but they
don't really need that as part of the subdivision. For instance if they had come in just for a
building permit to demolish the old house and build a new one there, there would be no
requirement to upgrade that road. However we are trying to preserve everyone's rights and so
we're making sure that the easements are all in place as part of this subdivision process.
Additionally there's two oak trees at the beginning of that private street area, and that constrains
the width of any pavement that may be in there and so we're saying let's keep that condition now
and in the future someone re-subdivides at the end, then we'll re-look at that issue. But right now
there's no real change because the new lot will access directly off of the public street.
Mayor Furlong: And I guess that was a point of clarification. The new south lot will actually
access off a public street as opposed to the private?
Bob Generous: That's correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. Other questions?
Councilman Peterson: So if the other lot does subdivide down the road, we'll have another
opportunity to review the width of the road at that time?
Bob Generous: That's correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Any other questions for staff at this time? If not this is a
public hearing, and so at this point we'll open it up for public hearing. If people would like to
come forward and raise issues to the council.
Jerry Paulsen: Jerry Paulsen, 7305 Laredo Drive. I handed out a copy of page 6 of the report and
we highlighted a couple items there. The first item under the heading street says the applicant is
proposing to upgrade the private street to meet current city standards. In fact the city is not
requiring that they meet that 20 foot width of a private street because it does funnel down through
those two trees. It's therefore about 12 feet wide right now, and we're suggesting that a variance,
in fact would be required because they don't meet that 20 foot requirement and is there an
implication that they aren't going to meet the 7 ton load requirement also on that private street
where it funnels through there. So that was our suggestion that, realizing that they don't have to
cut down those trees, it is in fact accessing 3 lots with the potential of the fourth before long and
private streets are kind of a unique animal in the city here. Thank you.
Councilman Peterson: So Jerry what do you recommend? Just variances is the only thing that
you're recommending from your perspective?
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Jerry Paulsen: Well we suggested that a variance would have to be requested by the developer,
yes. Because it doesn't meet the 20 foot, and perhaps not meet the 7 ton requirement either.
Mayor Furlong: Is there, I guess a question would be, does this process require a variance
application at this point?
Roger Knutson: Mayor in my judgment it doesn't. You have an existing private street. If you
were coming in for a new private street, and that would narrow it down to 12 feet yes you would.
But this is an existing street. Just like I assume there are many, maybe I shouldn't, ! would
assume there are many public streets out there that don't meet current standards. I assume that's
the case, and when someone comes in for a building permit or something, we don't require them
to redo their, we don't redo the public street. The same rules would apply here.
Teresa Burgess: Mr. Mayor, if I could clarify just so there's no confusion on the part of the
public. The public hearing is regarding the street vacation and so I would encourage you to
remind people if they have a comment on that, we do need that information.
Mayor Furlong: Certainly, thank you. And I also realize that I omitted giving the applicant an
opportunity to speak this evening, if that was a desire so we could certainly hear that at this time
as well or.
Ernest Pivec. Not necessary at this time.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. We'll try to organize our thoughts. So fight now we are, have
a public hearing with regard to the vacation of the street. We slipped into a couple other issues as
a part of the staff report but is there any other discussion with regard to the vacation issue, from a
public hearing standpoint? This would be the opportunity to come forward. If there is none we'll
close the public hearing with regard to the vacation issue. Probably address these one at a time
would be appropriate from a motion standpoint. Is there any discussion at the council level with
regard to the vacation of the Santa Fe Trail? If there's none, is there a motion to approve the, can
we have a motion? What page are we on for that?
Bob Generous: Page 11.
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Lundquist.
Councilman Lundquist: I move that the City Council approves the vacation of 2003-1 for the
partial vacation of Santa Fe Trail as shown in the drawing attached with conditions I through 3.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Ayotte: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we'll proceed with the
vote.
Resolution #2003-82: Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Ayotte seconded that the
City Council approves Vacation #2003-1 for the partial vacation of Santa Fe Trail as shown
on the attachment, with the following conditions:
10
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
1. The applicant shall provide the city with the legal description of the vacated right-of-way.
The applicant shall dedicate a 30 foot wide drainage and utility easement, centered on the
sanitary sewer line.
3. Approval of the vacation is contingent upon approval of Subdivision//03-3.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: As long as we're talking about this issue, we'll move on to the next item which
is the consideration of the preliminary and final plat. Is there an additional staff report at this
time? Or did we slip into it earlier?
Bob Generous: I slipped into it.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any comments from the applicant at this time on the preliminary and
final plat? Very good. And I think the issue that was raised during the public hearing spoke to
this a little bit too so, any discussion from the council's standpoint?
Councilman Peterson: I think Roger had a good perspective and I can't argue with that. Not that
I would ever argue with Roger but.
Councilman Lundquist: Or not in public.
Councilman Peterson: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Moving along then, if there is no other discussion, is there a
motion?
Councilman Ayotte: The city I think a motion for the City Council to approve the preliminary
and final plat for Subdivision//'03-3 for LaHaye Addition for 2 lots and a variance to allow a
double frontage lot as shown on the plans received August 29, 2003, subject to conditions 1
through 12. No, 23.
Mayor Furlong: 23. Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Lundquist: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we'll proceed with the vote.
Councilman Ayotte moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded that the City Council
approves the preliminary and final plat for Subdivision ~03-3 for LaHaye Addition for 2
lots and a variance to allow a double frontage lot as shown on the plans dated received
August 29, 2003, subject to the following conditions:
1. Install sod in all of the pavement removal areas.
If grading material will need to be imported or exported to construct the lots and street,
the applicant and/or the contractor must supply the City Engineer with a detailed haul
route for review and approval prior to site grading.
11
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
o
°
o
10.
11.
12.
The new turnaround on Great Plains Boulevard shall be constructed to current city design
standards with 28 foot wide pavement, B-618 curb and gutter and concrete driveway
aprons.
A minimum 30 foot wide drainage and utility easement is required over the public
sanitary sewer line in the vacated road area.
Any grading or utility work outside of the property limits or right-of-way will require a
temporary easement.
Revise the grading plan as follows:
Add a benchmark and legend to the plan. The legend should define all of the
different line types, easements, silt fence, etc.
Show all existing and proposed easements on the plans.
Add tree preservation fencing around any and all trees to be saved.
Show the existing storm sewer and culverts under the existing driveways.
Revise the utility plan as follows:
Add a legend to the plan.
Label the existing size and type of pipe for both the sanitary and watermains.
Show the existing storm sewer and culverts under the existing driveways.
The water service for Lot 2 will be coordinated with the City.
The proposed private street upgrades shall include a 20 foot wide pavement, built to a 7
ton design, and a 30 foot wide private easement dedicated to the benefiting property
owners. In order to save the two existing oak trees on each side of the private street, the
street width may be narrowed in this area. The developer shall provide inspection reports
for the private street to the City.
Detailed street construction plans and specifications in accordance with the City's latest
edition of Standard Specifications and Detail Plates will be required for review and
approval by the City Council at the time of final plat consideration. Since the street
improvements will become owned and maintained by the City, the applicant must enter
into a development contract with the City and provide financial security in the form of a
letter of credit or cash escrow to guarantee construction of the public improvements.
Permits from the appropriate regulatory agencies will be required, including but not
limited to Watershed District, MPCA, etc.
The site will be subject to one sanitary sewer and water connection charge for the new lot.
The 2003 connection charges for both sanitary sewer and water are $4,513. The property
is also subject to sanitary sewer and water hook-up charges for the new lot. The 2003
trunk utility hook-up charges are $1,440 per unit for sanitary sewer and $1,876 per unit
for water. The 2003 SAC charge is $1,275 per unit. These charges are collected prior to
the building permit issuance.
Tree preservation fence shall be installed at the edge of the grading limits prior to any
construction.
12
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
13. Building official conditions:
Final grading plans and soil reports must be submitted to the Inspections Division
before building permits will be issued.
Each lot must be provided with separate sewer and water services.
Retaining walls over 4 feet high require a permit and must be designed by an
engineer licensed in the State of Minnesota.
14. Fire Marshal conditions:
An address monument sign shall be installed at the common driveway entrance
where they split. Plans must be submitted to the Chanhassen Fire Marshal for
review and approval. Also, if the address numbers installed on the houses are not
visible from the common driveway, additional numbers will be required at the
driveway entrances. These requirements are pursuant to Chanhassen Fire
Department/Fire Prevention Division Policy #29-1992. Copy enclosed.
15.
Storm water calculations should be submitted to demonstrate that the proposed
subdivision maintains existing runoff rates and volumes.
16.
Impervious surfaces should be minimized to the greatest extent possible due to the lack of
storm water infrastructure. This includes the construction of Alternate A (Hammerhead
Turnaround) instead of Alternate B (Complete Circle).
17. The bluff impact zone and bluff setback should be shown and labeled on the grading plan.
18.
Based on the proposed developed area of 1.57 acres, the water quality fees associated
with this project are estimated at $1,490 and the water quantity fees associated with this
project are estimated at $3,686. The applicant will not be assessed for areas that are
dedicated outlots. No credit will be given for temporary pond areas. At this time the
estimated total SWMP fee, due payable to the city at the time of final plat recording is
$5,176.
19,
Approval of the subdivision is contingent upon the City Council approving the vacation
of the right-of-way.
20.
Full park and trail fees will be collected in lieu of land dedication for the newly created
lot in the amount of $2,400.
21. Access to Lot 2 shall be prohibited off of Frontier Trail.
All voted in favor and the motion carded unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: Next item is the approval of the development contract and plans and
specifications, Project 03-07 with the LaHaye Addition. Is there any additional staff report?
Teresa Burgess: No, it's simply the agreement incorporating all of the previously discussed
items.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any discussion on this? Hearing none is there a motion?
13
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Councilman Lundquist: Motion to approve development contract and construction plans and
specifications for LaHaye Addition, Project 03-07.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Ayotte: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we'll proceed with the
vote,
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Ayotte seconded to approve the construction
plans and specifications for LaHaye Addition, Project No. 03-07 dated September 11, 2003,
prepared by Gronberg & Associates, Inc. and the development contract dated September
22, 2003 be approved conditioned upon the following:
The applicant shall enter into the development contract and supply the City with a cash
escrow or letter of credit in the amount of $54,109.00 and pay an administration fee of
$9,517.00.
The applicant's engineer shall work with city staff in revising the construction plans to
meet city standards.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
PUBLIC HEARING: APPROVE FEASIBILITY STUDY;
PREPARATION OF PLANS & SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE
STREET & UTILITY IMPROVEMENTS, PROJECT No. 04-01.
AUTHORIZE THE
2004 RESIDENTIAL
Public Present:
Name Address
Doug Rasmussen
Kathy Blettner
Mildred & Wilbur Aydt
Fred Lambert
David Hans
Matt Johnson
Jim & Marianne Moline
Brian McCarthy
David Miller
Carroll Hanna
Ron Mielke
B. Clayton
Julia Pims
Roberta & Tom Brunberg
Steve Rosas
Gordy Nagel.
Nancy Weibel
Tom Lentz
Rich Engelhardt
415 Santa Fe Trail
509 Del Rio Drive
515 Del Rio Drive
618 Santa Fe Circle
406 Santa Fe Circle
424 Santa Fe Circle
507 Del Rio Drive
513 Del Rio Drive
420 Santa Fe Circle
400 Santa Fe Trail
405 Santa Fe Trail
405 Santa Fe Circle
408 Santa Fe Circle
402 Santa Fe Circle
7520 Frontier Trail
514 Del Rio Drive
416 Santa Fe Circle
404 Santa Fe Circle
403 Santa Fe Trail
14
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Teresa Burgess: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor and council, I'll give a real brief discussion
on pavement management and you can ask me questions if you have any. The City of
Chanhassen has a computerized pavement management system which ranks and prioritizes all of
the streets in the city for repairs and rehabilitation and what is called reconstruction. This
neighborhood is proposed for reconstruction which includes replacement of sewer and water and
full construction of new road. I have grouped the items, the sections of road into what are similar
projects and I'd encourage the council to call each of those neighborhoods individually and I'll
give a brief staff report on each of those neighborhoods. With council's permission the first
section would be Kiowa, Iroquois and Huron. Those streets, as you see in this box right here, are
proposed to receive sanitary sewer spot repairs. There are approximately 23 locations that will
require us to dig down to the sanitary sewer and repair the joints, which includes relaying of those
joints and then to patch that area. That will buy the city approximately 5 to 7 years until this
section of road will need to be fully reconstructed. The reason we are able to do that and
recommending it is because the streets as a whole is in fairly good condition. We have not had a
significant number of watermain breaks and the street is holding up very well and has been
recently overlayed. We will eventually need to do a full depth reconstruction but not at this time.
The properties are not proposed to be assessed because the work that is being done is considered
a maintenance issue and is not considered to improve the property values and therefore according
to 429 is not assessable. If there's any questions I'd be happy to answer those, otherwise I'll
move for the public hearing.
Mayor Furlong: Are there any questions at this time for this section? Okay. Why don't we open
up the public hearing and as recommended we'll address these in different segments. This would
be the Kiowa, Iroquois and Huron Drives. If anyone is interested in coming forward, please state
your name and address and address the council at this time. Seeing none, why don't we move on
then with the next segment which is the Santa Trail and Del Rio.
Teresa Burgess: Mayor and council. Santa Fe Trail and Del Rio. The city is recommending
improvements to this section of Del Rio, if we could go to the map. This section of Del Rio
Drive. This section that is further to the north was constructed later and is in much better
condition then this piece right here, and this piece of Santa Fe Trail. This section of watermain
and sanitary sewer was installed in Santa Fe Trail in 1967 and in Del Rio in 1969. Due to the
condition of the pipe it is the city's recommendation that both sewer and watermain be replaced.
In addition there is existing storm sewer. Existing storm sewer's inadequate for today's needs. It
was adequate at the time it was installed, however due to intensification of development in the
area and changes in standards, it no longer meets the needs of the city. And so improvements are
necessary for that. The city, in keeping with the assessment practice as it is currently in place is
proposing 40 percent assessment of the watermain and sanitary sewer, 40 percent of assessment
for the existing replacement of storm sewer, new additional storm sewer in keeping with the
assessment practice would be assessed 100 percent. In keeping with city standards there is no
existing sidewalk in this area. City standards, if this was a new development would require a
sidewalk. Staff has included it for the purposes of cost estimating. However, as we go through
the design process we would ask the neighborhood to determine whether a sidewalk is
appropriate or not. Sidewalk would be assessed 100 percent to the neighborhood. Finally the
pavement in the area, the current pavement condition index for Santa Fe Trail is 56, and 70 for
Del Rio Drive. The city typically recommends full depth reconstruction when we enter a level of
40 to 60 pavement condition index. However in this case, given the condition of the utilities, a
full depth reconstruction is necessary to address that. If there's no questions I will sit down.
Mayor Furlong: Questions for staff. Councilman Ayotte.
15
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Councilman Ayotte: With regard to the PVC, the introduction of PVC. On either side of the
PVC, if we were to do this, is there going to be cast iron piping on either side of the PVC?
Teresa Burgess: Yes there will.
Councilman Ayotte: And that acidal material, does that cause a problem?
Teresa Burgess: We have it in other locations in the city and have not experienced problems.
Other cities have also done this and not had problems. There is a coupling at the location and it
does have to be designed to accommodate the joining of the two types of pipes.
Councilman Ayotte: So we do take measures for the diametric process and all that business, but
is there any risk to do that? I'm sorry, thank you Craig. Any risk?
Teresa Burgess: There's always risk. None that I could quantify.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay, that's fair. In your view or in the consultant's view, the amount of
degradation we're saying under the watermain, that we can anticipate that there is degradation.
Do we have a sense as to how bad? Is there a way of gauging that? Has there been any
validation to the study to gauge how bad off we are?
Teresa Burgess: The study is actually based on our experience in the field. We paid Bonestroo to
review the televised tapes of the sanitary sewer. We ran a small camera through there. And we
also had them review the watermain breaks and talk with our utility crew about the watermain.
Based on the experience of the water crew, the pipe is in significant trouble. It is experiencing
degradation due to the acidic soils. It is eating the pipe literally. This project, we have had some
watermain breaks in this area. Not a significant number. However it is our opinion that the
watermain does need to be replaced due to experiencing in the two circles which we'll be talking
about later. And that this is the same age and the same type of pipe.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay. Now, we talked about the clay having an adverse affect on the pipe,
and we've had discussions about water in the past. Is the clay the prime problem or is the
condition of our water? It's the clay.
Phil Gravel: It's the clay.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay. Storm sewer. The catch basins. Is there anything that we could do
with respect to accelerated preventive maintenance to help offset the need to deal with the catch
basins?
Teresa Burgess: There are not enough existing catch basins.
Councilman Ayotte: So it's a question of putting more.
Teresa Burgess: It's a question of quantity, but it's also a question of when this neighborhood
was developed, the idea of pre-treatment before entering the lake was not an issue. Storm water
was routinely dropped straight into wetlands and lakes, and that is no longer acceptable as a
standard for storm water treatment.
Councilman Ayotte: In regard to the street management program that we have, is this condition
because we're looking at taking care of this issue, the worst that we have?
16
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Teresa Burgess: This is the best bang for the buck. It's not necessarily the worst street in town,
but it's the best return on our dollar.
Councilman Ayotte: Could you give me a little more.
Teresa Burgess: We certainly have streets in town that are at a worst condition than these. If you
were to drive in the Carver Beach neighborhood, I'm sure you could find one very quickly.
Being the oldest neighborhood in town. However, those streets do not have the utility issues that
these do. They also have other issues, including right-of-way issues that would make it
economically difficult to address those streets, so in those cases it is better for us to continue to
patch versus this one where we can correct the problem and you have people with a decent road
and good watermain and reliable sanitary sewer.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay. One last question. The numbers that you gave us is associated with
this packet right here, this handout?
Teresa Burgess: The assessments, yes.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay.
Teresa Burgess: Those I believe, one of the council members had asked what the monthly impact
would be to property owners, and that was the intent was to answer that question.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions? At this time. Very good. This is a public hearing so residents
or others that would like to speak on Santa Fe Trail, Del Rio please approach.
Tom Brunberg: Tom Brunberg. I live at 402 Santa Fe Circle.
Mayor Furlong: Sir. Tom. We're going to pick up Santa Fe Circle in a few minutes.
Tom Brunberg: No, this is Santa Fe Trail.
Mayor Furlong: Oh, you're on Santa Fe Trail?
Tom Brunberg: I'm on this project.
Mayor Furlong: Right, we're going to try to take it by streets. We're going to talk about the
circles in just a minute and try to bring people up a little more orderly that way, if you could.
Thank you. So if we could have residents on Santa Fe Trail and Del Rio that want to speak to it.
You might be the next one up anyway. Apologize. I want to make sure we get everybody.
Please come forward at this time please.
David Miller: I'm on Santa Fe Circle but I want to give these gentlemen, let you know what
we're figuring and it's not a happy sight, or a happy...
Mayor Furlong: Sir, if you could state your name and address.
17
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
David Miller: David Miller, 420 Santa Fe Circle. These amortizations that we got printed up and
the problem we have is, $15,000 to do this to be put to each homeowner in that area is an awful
clunk on everybody at this time. It's not fair I don't think. Now maybe I'm you know speaking
for myself but there's a lot of hard working people in our neighborhood. There's some elderly
people. There's some people that have lost their jobs and have cut their jobs back, and this is
even over an 8 year period is $207 a month. Over a 10 year period, it's $175 a month. And over
15 years it is $134 a month. Total each cost to each person at the end is $19,908 if you take on an
8 year term to pay this off, this sewer and water you want us to pay for. On a 10 year time it is a
grand total of $21,109, and if you go 15 years, which I think a lot of these people in this area will
probably be saved or will be moving or gone but they'll still, this will be responsible to their
property, would be $24,291. Now in another subdivision earlier in Chanhassen's career, and I
think before the council. Was it called Chan Hills?
Teresa Burgess: Chan Estates.
David Miller: Chan Estates, The sewer and water was paid for by the city. Wasn't assessed to
the homeowners. This is steep gentlemen. Steep. I mean in your terms you can look at this, I
mean this could be hardship. There's a bond issue coming for schools. There's other taxes
coming. This could double everybody's taxes in this area. In a heartbeat. I mean double it. And
I think at this time, I know we probably need this, but what is fair and what is really ramming it to
the homeowners. There's 33, or 32 of us. And I'm not saying anything against the council but
there's got to be, I think, there has to be some compassion with some of these people and we have
to think maybe can we work it another way or can the city do what they did in Chan Estates and
pay for the sewer and water and let us pay the other assessment or whatever it has to be. But if
you look at this, it's shocking really to anybody right now, and I'm just, you know I'm unhappy
with it, but I would like you gentlemen to take a long, hard look at this and maybe we can work
something out. But right now it's a shock to everybody.
Mayor FurLong: Okay, very good. Thank you. You know what I'll ask, since we've got 32
properties here and the differences, they're all proposed to be assessed by the same amount and
the projects are, I mean we've got two cul-de-sac's off the road. Why don't you, if there's any
more staff report with regard to the circles, let's do that and then we'll just open it up so that we
can avoid some of the confusion here. I don't think they're that different.
Teresa Burgess: Certainly. I think the only thing to clarify on the circles is, first of all the circles
are in much worst condition. The two circles are both referred to as Santa Fe Circle, although on
the plat it is referred to as Laramie and so you will notice it referred to as both in the staff report.
We have tried to use both names so there's no confusion. One of the issues that was brought up
as part of the feasibility study was the idea of putting in what's called a rain garden, which is a
depressed area that would hold water for a short period of time and drain away. It does provide
some treatment. There are some significant issues to a center of the island of the circle rain
garden, specifically the fire department has expressed some concerns about their accessing the
area. It would impact parking and also it is an issue for maintenance and who would maintain
those and keep those up. They are in the feasibility study for further consideration. The city is
proposing to pay for those 100 percent if they are installed, but until those questions are
answered, the decision whether or not to put them in cannot be made. The other main issue that
takes place in the circles is that the current PCI's in the circle, pavement condition index for the
eastern circle is 52, and for the western circle is 40, so as you can see we're well within that 40 to
60 range for reconstruction of the circles. They also have significant watermain and sanitary
sewer issues. Anyone who has been out there would not question that the streets are in need of
repair and that the storm sewer work in these circles, if necessary. They're in one circle that is
18
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
much worst than the other. You'd have significant drainage issues that would be corrected by
this project. So with that I'll answer any questions.
Mayor Furlong: Any other questions? If I can follow up with a question based on the previous
gentleman. He indicated that for the Chan Estate project that the City picked up sewer and water,
is that correct? On the sewer and water improvements.
Teresa Burgess: Would you like me to address that right now?
Mayor Furlong: Please, because the question was raised.
Teresa Burgess: If the council would refer to their correspondence packet. There is a memo
dated September 17th from myself to Todd Gerhardt. And if you look to the second page of that
memo.
Councilman Ayotte: How far back is it Teresa?
Teresa Burgess: It's the first memo. So when you open it up you're going to see it right there.
The second page it summarizes what was done on Chanhassen Estates and I apologize, storm
drainage did also include pond work but there was water, sanitary sewer, storm drainage, and
pavement reconstruction, and what was assessed to the neighborhood, you'll see it in the table
there. Zero percent of water. Zero percent of sanitary sewer. 29.5 percent of the storm sewer
and 35.9 percent of the street. There were also, what throws those numbers to be a little odd is
that there was what was called a driveway credit given to some of these parcels and we were not
able to determine from the records or from recollections of anyone that was on staff at the time
that this project was done, what that driveway credit was intended for. We had some supposition
but we could not come to a clear understanding. That adjusts those percentages to funny numbers
that you see there. Also in that packet is that table that we had talked at the last work session of
what other communities are doing with assessments, and you'll notice that many of those
communities have chosen not to assess sewer and water. Some have, but the majority have
chosen not to and have built it into their water and sewer rates. As long as we're on the issue, the
numbers that the gentleman talked about, I believe those are using the 6.5 percent that we have
used traditionally. Given what interest rates are doing, you'll see, you should have seen in front
of you when you sat down a table. That was done this afternoon with what our financial
consultant is recommending for assessment rates, percentages given an 8, 10 and a 12 year bond
and so it is lower. It is still a substantial dollar amount but it is lower than what he discussed.
Mayor Furlong: While we're looking at past projects and assessment policies. This project here
of Chan Estates included improvements, repairs similar to what are being proposed for this
neighborhood, is that correct?
Teresa Burgess: Yes they were.
Mayor Furlong: Have we had any other projects of similar, in terms of the replacement of
utilities, storm water and streets since '957
Teresa Burgess: No. That was the last, in fact prior to the 2001 project that was the last project
we had done, and that was because our assessment practice was 100 percent assessment. We
implemented the 2001 practice to give staff direction. In '95 what was done, as it was proposed
as 100 percent assessment and the neighborhood dealt directly with council to adjust those. To
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
negotiate those assessment rates before the project, or actually after the project was completed.
So the council then had to come up with the money at the end of the project.
Mayor Furlong: And so the current policy.
Teresa Burgess: Practice.
Mayor Furlong: Practice that you described earlier, we have not had a project similar to this with
that practice in place?
Teresa Burgess: No we have not.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Is the only one in 2002 projects? Was there one or two projects that were
included?
Teresa Burgess: We did two projects in construction 2002.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And they were both subject to the same?
Teresa Burgess: Those were both done under this assessment practice and they were both
rehabilitation projects with mill and overlay, no utility work. No substantial utilities.
Mayor Furlong: And Pheasant Hills was one. Which was the other?
Teresa Burgess: The other was an MSA project on Audubon, Lake Drive East and West.
Mayor Furlong: That's right .... this is the residential project which would be similar to Pheasant
Hills, okay.
Teresa Burgess: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions at this time before we continue with the public
hearing? With that, Tom please come back. Thank you for your patience. And be happy to
listen to you.
Tom Brunberg: I'll correct, I'm 402 Laramie Circle, but my post office address is Santa Fe
Circle. I'm going to limit my comments to the sidewalk issue. And I'm sure others will talk
about the cost. It is rather high. It's interesting for me to discover that the city has a practice of
sidewalks and offers the opportunity if you may to our neighborhood, when the neighborhood
didn't have sidewalks originally and presumably the lots weren't necessarily set back to allow for
a sidewalk in the first place. I think a sidewalk offers the neighborhood an opportunity to create
safety for our children. It offers an opportunity to clear the streets for safety officers. It offers an
opportunity to clear the streets for fire. It makes it a better access. Unfortunately at the same
time it may actually speed the street up and so as we have, if we have a new street, as proposed, it
would certainly increase the amount of traffic. At this point in time Santa Fe Trail is used for a
cut off from the neighborhoods that are north and westerly from us so that they don't have to go
through all the city stop lights. They can, they don't have to go past the school district. They can
come down Santa Fe Trail and angle up. Catch 78th Street and head out of town, so we're a little
concerned about the traffic flow that will result from the new street. I don't know if the streets
will be widened. I don't know what the sidewalk will be and I'm sympathetic to those
homeowners that have a proposal for a sidewalk for fear that they will lose trees, shrubs, etc. So
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
as to how the sidewalk is place, how the street is placed is the street, I think the city has 5 feet or
something on each side of the street. Do you shift the streets so you lose 2 V2 feet on each side to
accommodate a 5 foot sidewalk or something like that.'? I raise those questions and so I find it
interesting practice that council would propose sidewalks and allow an area, a neighborhood to
make the decision for it would appear to me that it would fracture sidewalks in a neighborhood.
If our neighborhood opposed this and another neighborhood nearby said yes, we'd have a
sidewalk part way to Laramie Circle and we'd have a sidewalk, no sidewalk to Laramie Circle. I
find that inconsistent with what maybe the city fathers really should have, and so it seems to me
we should develop a consistent practice when we redevelop streets and water and sewer in the
neighborhood. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else wishing to come forward as part of the public hearing?
Gordy Nagel: My name's Gordy Nagel. I live at 514 Del Rio Drive and this is probably more of
a question to staff than to anyone but when I looked at the proposal there were 33 lots and when I
looked at the assessment it's divided by 32. I don't know what the difference is.
Mayor Furlong: Who's the one?
Teresa Burgess: I believe what you saw, did you look at the staff report on the web site?
Gordy Nagel: Correct.
Teresa Burgess: That was the draft and the assessment roll is based on the final draft. The
consultant had included a parcel that did not have a driveway onto the project and city practice is
to determine a parcel to be assessable if it's driveway or street address is onto the street that is
being done. The parcel in question that is being left off of the assessment is on the comer of Del
Rio and Santa Fe, and it's driveway comes onto the portion of Del Rio that is not being redone.
They will be assessed when that piece of Del Rio is done in the future.
Gordy Nagel: Okay, thank you.
Nancy Weibel: Hi. My name is Nancy Weibel. I live at 416 Santa Fe Circle. First of all I would
like to read a letter from my neighbor who is out of town, She lives on 414 Santa Fe Trail. She
writes, I will be unable to attend the September 22, 2003 public meeting because I will be out of
town. I have looked over the feasibility report and agree we need new water and sewer
replacement, and new streets to be paved for at a reasonable price. However I am highly opposed
to a sidewalk that will take up homeowner's property on Santa Fe Trail at an additional expense
we cannot afford as our taxes keep going up every year. I live at 414 Santa Fe Trail. I am retired
and a widow. At the present time I am able to live in my home and keep it up but with this new
burden, many of my neighbors along with myself find this way out of line financially for our
community. In other words, we simply can't afford it. I'd like the council to take into
consideration these are bad economic times and if you put a practice in place, and I think that is
what you are trying to do, is that you can't, there's such a difference in price from Chan View
Estates and to this one. I think they have to take into consideration the cost. As far as for the
sidewalks, like Tom said that there should be a practice for all the neighborhoods so it's uniform.
The sidewalk we are paying for and I' m not so sure we need a sidewalk on one side of the street
either. I think the way it is will probably slow traffic down more than by putting a sidewalk in,
and I don't think the kids are going to go on the sidewalk you know, and I don't think the traffic
is as heavy as, and I'm out there a lot and I don't think it's that heavy. I just think that we need to
look at a way to keep the cost down on this. Thank you.
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Tom Lentz: My name's Tom Lentz. I'm at 404 Santa Fe Circle. I'm one of the two original
homeowners that live in this neighborhood. So I've lived with the street and the conditions of
water drainage since '68 when ! moved in. '69. '68. '69. And when the neighborhood was
originally built, storm sewers weren't really required and the contractor put in a culvert that ran
down into the gully and just drained into a natural stream that used to flow down behind our
place. And so the whole neighborhood, even up to West 76th Street, comes down the hill and
drains down in front of my house. Anytime there's a rain and I end up with a sandbar on the
street and originally the culvert could not handle the water. If we had a heavy rain it was running
between the houses and washing out our back yards. The city fixed that by putting two more
culverts or catch basins, so ! have 3 catch basins right at my driveway. So I really support and
have been waiting for a resolution to this problem and there are streets I think are a lot worst
conditions than the city engineer even says they are. I think it's mostly, at least our cul-de-sac is
mostly all patch over the years. The streets were laid on just basically graded clay. I don't think
there's any foundation under them. They heave. They frost. They crack. They come into fix it
and a year later they're all cracked up again. So I strongly support that we get this, get our streets
finally fixed and fixed right, up to current standards, and it would be great. Now an overall thing
though. One of the problems I have with this policy of trying to maintain infrastructure, not just
in our neighborhood, in the whole city is the fact that it's got to be needed on old neighborhoods
and then it tends to be a neighborhood that tends to be a financial hardship on a lot of folks that
are in there. But I think the city has a little bit been negligent in maintaining the infrastructures
on some of these neighborhoods. They wait until it's pretty much at a deplorable condition. Our
watermain breaks probably once a year and it's in the winter time and then it's very costly. I
can't imagine what it costs the city to repair that watermain. I think there's what, 8 breaks cited
in the report.
Teresa Burgess: There are 8 breaks, correct.
Tom Lentz: Yeah. I can't imagine what the total bill of those 8 repairs have been over 10 years.
And in my front yard, right on the edge of the curbing I have a green oasis. I believe the
watermain's leaking. The rest of the lawns are brown. I've got a little green grass.
Mayor Furlong: You haven't been watering on odd calendar days?
Tom Lentz: It's only right at the edge of the street. ! don't know why. I told the city about it a
couple years ago. I don't know if anything was done. So, but that's it. You know whatever the,
somehow you've got to figure out how to do the assessments so you can make these
reconstruction programs affordable. In the end we're all going through our, whether it's 60/40,
24/75, whatever it is or who pays what, in the end we're all going to pay for it as a city and a
community as we go through and redo the city as time goes on. So that's all I've got to say.
Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you.
Dave Hans: Hi. My name is Dave Hans. I live at 406 Santa Fe Circle. Right next to Mr. Lentz.
I have a couple of issues I'd like to share with all of you. First of all I agree wholeheartedly with
what Mr. Miller is saying as far as the exorbitant amount of assessment that we're being forced,
and I do think that forced to pick up because I see kind of a combination pork barreling is not the
word but it's the one that comes to mind when I see that we're being forced to take it all or none.
When you're looking at streets, that can be optional, but when you're looking at sewer and water,
that's a necessity. But yet both are being put in the same package. So I feel there's a little bit of
manipulation going on there. Leveraging one issue to the detriment of the neighborhood in terms
22
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
of how much it's going to cost us. On another issue regarding the sidewalk. First of all I'd like
to point out very clearly that the sidewalk is only 5 percent of the total cost. And everyone here
has their own interest, and mine is for the safety of my daughter. Her name is Grace. She's 5
years old and right now she takes the bus to kindergarten every morning, but next year, for the
next 6 years she'll be walking down Santa Fe Trail, over to Del Rio, and over to Laredo and if we
follow through on this street, it will be on a street that has been new and improved, upgraded.
Right now it kind of rolls and there's dips. Make that street flat and I can pretty much guess what
that kind of effect is going to have on the traffic. It's going to increase the volume of traffic for
reasons that Mr. Lentz pointed out is that we are a throughway but we are going to become every
more so should the street be improved. But also the speed. There's going to be a number of kids
in our neighborhood who are going to be walking down to the elementary school in the next few
years, as there have been in the past. And we've managed in the past, but as I said, if we're going
to upgrade that road, then I think we should look at the bigger picture. I guess what I'd like to
say is that if we can accommodate a new and improved road, which is likely to result in higher
volume and higher speed of traffic, then I think our priorities are truly misplaced if we can't
accommodate the safety of our children. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else?
Mel Gibbs: I'm Mel Gibbs, 405 Santa Fe Trail. I have a concern for the kids too in the
neighborhood. I guess I feel that there are maybe some other ways to address that issue. Traffic
control. I see people coming by my house speeding and I don't know what the solution could be.
Maybe by just speed bumps aren't an option but maybe more police patrolling. Slow them down,
but I would lose possibly 5-6 feet of my front yard. Maybe necessitate putting in a retaining wall.
My neighbors would lose a couple beautiful maple trees. I would lose a tough birch. So I think
you know I sympathize with the safety issue but I still think we can handle that in other ways.
Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Matt Johnson: Hi, I'm Matt Johnson on 424 Santa Fe Circle. I just wanted to come up and make
sure that I second some of these people's opinions. I have a driveway, one of two that faces
Santa Fe Trail. Understand the safety concerns as well but am concerned about my trees
primarily in the front yard. They've been there much longer I hope than I have but that would
certainly be a concern, and overall with regard to the cost involved in the project, I think what
you're being asked here is really just to look and consider the alternatives as it comes to
maintenance. Sharing the cost with the city or what not. I think I want to walk out of here
making sure that this is not a done deal by any means but that it's open for future discussion and
that's all I've got. Thanks.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Councilman Ayotte: Who's this?
Vernelle Clayton: You're in trouble now. You think I'm tough when it's not my own money.
I'm Vemelle Clayton and I live at 422 Santa Fe Circle and gee, there were so many more of you
that were talking. We had a pre-meeting at 6:30. I don't know what happened to your voices but
I'll say what I'm going to say and I do encourage you to talk. These guys do want to hear from
you so. First of all also I do want to thank particularly Teresa for making the room available so
we could all get together earlier and also for the information that you shared with me so that I
could share it with the rest of the folks so we could better understand this because obviously it's
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
kind of a shock. The $15,000 number is kind of a shock. And it's a little bit more than that. It's
about, it amounts to 100 percent increase in our property taxes. And so I just would like to also
reiterate what others have said to some extent and talk about the policy which I understand you
like to call the practice and the precedence. The policy I think perhaps when it was put in place,
the 40/60, it was not necessarily uppermost in everyone's minds that we'd be talking about
applying it to a wholesale replacement of sewer and water and the streets. ! happen to have a
project that followed a couple of occasions all the discussions about Lake Lucy Road so I heard
more than frankly I wanted to about Lake Lucy Road, but it was really then the discussion really
was about the road. It wasn't about the sewer and the water, so maybe it was, I'm not saying it
was overlooked but I think there might be room for an opportunity to relook at the policy,
particularly keeping in mind the precedence that has been set at Chan Estates where it was not
assessed to the owners. I also would like to point out that because we'd like to get at, kind of a
combination of ways that if you decide that the project should go forward and that's your call. If
it should go forward, a variety of ways that maybe the cost and the burden to those of us that live
there will not be quite so great. And at the same time setting a standard that will avoid you
having rooms full like this every time you move down the street to all of our older streets to get
them redone. I think that it's possible that the reference to new being assessed at 100 percent, at
least in my mind when it was discussed earlier meant new infrastructure. I'm a developer for
example. I come along. I divide my parcel into four lots and I'm assessed 100 percent, but it
doesn't go to me. I pass it onto the land cost and the homeowners instead of having to pay for it
over 8, 10, whatever number of years we decide here. Pay for it through their 30 year mortgages
so it's palatable in those cases but in the shorter term, we're being asked to pay for something
over precedence has been 8 years. That's only part of the life of the improvements that we're
making, which is probably not quite an equitable situation. So it seems that anything new that is
part of the reconstruction should also be at the standard if you concede to keep it at 46, at least it
should be at the standard rate. That seems to follow, particularly with respect to curbs in my
reading of it, relatively extensive survey that was done of other cities, and ! think it might be
worthwhile if you really want to get into this, go back to them and ask the question a little bit
differently because it seemed from my reading that many of them considered curbs, even though
the question was asked separately, they considered curbs to be part of street construction. In that
case then also of the 24 cities that responded, 4 didn't ask the question for one reason or another.
16 did not assess at all and 4 did, and I believe that they did not, those that did not assess, were
not assessed for the curbs as well, but that's just a little more confusing. As for the dollar amount
then, if they could be a policy which would guide this council and future councils where any
dollar amount say over $5,000 would be amortized over a longer period of time to keep the
monthly costs down. That might be an issue that could be adjusted for inflation. And using the 3
ideas that I just presented I did a calculation and I can share it, I think I might accidentally made
enough copies so I can distribute it. I did calculate it, and this is based on, I know there's a
difference of opinion to some extent with respect to the sidewalk but based on our discussion that
we had earlier, it's probably about 80, well I don't want to say, but there's an awful lot of people
that don't want sidewalks. So for this example I took out the sidewalk. I took out the sanitary
sewer. I took out the watermain, and I then amortized it over, which leaves an amount then
divided by the 32 landowners of $8,900 which is a whole lot of money too. And so I don't want
you to think you know, I have talked to all these people and they're all willing to pay $8,900. I'm
just trying to give you something that will help to understand how changes could make things
different. So that would be $8,900 and then I did a schedule of 8, 10, and 15 years at 6 and 5
percent, and that would then range from the highest would be $116 a month over 8 years at 6
percent and the lowest would be $70 a month at 15 years at 5 percent so that's kind of the way it
was scaled, and I'll give you a copy of this. And that still, $100 a month is still a 50 percent
increase in property so it's kind of like, you know if something awful is going to happen to you,
it's only half as bad, you're kind of happy. I don't know. I don't mean to be saying that so
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
anyhow, so obviously and more help would be welcome I guess and with that I will hand these
out for you and if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you Vernelle.
Nicole Renny: Nicole Renny, 412 Santa Fe Trail. Circle. My address is the road anyway. I've
lived in my house for like 7 years and I moved in because it's a small, quaint neighborhood. No
sidewalks. Less traffic because there weren't sidewalks. My front window is only 20 feet from
the road so if you take 5 feet to put a sidewalk, you might as well put a bunch of chairs there and
people can look right into our front window. On the other side though my neighbors who spoke,
they'd have to cut down all their trees, put in retaining walls and so in a sense, and I know it
would be our side of the road because there aren't any driveways on our side, so it's give and
take. And ! know we can talk about the money and we all know the last two years have been
difficult. Holy buckets, this is hard.
Mayor Furlong: You're doing just fine.
Nicole Renny: Got really supportive neighbors. But ! know a lot of my neighbors have lost their
jobs in the last 2 years. Sorry.
Mayor Furlong: Take your time.
Nicole Renny: Okay. I mean our neighborhood's pretty close. We have a very good cul-de-sac
and when I moved into my neighborhood, all my neighbors came in and welcomed me and I was
really young because I was young and 24 years old when I bought my house. I live in a great
community and our neighborhood but the financial burden is outstanding. A neighbor's been out
of work for a year and he has 2 kids in college and I can't even imagine what $15,000 would do
to him. Let alone my family, we own our own business and we've had to take out loans just to
get through these last 2 years and then add another loan on top of that would be a hardship and we
can't even move because of those costs will still get passed onto us once we sold our house so
there's nowhere to go so if you want to move out of this, you still have that financial hardship for
the next 15 years. The woman who's not here is my neighbor also who is widowed, and I'm a
physical therapist and I want her to remain in her house because I know the pride that she feels in
keeping in her house. If she has to move out to go into a senior community, that loses her quality
of her life because she still can't maintain her house. I mean that's just the quality of life. Our
roads are horrible. I call the city every single year to have them fix my road because we have a
sprinkler system. The only one in my neighborhood and I'm very proud of it but every time I
water I get a puddle in front of my house and then people go driving by and that excess water
comes up into my yard. And every year I have to fix it. I go and market myself, saying this is
where the puddle is and they never fix it, and the burden of that, that's where the breakdown
comes down. We have a sump pump. It goes off every 13 minutes from April through June
because there's a stream that goes underneath our house. You want to know why we have
trouble. There's a spring underneath all of our houses. My neighbor's sump pump goes off all
the time and it goes right down our circle, so the problem I think a lot of us are having a hard time
understanding is the cost. Is reconstruction, therefore we have to pay for it but it's not our fault
that we're on clay. And that the water drainage sucks and so therefore we have to pay for it. I
think that's what a lot of us are struggling with is that we understand these changes have to be
done, because we're having issues but we don't understand why it's getting put on us when we
can't afford it. We have this beautiful new library and no offense, and there are a lot, my
neighbors are school teachers and no offense to this, I would have rather had, not had a library
and help pay for our road because I can't use the library because it's not open long enough hours
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
because we don't have the money to keep the library open long enough. But because you guys
have the money, you make the hours shorter. We don't have that opportunity because it's our
roads and our sewer system. So again I know I harping on and I apologize for crying but it's very
emotional and ! think you're going to have a lot of angry people and hardship families if this goes
ahead and we have to take the burden, if it does go down to $8,000. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Rick Engelhardt: My name is Rick Engelhardt. I live at 403 Santa Fe Trail. We just moved into
the neighborhood a little over a year ago. We were living in Bloomington at the time and why we
were looking for homes out here in the Chanhassen area, we looked around a lot in this area and
we looked out in some of the newer complexes, the new developments. Then we happened to
come across the home where we're living now and when we saw this home, this is where we
knew we wanted to live. It's an old town style neighborhood. Mature trees. Mature homes.
Mature streets. Like the neighbors say, one of the neighbors said, it's like going back to the 50's
and that's what we really enjoyed and we've been embraced by this neighborhood and we love
living here. And we don't want to move, and we're not going to move but to get hit $15,000, it's
a pretty big hit in the pocket book. I'm looking at this assessment practice and I see it's broken
down 60 percent city, 40 percent assessed to the neighborhood. It says 60 percent paid by the
city. City's share may be MSA, which I'm not sure what that is. General fund TIF, federal or
state grants. And then it says 40 percent assessed abutting property owners. Gee there's nothing
underneath there to help us out. So it's a big economic burden. And with all due respect to my
neighbor Dave and Tom, I'm not in favor of sidewalks. I really don't think that's going to do us
any good. I think in a sense sidewalks can cause traffic to move a little bit quicker because they
feel it is safer if they feel the kids are on the sidewalks and I'm not sure how many kids use
sidewalks. And if you're looking in the winter time when the streets get plowed, where does the
snow go? On the sidewalks. The sidewalks don't get plowed, the kids ain't going to use them
anyway. So that's all I have to say, thanks.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Carroll Hanna: My name is Carroll Hanna. I live at 400 Santa Fe Trail. That's right when you
come down Great Plains Boulevard you'll drive into my driveway if you don't take a left or right
turn. But anyhow, Nicole, very fine remarks. I'm in the process of attempting to sell my house at
this time and I've been informed by my realtor that when I sell it I have to put, if this is a pending
proposition, I have to put 1 1/2 times the amount of the assessment into escrow and then
afterwards, if it stays where it's at, in other words where it's proposed, I get my V2 times back.
But I would then have to pay the $15,500, if it's left as it is. I'm gone. I have no use of that. I
won't be able to use that property unless I drive down the street once in a while and say golly I
wish I was back here or I'm glad I'm out of here, you know. So anyhow, but I do see that it's a
hardship on a lot of people in the neighborhood, and I do believe that you should reconsider the
practice. You say it isn't a policy. It's a practice, so it evidently is not you know in concrete but
you can do the same that you did, or as the other council did, whoever did it, over in the Estates.
And let the new road is required, then assess that but pay for the remainder of the project by the
city. Okay? Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Betty Jorgenson: I'm Betty Jorgenson. I'm 401 Santa Fe Trail so I'm the comer lot so my
concern in all of this is when it's all said and done and whether we get this bill or not, and get our
sidewalks or don't get our sidewalks, when it gets done and then you're going to hit me on Great
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Plains. And I'm thinking that road's got to get done too so I'm just wondering, you know when
this is all said and done, who's going to pay my kid's college because...you know I'll pay you,
you pay me, okay .... I want to thank everyone who stood up and talked for us because in the
meeting before hand we were encouraged to. I just agree to disagree with what was said and I
think that's why more people aren't coming up so thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. I guess do you want to address the question about do corner lots get
assessed twice?
Teresa Burgess: The city has chosen not to assess comer lots twice. Some cities do, some don't.
What we use for the determining factor is the side the driveway comes out so unless you have a
double driveway on the two separate streets, you do not get assessed for both streets. Just the one
your driveway's on. And I'm sure there's several people now contemplating taking that second
driveway out right now.
Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you.
Cathy Blettner: My name is Cathy Blettner. I live at 509 Del Rio Drive. It's right on the
intersection of Santa Fe and Del Rio, and of course I was shocked to see the amount and I have a
single income and I can't afford to stay in my house if I have to pay $200 more a month. As far
as the sidewalks go, I'm opposed to those. I would probably lose at least 4 trees if it came down
my side and as far as the safety issue goes, I've raised kids there and I have 7 grandchildren. 5 of
them are old enough to be outside and spend a lot of time with me, and ! think the safety issue is
the speed of the traffic. We have a stop sign at the end of Santa Fe, but as they come through on
Del Rio on the curve, especially in the afternoon when the kids are coming home from school, the
traffic comes through there so fast I think we could benefit in safety by a 3 way stop more than a
sidewalk because the kids will be crossing back and forth and going to their destinations anyway.
So I don't really feel we need the sidewalks and I appeal to you to do what you can to keep the
cost down so we can stay in our homes. Thanks.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak?
Bonn Clayton: Bonn Clayton, Santa Fe Circle. 422. That's the west circle. I have heard many
of the things that have been said here tonight. They really very well put comments and I just
wanted to emphasize the message ! think that everybody's already been giving you, and that is
that it's too much. Too costly. You can amortize it more. You can pay for the sewer and the
water. You can pay for the whole thing, or we can do it a different way, but to me and I've been
saying this that people for a couple weeks, it comes down to the water because it seems like
there's an urgent problem in the water pipes. And that's kind of been causing this thing to be
done right now. At least that's the way it looks to me. And I appreciate Bob's comments
because if there's something to be done with the water pipes other than simply removing
everything and doing the streets over and the sanitary, or both of the sewers, if there's some way
of taking care of that water pipe and correcting a few of the sewers, maybe that would be a lot
cheaper and maybe then the streets wouldn't have to be completely redone costing $8,000 for
each of us. Maybe they could just be ground down a half an inch and built up another inch. I'm
not an expert in this area so I don't know all the alternatives but I'd like to know more of the
alternatives. Could there not be a way of simply getting something in there to change the ph
balance around those pipes? Again, I'm not an expert but I think that something that should be
looked into in that area. In those areas. Trying to solve the problems of the pipes, the water
pipes. To maybe take the pressure off of this project now. Thank you.
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Teresa Burgess: Mr. Mayor, if I could just address that while we wait for the next individual.
The purpose of a feasibility study is to look at exactly what he just brought up. Is there an
alternative? What's the best way to do that? And Bonestroo is here tonight and can talk a little
bit about what they considered on this so Phil.
Phil Gravel: Thanks Teresa. As Teresa mentioned, as part of the review we did look at other
alternatives for that area. As an example that's how the Huron-Iroquois area, the
recommendation is just to do the spot repairs. On the Santa Fe area with the consensus being that
the entire watermain is in an inrepairable state, the decision is that the only way to take care of
that problem is to replace it all and when you get into replacing it all and the damage that would
do to the street, then the next step is while reconstructing the street entirely is the next solution. If
there was no utility problem, if the watermain was in fine shape and the sewer was in fine shape,
we would still not recommend just a mill and overlay or something else. A temporary solution
for that street surface. ! think someone mentioned earlier that there's just no base there for that
street now so if that street's going to be improved, the reconstruction method is the most prudent
thing at this time.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there anybody else that wishes to address the council on this
matter as part of the public hearing? No? Okay, last chance. We'll close the public hearing then
and bring it back to council. I want to thank everybody that came up this evening and spoke. I
realize full well how difficult that can be and so thank you very much because we do very much
appreciate direct comments on issues such as this. We'll bring it back to council for discussion.
Councilman Peterson: I think what we accomplished we wanted to with the public hearing.
Certainly we heard that the legitimate passion that our residents face. A couple of them
mentioned that they understand our challenge in that, whether the individual homeowners have to
pay for it or the citizens at large, one of the two have to. I mean it's, we can't pull the money out
of someplace we don't have and that has been historically the challenge that we as council people
have faced is how to maintain, what's reasonable? Is how to maintain what's reasonable. Is
$15,000 reasonable? Is $3,000 reasonable and that's, I haven't made a decision. I've heard some
things tonight that certainly will make me think long and hard about how we should do it.
Whether 60/40 is right. Whether or not that same ratio should be onto the sewer and water. I
don't know. I can't tell you tonight. I know that what I'd like to do is to get that number smaller
somehow and whether there are creative ways to get that done, I don't think we're going to
decide that tonight. But be assured that my drive and my passion is to figure out a way to
creatively get that smaller too, but realizing that the $15,000 is a real number. We can't
necessarily, and as our consultants have said, we can't really lower that number. Potentially with
removing the sidewalk will help a little bit but the city still has to pay for that. So then the
question again, the $64,000 question is, does the whole community pay for that neighborhood or
do the individuals pay for that neighborhood and that's really the crux of it, that I think we're
going to have to sort through in the coming weeks. It doesn't have to be tonight and hopefully
you weren't expecting to get a decision tonight so. Other comments?
Councilman Ayotte: Well I've got a couple.
Mayor Furlong: You promised Bob, at the work session tonight you were done.
Councilman Ayotte: Politician. I will not approve, I will not vote for this project. I'll vote
against it and, but it's for different reasons. We have school referendum. We have library
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
referendum. We have a water treatment issue where we have to address distribution. Whether or
not we're in compliance and capacity. So if you're concerned about your street, I want you to be
concerned about your water. So that's my viewpoint. I think we have to get an aggregate impact
on the residents so I'm worried about the collective impact, one. Two, I want to state that this
council, you know I've had kind of an up and down seat here as a councilman with previous
council and this council. This council has done everything it can to keep taxes down, or
negligible, and all five us have worked very hard to that end. I feel real good about that particular
outcome so when you say double the taxes, keep in mind that it would have been a lot worst if us
didn't work towards that end so, but I do appreciate the comments that we have to take a look at
the collective holistic impact of what we have to go out of pocket, because you really don't care if
it's a tax or an assessment or a referendum, it's dollars out of pocket and I want to have a better
feel before ! go forward with any other expenditure. So $15,000 is too much at either $200 a
month or $135 a month. Because I don't know the other costs that are going to be hitting you in
the pocket. Until I know those other costs I don't feel good about that. Saying that, I think the
city engineer has done an outstanding job of life cycle management. We have to do that. We
have to gradually address the replacement of our streets. We can't do it, if someone said that we
neglected it before, infrastructure was neglected, I believe that. I think that's absolutely true. So
we do not collectively focus on our life cycle management program, not simply for streets but for
the entire infrastructure we're going to have a problem so this councilman wants to look at
dealing with that particular issue. I think Vernelle Clayton, excellent point. Let's not look at an
assessment across the board but we may have to look at wholesale replacement, vis a vis other
mechanisms to adhere to an assessment program. That's my view anyways. Council does not
propose a sidewalk. I don't know who said that but the council does not propose a sidewalk.
This councilman, and I think there's a few others up here that might think along that line. We
want to look at a criteria for the introduction of sidewalks, and talking towards public safety is an
element of it, but it's not a total view of it so I think also we have to take a look at a criteria to
figure out whether or not we have to introduce sidewalks. The last comment here that I want to
make is, somebody said we're in economic hard times. If we were on the east coast we would be
at war, okay. Let's put things in perspective. We are concerned about the money, the taxes and
so forth, but we're not just in economic hard times. We're at war. So there's some other issues
too that we have to face so with those comments I just want to re-state that I'm not comfortable
with this package as it stands right now because I think we have to do a little bit more homework.
Thank you Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Councilman Lundquist: My comments are going to be similar to the previous two council
members. I would, as we talked at our work session I think a couple weeks ago, all of us were
pretty uncomfortable with that $15,000 number. That was the number that we published because
we felt like that was going to be the worst case scenario I guess, and but I seconded the opinions
that that $15,000 number I think is much too high and we've got, we will find a way to bring that
down. However, these projects do I believe need to get done for a lot of different reasons and
among the responsibilities that we have up here as a council is also to provide that infrastructure
for the residents now. So we need to get these done. We need to also find a way to get them
done that it doesn't create such a hardship, so I would also second everyone's comments for
everyone coming up and making your opinions known because that is the feedback that we need
and anybody thinks that city politics doesn't affect your pocketbook, never had their streets
redone I guess so. Anyway, we have a considerable challenge ahead of us to figure out what's
fair and equitable in these and still get these projects done.
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Having read through the information, the feasibility study, listening
to everyone this evening, and you know the issues that ! see. One with regard to just the scope of
work and the need for the work. I guess I heard tonight and the residents were fairly consistent
along with this staff and the consultant that this work needs to be done. It's got to be done. It
isn't an issue of the streets are fine, why are you doing this now. It's quite the opposite. We had
people here tonight asking, you know this should have been done a while ago. The issue that
came up tonight at the public hearing that was open for discussion, was with regard to the
sidewalks and I concur with Councilman Ayotte. We were discussing that earlier this evening as
part of the code review. When should sidewalks, when is it appropriate for sidewalks to be in
place and when are they not necessary? We haven't had that discussion yet. I think that's
something here as, you know it's proposed as part of this project. Whether or not it goes forward
or not, I think we need to determine that. The one thing I didn't hear mentioned that I picked up
out of the packet, and it was mentioned tonight were the rain gardens in the cul-de-sacs. I think
from a cost standpoint as well as, and probably more importantly here we heard a lot about public
safety tonight. There's some concern with regard to the size of those. What they might be and
whether there'd be sufficient access for fire equipment. So those are, but those are not major
issues with regard to the scope of the project. The scope of the project includes replacement of
the water and sewer lines, which people are saying needs to be done. To get down there, you
know and I think the best thing that I heard tonight on whether that needed to be done was the
fact that the city was originally looking to do that in that other area just south of this. The
Iroquois, Huron roads and the consultant determined, no. That was not cost effective to have to
do that at this time. That a repair could be done there most cost effectively than, because the
situation was such that it could support that. This neighborhood's not the case. The big issue
here is how do we pay for it? It's got to be paid for, as Councilman Peterson said. $15,000 is too
much. We've got to find a way to get that down. That clearly becomes a burden so the question
is how do we do that. I don't know that we have the information. We've had a lot of ideas
thrown at us tonight which I think is very helpful. That's something that we're going to have to
determine over the coming weeks on how we do that, but we can't not repair our roads and our
sewer and our water lines because of the cost. Because the cost is not going to go down. My
neighborhood, I live in the Pheasant Hills neighborhood. This was the neighborhood that was
part of the mill and overlay last summer that was the project. We were assessed the 40 percent.
The cost associated with that was about a factor of 10 less than what's being proposed here
tonight. It was about $1,700-$1,800. That didn't involve the utilities and it didn't involve the
sewer and it didn't involve the complete replacement of the street. It didn't involve the complete
upgrade of the gutters. Neighborhood wasn't as old but it's, the work was still done and the cost
was shared so I can fully, ! can appreciate, fully appreciate the situation of the residents here this
evening. Being confronted with this letter and proposed assessment. ! think we need to find a
way, I think we need to re-look at our practice on how we develop assessments, but I also think
we need to move forward on these projects, continuing to delay or push them off a year.
Unfortunately there's a capacity issue and if we miss a year of street projects, it's gone. My
understanding is we don't have the capacity to double up the following year so we have to move
forward when work needs to be done. The big question is how we're going to pay for it. And
like so many things over the coming weeks and months as we work through the budget, that's
going to be a question asked time and again, but clearly this is a, Councilman Ayotte mentioned,
this is not a council that's looking to raise taxes and the cost of living in Chanhassen. Quite the
contrary and I think we will do what we can, and as much as we can to do that. Where that's
going to end up, I don't know. But it's got to be less in my opinion than the $15,000 proposed
for the current practice. So I'm opening it up to the comments or questions.
Councilman Ayotte: I had a question.
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Mayor Furlong: Certainly.
Councilman Ayotte: With the water treatment discussions we've been having, and how we want
to deal with the capacity issue, there was also some discussion on the distribution. Is it a stretch
to address the water, the sewer and water here in that discussion in some of the ways we were
talking about covering those costs for water treatment?
Teresa Burgess: Certainly as we discussed rate increases for sewer and water to address potential
improvements to the water system, what is being proposed this evening, even just our 60 percent
share will have an impact on our sewer and water rates because our current rates do not take that
into account. As I explained to council last council meeting during the work session, we will
have to adjust our water rates to account for these improvements, but we need to do these projects
and we're anticipating doing that rate study probably after most of the rest of the general fund
budget has been discussed, so either late October or early November.
Mayor Furlong: And for clarification, on the city share. We talk about the city kind of as one
entity which the city is but in terms of source of funds, the street, the city's portion for the street
generally comes from property taxes or perhaps other sources. Not in this neighborhood, but in
other neighborhoods because of the types of streets, the more commercial streets, is that right?
Teresa Burgess: This project is proposed to have it's city share come from actually three funds.
One is the general fund, which is property taxes. One is the sewer and water utility fund to pay
for sewer and water.
Mayor Furlong: And that's not taxes.
Teresa Burgess: That's not taxes. That's our utility rates. What you pay into for your usage.
Mayor Furlong: Right, for water and sewer quarterly bills.
Teresa Burgess: Right, and those were the ones that we're talking about needing to be adjusted.
We are in the process of doing that rate study. And then the third fund that is being tapped for
this project is the storm water utility fund and that, if you look at your utility bill, there is a flat
fee on that every month for storm water improvements in the city and this is one of those places
where we are proposing to use those funds.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you.
Councilman Lundquist: Clarifying question?
Mayor Furlong: Absolutely.
Councilman Lundquist: If we go forward with what staff is asking for requested action to hold a
public hearing and authorize the preparation. What's the timeframe Teresa on the project? Is this
a next spring-summer project?
Teresa Burgess: Construction is proposed to be probably late May, early June.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay. And when do those, when do the assessments and all of that stuff
have to all be worked out and taken care as part of that process?
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Teresa Burgess: There's a difference between have to and suggested. Staff strongly recommends
that council make that determination before award of contract to the, for this project which would
be May-June of next year. Because that way council knows how it's going to pay for this. Or at
least has determined how much it has to come up with. Technically you do not have to decide the
assessment rate until you get ready to certify it to the county, which would be by the end of 2004.
But the problem with doing that is you may end up having to come up with money that you were
not anticipating.
Councilman Lundquist: So the shortest timeframe would be like March timeframe?
Teresa Burgess: Correct. It would be a good time to have it decided by.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay.
Teresa Burgess: And just for the property owners understanding, the property, if we certify it, it
will go on their property taxes in January of 2005.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay, thank you.
Councilman Peterson: I would probably augment that a little bit by saying it's probably more
prudent if we're able to make a decision pre-2004 budget so that's.
Councilman Lundquist: Agreed. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't like, you know next week.
Mayor Furlong: Roger question. When does a assessment, there was a comment made tonight
about a pending assessment versus an actual, or versus I guess a non-pending assessment. How
does that work?
Roger Knutson: It's a very interesting question actually and I'll try to give you a simple answer
but there really isn't one. The term is not statutorily defined. It varies from place to place as to
what it means. Typically people consider an assessment pending as soon as you order the project.
Some people would move that to as soon as they get notice of the public hearing that you're
considering ordering the project but typically it's the date you ordered the project, which is if you
ordered it tonight to proceed, if you were to vote yes, that would by most people's, would
consider that a pending assessment as of tonight. Just so we're clear, and for everyone in the
audience. This is really a two step process. This is the public improvement hearing. Subsequent
to this there's a special assessment hearing.
Audience: Are we notified?
Roger Knutson: Definitely.
Teresa Burgess: And that notice will not only include the date of the hearing but the exact
amount of the assessment as proposed to the council at that time.
Audience: When will that be done?
Teresa Burgess: When that assessment hearing is set.
Mayor Furlong: But didn't you say typically that's either at award of the bids or.
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Teresa Burgess: The city has traditionally, wait I shouldn't say traditionally. The city has since I
have been here.
Mayor Furlong: Practiced.
Teresa Burgess: Done the assessment hearings prior to award of contract. However, the
assessment hearing is set by the council. It's called by the council. They will decide when they
are prepared to hold that.
Roger Knutson: Mayor, just one last thing just so we're all clear on this. To order the project, to
pass this motion requires 4 favorable votes.
Councilman Lundquist: That's a super majority?
Roger Knutson: Yes.
Councilman Ayotte: Then I'm going to need some more discussion.
Councilman Peterson: Again Bob, this isn't about the assessment, it's about the project itself.
Councilman Ayotte: I understand but the problem that I have is not knowing other pieces of
information, because irrespective of what the assessment shows, what comes up, I'm still
uncomfortable about not knowing about water treatment. I still have that problem.
Mayor Furlong: And when you say water treatment, just for clarification.
Councilman Ayotte: Well, we're going to be getting an action plan from Teresa and I'm not sure
when but we had talked about that, and I'm not comfortable in knowing whether or not what we
proposed for water treatment, what comes out of that action plan would have an impact on this
and other activities in the city. I'm not certain of that. Can you talk to me towards that? If we
had an action plan for water treatment, we have 3 issues of capacity, distribution, compliance. Is
there a possibility that the way we deal with water treatment would have an effect on this plan?
Teresa Burgess: No.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay.
Teresa Burgess: This project is, the only impact on this project that water treatment would have
is financial. How we pay for treatment, how we pay for this. We only have one checkbook. We
have multiple funds but that's the only impact on this project.
Councilman Ayotte: If we give an approval for this project, and we are unable to come to
resolution with respect to the assessment, are we hog tied with the project?
Teresa Burgess: No. All you will be out is the consultant fees.
Councilman Peterson: Because all we're doing now tonight is plans and specs so it's.
Councilman Ayotte: Can we when we do go forward with this thing, can we challenge whoever
does the plans and specs to do in concert with that, the plans and specs, an aggressive cost
reduction effort and seeing what can be done?
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Teresa Burgess: That is something that I expect of all my consultants as I work with them to
bring that forward.
Councilman Ayotte: But I'm saying with regard to maybe even fixing a target bogey for
reduction.
Teresa Burgess: It would be hard to set a target of a percentage or a dollar amount. I think really
the intention is to think outside the box. To look for any alternative, any cost savings that can be
brought to bear on this project, but when you set a target you may make technical compromises
that you really shouldn't simply to meet the target.
Councilman Ayotte: Can we include a target?
Teresa Burgess: You have that option? I would recommend against it.
Councilman Ayotte: Alright, because I would expect the contractor then to affix a risk associated
with the target bogey. Could one do that?
Phil Gravel: Construction contractor might. I don't think a design step would do that.
Councilman Ayotte: Can we in conjunction with the design effort get input from potential
contractors for a target bogey?
Teresa Burgess: Roger, I think you need to answer that from a legal standpoint.
Roger Knutson: I don't know that there's a legal answer to it. You can ask, you certainly can ask
a potential contractor. You don't know who the contractor is but you can go out and talk to
contractors. I'm not in the design business but.
Phil Gravel: I think that'd be a doable thing. It's not uncommon for us to ask for the
construction contractors to review design at a partial design step for their input and we do get cost
saving advice at that time. In fact on this one I know one thing we're going to want to talk to
people about is how to keep the temporary water service going during the construction so that's
just one example of how we can get input on those things.
Councilman Ayotte: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Excuse me, just for clarification Councilman Ayotte when you talk about cost
reduction, are you talking about having the design engineer work with contractors to say you
maybe design it this way but if you design it a different way we can reduce the cost?
Councilman Ayotte: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: To work in a collaborative effort.
Councilman Ayotte: A collaborative effort with the intent of trying to reduce the cost to a certain
level that is more affordable than $15,000 freaking dollars. I'm just unbelievable.
Mayor Furlong: I guess the question I'd have with regard to the cost estimates at this point, how
would, is there a way to characterize them in terms of conservative, aggressive?
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Phil Gravel: Conservative.
Mayor Furlong: Which, when you say conservative, does that mean that it's, there's a greater
likelihood they would come in lower or higher?
Teresa Burgess: If I could answer that real quick. If you would think of these assessment rolls,
these preliminary assessment rolls like you do preliminary levy. It cannot go up but it can go
down. And so as we prepare these we do try to be very conservative because if the project comes
in higher than estimated, the city has to bear that additional cost and cannot increase those
assessments unless we go back and start over again.
Mayor Furlong: Is the search for potential cost reduction, cost reduction effort in terms of
working with the construction contractors and such like that, is that part of the preparing the
plans and specifications? I mean we've done in terms of the preliminary design, have we don't
what is typically normal and can be done to come up with the best estimates at this point in time?
Phil Gravel: For this point in time we've done the most accurate estimates we can. If you move
onto the design phase, then I think you could have some more accurate information and do some
of those things like work with staff and talk to other professionals about ways to reduce costs.
Mayor Furlong: Anybody's thoughts.
Councilman Peterson: I like the idea of citing what cost saving measures are potentially there or
were undertaken as we get to the final specs. I'm not necessarily in agreement with Bob setting a
target, but I would like to see graphically, or in some form of writing what were the aggressive
steps that we did to reduce the potential costs. And I think Phil you're saying you can do that so.
Councilman Ayotte: One other thing. If we could in tandem or in parallel with going forward
with the plans and specs, is to work Bruce harder in coming up with a means of amortizing the
cost over either a longer period of time or coming up with a creative means of improving the
affordability.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah I would agree. I think how it's funded is the issue that I heard tonight as
of everyone's concern. Do we need to go forward with this? I also think I heard yes, we do. We
need to go forward with the project. How are we going to fund it? I think we can be working
both those paths at the same time, and as diligently as we're asking the designer and the
contractor to reduce the total cost, obviously the less the total cost, the less it costs for residents in
the city regardless of how that cost is allocated. But I see us working both those prongs at the
same time.
Teresa Burgess: And Mr. Mayor if I could, Bruce did discuss with me today that he and Todd
Gerhardt had been doing some brainstorming last week on how these could be funded in the
future and addressing those issues. And I believe you'll be hearing more as we go through the
budget discussions as we talk about specifically the engineering budget in October. And you'll
be hearing more as we move forward to see where council is willing to go. He had some unique
ideas.
Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Is there any other discussion?
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Councilman Ayotte: I know you don't like the idea of target bogey, or Craig doesn't but because
of what Vernelle put together, I mean we have a reference that could be at least an identified
target. Just as a start point. Certainly isn't a lock in but from my understanding she's the
smartest person in the room so if we don't put a line out there, we don't have the ability to reach
so I'm not saying it's just a target.
Councilman Peterson: What Vernelle presented was a cost to homeowners. We're not talking
about that. We're talking about the cost of the total project Bob so I think that Vernelle's number
is irrelevant to the project cost.
Councilman Ayotte: If we're going to get my vote, we're going to have somehow a target for the
consultant to work towards and collectively they can take the $8,900 bucks and multiple it times
some number to get the total but I want a target because I think if we have a target, we stretch.
We get a reference point. Or if it isn't a target, give me something else and then you're going to
talk me into voting but otherwise I'm not doing it. I want to have some mechanism to work
towards a reduction in the cost of the package as the consultant goes forward. Some sort of line
drawn.
Councilman Lundquist: I would say you're going to get your reduction, as we heard from the
conservative estimates now going forward. We should all expect that those costs are going to be
in that range or lower. And it's awful early in the game to be telling them that they've got to
reduce their estimates...
Councilman Ayotte: I didn't say that. I said target. Would this be unreasonable to work
towards? Did you see this?
Teresa Burgess: I believe what Vernelle has is what I have in front of me also. The $8,900. That
is assuming the city take on 100 percent of the cost of the sewer and water. That is not, that's
cutting the project cost almost in half. To do that there is not a way to reduce the cost of doing
the same type of project. You're talking about cutting the size of the project.
Councilman Ayotte: Then what do we do about, how do we create a target? Somebody tell me
how we create a target so that we have a mark in the sand to work towards?
Roger Knutson: Mayor. You could more easily talk about a target for special assessments, and
you could have a target there and say your target is, and I won't presume to say a number or
special assessments is.
Councilman Peterson: I don't think that's his point.
Roger Knutson: Cost is a separate issue.
Councilman Ayotte: I'm trying to get something for the consultant to work towards because to
put parameters on it.
Councilman Lundquist: Looking for a total project cost or what are you looking for?
Councilman Ayotte: I'm looking for a mechanism to help the consultant realize that if it's going
to be working towards a design that he has to consider a series of options to reduce cost.
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City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Councilman Peterson: What about the opportunity of not having a target but just listing, and
making it part of the plans and specs, that they need to develop five different and distinct cost
saving opportunities to be listed as part of the plans and specs?
Councilman Ayotte: A series of options. Why don't we just make it more general, say series of
options. I'd be comfortable with that.
Councilman Peterson: Cost saving options.
Mayor Furlong: Cost saving options.
Councilman Ayotte: Alright, so that we see a number of ways to go then. Okay.
Phil Gravel: ...decreasing the assessment part of that option?
Councilman Ayotte: Decreasing assessments?
Councilman Peterson: Two different discussions.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah, we're dealing with the project tonight so but I understand we heard a lot
about the assessment so that is a concern up here for us as well. Indirectly. With that, is there
additional discussion or somebody want to try a motion?
Councilman Peterson: Mr. Mayor I'd move that we approve the feasibility study and authorize
the preparation of plans and specs for 2004 residential street and utility improvement project
number 04-01 with the amendment to the, in addition we would like to see five separate and
distinct cost saving options for commencing the project.
Mayor Furlong: Is there a second?
Councilman Lundquist: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Is there any discussion? Hearing none we'll proceed to the vote.
Resolution #2003-083: Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded that
the City Council approve the feasibility study, authorize the preparation of plans and
specifications for the 2004 Residential Street and Utility Improvement Project No. 04-01
including five separate and distinct cost saving options for commencing the project. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
PUBLIC HEARING: APPROVE FEASIBILITY STUDY; AUTHORIZE PREPARATION
OF PLANS AND SPECIFCATIONS FOR THE 2004 MSA STREET IMPROFVEMENTS,
PROJECT 04-02.
Public Present:
Name Address
Jason Sprague SEH/2578 Aldine, Roseville
Aaron Ditzler SEH/10901 Red Circle Drive, Suite 200,
Minnetonka
37
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
John M. Smith
Ross & Mary Jo Kamerud
Jack Thien
1072 Meadow Street, Cologne
413 Santa Fe Trail
7570 Canyon Curve
Teresa Burgess: Thank you Mr. Mayor and council. I was just anxious to get onto this one. It's
another project we're doing yet this year. This project is considered a rehabilitation project.
Again an even briefer version of pavement management. Our pavement management system
prioritizes the streets and it has chosen these as the MSA streets. We do municipal state aid,
MSA project every 2 years. That's approximately how long it takes us to accrue the financial
means to be able to do these projects. That money does come from the State and when you look
at the assessment practice it does list MSA funds as an available funding source. This year we
are proposing to do Market Boulevard, between State Highway 5 and West 78th Street. West 78th
Street from Market Boulevard to where it turns up onto Highway 101 or Great Plains Boulevard.
West 79th Street from Market Boulevard to Great Plains Boulevard. West 79th Street and West
79th Street cul-de-sac are not currently MSA routes. We will be applying to MnDot to see if we
can get those to be, this one is eligible. This one is not. To see if we can get this stretch of road
onto the MSA system. If we can, then it's staff's opinion that this is an appropriate project. If we
cannot, it is staff's opinion this project should be postponed a couple of years and be packaged
with one of our residential street projects for financial reasons. We do not have enough in the
budget in the coming year allocated for, including this without the MSA money. And then Great
Plains Boulevard from Highway 5 to West 78th Street. The projects that are proposed are semi
dissimilar and so I have grouped them by street. The first section is Market Boulevard. The
existing surface is showing some deterioration and so the consultant has recommended that we
mill the entire width and rebuild the crown and repave 1 V2 inches of asphalt back onto the
existing. We will do crack repair throughout the entire area and any traffic signal loops which are
at the intersections of Highway 5 and West 78th Street will need to be removed and replaced at the
same time that this project is done because they will be damaged by the milling operations. That
is similar to what is being done on Great Plains Boulevard and also West 78th Street. West 79th
Street I would prefer to come back and give a separate staff report on that one because it is a little
bit different. If there's any questions I'd be happy to answer those.
Mayor Furlong: Questions for staff. Okay. Why don't we go ahead and open the public hearing
and given the uniqueness of West 79~ Street we'll go ahead and hear from people interested in
commenting on Market Boulevard, between Highway 5 and West 78th, Great Plains Boulevard
between Highway 5 and West 78th and West 78th between Market Boulevard and Great Plains.
So at this point the public hearing is open, if anybody would like to come forward and comment.
Okay, seeing none why don't we go onto West 79th Street. Staff report.
Teresa Burgess: Thank you Mr. Mayor. West 79th Street, as I mentioned, is not on the MSA
system and the consultant did look at it separately specifically for that reason. The section of
road does have an area of failure that is in the area of where the existing culvert is, and it appears
that the culvert has heaves possibly due to the placement of the culvert when it was originally
installed. That area will need to be removed and reconstructed. Other than this area around the
culvert section, the street is in very good condition. We are proposing to include it in this project
for two reasons. One, that culvert needs to be replaced and will improve the street. And two,
because by combining it with the surrounding area project we do have a cost saving of scale.
There is the potential that we will delay this, as I said, if it is not eligible for MSA. We can't get
that funding. We do not have enough in the budget to be able to do both this project and the
residential street project and those are in obviously much more dire condition. If there's any
questions I'd be happy to answer those.
38
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Mayor Furlong: Questions for staff. One question with regard to the failure around the storm
sewer, if we don't proceed with this road, what do we do with that? Do we just leave it or what is
there a repair option?
Teresa Burgess: Staff would continue to patch around it. We would live with the existing
condition until the road is redone.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And we would get the, this is the second of my one question. We'll get
the approval of the, whether it would be included in the MSA, designated MSA road prior to
awarding the contract?
Teresa Burgess: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright, thank you. Those are my questions. Any other questions? Very
good. We will continue the public hearing at this point. If anyone wishes to speak regarding
West 79a~ Street, please come forward.
Councilman Peterson: What a difference half a mile makes.
Mayor Furlong: Very good. If there is nobody that wants to speak on this project. If there is
anybody that wants to speak on this project please come forward. Otherwise we will close the
public hearing. Final call. With that we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to council
for comments. Discussion.
Councilman Peterson: I'd recommend we move ahead with it with the same caveats we did with
the prior plans and specs. Looking for five separate and distinct options to lower the dollar
amount.
Mayor Furlong: Other comments or discussion. Councilman Ayotte?
Councilman Ayotte: Sounds great.
Councilman Lundquist: Agree.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah, fully agree. We should be asking for those on all our projects but
specifically when the dollars reach this amount so with that, if there's no other discussion, is there
a motion?
Councilman Peterson: Yeah I would move that we approve the feasibility study and authorize the
preparation of plans and specifications for 2004 MSA street improvement project number 04-02
with the additional caveat that we look for five separate and distinct options for saving dollars as
we commence the project.
Mayor Furlong: Is there a second?
Councilman Lundquist: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Second has been made. Is there any discussion? Hearing none we'll proceed
with the vote.
39
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Resolution $2003-84: Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded to
approve the feasibility study, authorize the preparation of plans and specifications for the
2004 MSA Street Improvements Project No. 04-02 including five separate and distinct cost
saving options for commencing the project. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
PRELIMINARY PLAT APPROVAL TO CREATE 2 LOTS ON 5.13 ACRES, SITE PLAN
REVIEW FOR A 3 STORY 89-UNIT HOTEL ON 3.01 ACRES WITH VARIANCES FOR
SIGNAGE AND DESIGN STANDARDS; SE CORNER OF TH 5 AND CENTURY
BOULEVARD; STEINER CONSTRUCTION SERVICES, INC., AND STEVE SLOWEY,
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS.
Bob Generous: Thank you Mr. Mayor, council members. There's three parts to this review. The
first part, the project is located at the southeast comer of Highway 5 and Century Boulevard. It's
within the Arboretum Business Park. The first part of this project involves a subdivision of a 5
acre parcel into 2 pieces. One's approximately 2 acres. The second is approximately 3 acres.
Access for the property is off of Century Boulevard. Currently there's a full median opening. As
part of the Planning Commission discussion they recommended that this median be closed and
that a right-in/right-out be provided for this development. Staff believes that we should hold this
development to the same standard that we did to the development to the west of Century
Boulevard which includes the U.S. Bank, Kinder Care and the Helsene Building which is, if
problems become apparent at the intersection, that the City has the ability to close it and assess
the properties to any improvements to that. Staff is recommending approval of the subdivision
based on the conditions in the staff report with the modification on page 12 to go to the original
recommended conditions of approval. The building itself, the applicant is requesting site plan
approval for a 3 story brick Holiday Inn Express building. It's very attractive architecturally.
However they do need a variance for the amount of window openings on their north elevation.
Their standard practice is to have 23 percent window openings. They pushed it to get up to 35
percent but the city standard is that they have 50 percent ordinance. We believe based on the
function of the building that it is appropriate to grant the variance from this requirement and are
recommending approval of the site plan with the variance for the fenestration. Thirdly they're
proposing that a variance for signage. Currently ordinance permits signage only on street
frontages which is the north elevation of the building. They'd like to continue that treatment on
the west elevation. They did request a variance from the sign ordinance. The Planning
Commission recommended approval and based on the criteria that they presented staff would
concur with that recommendation. We're therefore recommending approval of the plans as
submitted. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Lundquist.
Councilman Lundquist: Bob, the variance, or the deviation in the windows. The other hotels that
are in town, the other two hotels that we have, what, do you have any idea what their window
coverage is?
Bob Generous: No, I didn't make those calculations. I would believe that they don't meet the 50
percent though.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay. No other questions.
40
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Mayor Furlong: Other questions for staff at this time? If there's none, is the applicant here or
representative from the applicant? Would you like to address the council for any reason? Talk
about this proposal.
Phillip Bloom: Certainly. My name is Philip Bloom. I'm President of Steiner Construction
Services and I'm also representing the owner. The owner lives in Yankton, South Dakota and
couldn't be here this evening. And so I'm here representing him as well. The hope is to get
council approval and the goal was to try and break ground yet either late fall or this winter for
opening next summer. Some of the questions have been asked as far as the restaurant pad next
door. Right now that's just starting a marketing effort right now. We don't know what's going
there as of yet. Just have to wait and see in that regard. The only issue that really came up at the
Planning Commission meeting was the turn lane from the median going in and there is a
development agreement with U.S. Bank, the Helsene Center, and Kinder Care in that regard that
that be open and that was a deal breaker for U.S. Bank a year ago if you recall when that got built.
If that would have got closed off they would have passed and went somewhere else so if that did
get closed off that would be a big deal to the developers on the west. There's also another bank
looking at going in on the other side as well that will be here probably real soon in the next few
months with that, and that's an issue with them as well. So other than that, we're excited about
the project. It's very cool and anxious to get going on it. So I'm happy to answer any questions
you may have.
Mayor Furlong: Any questions? Okay, very good, thank you. We do have a representative from
the Planning Commission here. Commissioner Lillehaug. Would you like to address the council
and summarize the Planning Commission's issues?
Steve Lillehaug: My name is Steve Lillehaug. I live at 7571 Walnut Curve and I'm a Planning
Commissioner. We were in general support of this application. The items that we did discuss
was sidewalks, internal circulation but ! think we were comfortable with the direction the
applicant and the staff was heading in that. As the applicant indicated, I think our one main point
of focus was the full access issue on Century Boulevard. This has been in front of the City
Council, I think this is probably the third time for that full access and the Planning Commission at
previous times did recommend restricting that to a right-in and right-out only. And we hold true
to that recommendation. And to elaborate on it a little, my personal opinion is that closing that
access would be better to do it now rather than later. If it's warranted at this time, and our
opinion is that it is strictly for safety issues. Current practices wouldn't allow a full access right
at the beginning of a dual left turn lane. You see it around other cities. Eden Prairie has a few.
They're not ideal and most cities would try to close them down if they weren't existing
conditions. Take it, this is an existing condition but it's a new existing condition and so I think it
was the Planning Commission's opinion as a whole that it's better to close these now rather than
later. There was a traffic analysis done at the time U.S. Bank went in there. There's
recommendations in the traffic analysis. A few of the recommendations weren't addressed
properly that did discuss...implemented so a portion of the traffic analysis is addressed and then a
portion isn't. So ! guess if you have any questions of me I'll be happy to answer them.
Mayor Furlong: Steve I don't know if this is for you or for staff with regard to the right-in/right-
out. With regard to the existing property owners, U.S. Bank has been mentioned and others.
How is their development agreement written? Was it written similar to the language that we saw
in the packet under condition 12 that's been struck out?
Bob Generous: That was approved as part of their subdivision.
41
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Mayor Furlong: Alright. And I guess maybe here's a question. Is the commission
recommending that we close that meeting entirely or just for this property not allow, because
there's a left turn allowed into this property and left turn allowed from northbound Century going
into the other existing properties right now.
Steve Lillehaug: I think holding true to the previous recommendations would be to allow both
right-in/right-out only for each site.
Mayor Furlong: For both sites so.
Steve Lillehaug: Right, it would be closing the median. And then if I could play devil's advocate
because I do want to make you aware. If this access were closed you'd have to realize that to get
to the Holiday Inn Express it would be going down to the next intersection and taking a U-turn,
so do keep that in mind. That's not an ideal situation either so if, in my mind it's a better
situation then allowing a full access there.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Teresa Burgess: And if I could council, just to give you a little bit of history on how we ended up
with this intersection. I would agree if this had not been forced upon us, that we probably would
not have gone this way. Century Boulevard was nearly complete at the time that the developer
approached us about the full access. We told the developer that if they could produce a, if they
brought to us a traffic analysis by a qualified firm showing that the access would be an acceptable
condition, we would allow it. They did that. We did not request them to update the study but
there were many of the recommendations we could not implement without significant cost to both
the city and the developer because the street had already been put in place. We did implement the
changes that we were able to do. We did talk about it but never updated the study and in hind
sight we probably should have. The condition that is in there, if you do not choose to close the
median for this property, we really do need that condition because without it we cannot assess the
cost of the closure because the way the assessment laws read we have to be able to show benefit
to the properties and most people would claim that closing their full access is going to reduce
their property value instead of increase.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other questions for staff or follow-up questions at all.
Councilman Lundquist: Teresa, it would seem to be maybe the thing to do, or an alternative
would be left turn lanes there. Obviously with that median and everything in there, is there room
as Century Boulevard is now to put two left turns lane or a common left turn, anything like that?
Teresa Burgess: It's my opinion that it would be an unsafe condition to do it without moving the
outside curbs.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, any other questions? If not we'll bring it to council for discussion and
comment.
Councilman Peterson: Mr. Mayor, I think it's a well thought out project. I like it. Let's build it
as fast as we can. With regard to the right-in/right-out, you know I can empathize and understand
where the Planning Commission is coming from on the recommendation. However, right now we
don't have a problem and I think that we, it may be, you know and unfortunately it may be years
42
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
before we do have a potential problem but we will have a problem the minute we put in that,
when we block it. We are going to have the U-turn problem. So I would bias on the point of
delaying our potential problem. Not saying that we're going to but safe to assume that we
probably will sometime. Then let's address it then perhaps when we have a different solution or
alternative. I don't know what that would be but I'd rather deal with that then than now.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Other comments or points of discussion.
Councilman Lundquist: I would second Mr. Peterson's comments.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Anything Councilman Ayotte? No? I think it's a wonderful
project. I think it's going to be a good asset to the city and it's something I'd like to be able to
continue to service the rest of the new development that's going on out in that area and the
residents in that area. With regard to the right-in/right-out, I fully appreciate the fact that if we
don't follow the commission's recommendation right now we're perpetuating what is projected to
be a problem. That being said, what I like about the language that was proposed by staff is two
things. One, it provides if the property owner sees that it becomes a problem, there's that
opportunity there to close it off. And two, the conditions by which the city would have the option
to close it off as I understand it are quantifiable and given traffic conditions, numbers of
accidents, those types of things. So it's not necessarily at the discretion of the city but if it
becomes the problem that it's projected to be, the city would have the authority to do it. Property
owners are on notice. I think the other factor is we have other existing property owners that have
that same condition as proposed by staff. Deviating from that or changing that now when those
conditions don't exist I think is a problem. In a sense we're kind of locked in here. We know
that there's going to be a problem at some point in the future. The issue which was brought up is
if you close it off you're creating a problem further down. U-turn. Then it's just a question of
how the people avoid a U-turn. How do they physically get to these properties? So my thought is
that while it's not a great situation to be in, continuing with the practice and the quantifiable
condition is probably the best way to go at this point. So, but overall I think it's a great project
and is going to be a good asset to the city as I mentioned so. With that I'll ask for any additional
discussion or a motion if someone's so inclined.
Councilman Lundquist: Move that the City Council approve preliminary plat, Subdivision
#2003-13 shown on plans prepared by Schoell & Madsen dated received August 1, 2003 and
dated 7/01/03 respectively based on the findings in the attached Findings of Fact and
recommendations and subject to conditions 1 through 24 with the original staff recommended
condition number 12.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Peterson: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Is there any discussion? Hearing none we'll proceed with the vote.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Peterson seconded that the City Council
approves the preliminary plat Subdivision #2003-13, shown on plans prepared by Schoell &
Madsen, Inc., dated received August 1, 2003, and dated 7/01/03 respectively, based on the
findings in the attached findings of fact and recommendations and subject to the following
conditions:
43
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
o
o
o
o
o
10.
11.
The development of the individual lots must comply with the Arboretum Business Park
Development Design Standards.
The developer shall be responsible for planning, engineering, and constructing the
"wetland trail". The city shall compensate the developer full costs of trail construction
plus a 10% design and construction management fee.
Full trail fees shall be collected pursuant to city ordinance for all lots in the Arboretum
Business Park 6m Addition.
If the trail alignment is within property not owned by the City, then the developer shall
dedicate a 20 foot wide trail easement centered on the trail alignment.
Vacate the permanent roadway, drainage and utility easement on the southwest comer of
the parcel and dedicate the public right-of-way, drainage and utility easement with the
plat.
Public utility improvements will be required to be constructed in accordance with the
City's latest edition of Standard Specifications and Detail Plates. Detailed construction
plans and specifications will be required at the time of final platting. The applicant will
also be required to enter into a development contract with the City and supply the
necessary security in the form of a letter of credit or cash escrow to guarantee installation
of the improvements and the conditions of final plat approval. Before building permit
issuance, permits from the appropriate regulatory agencies must be obtained, including
but not limited to the MPCA, Department of Health, Watershed District, MnDot, etc.
A private storm sewer easement against Lot I must be obtained from the owners and
recorded before the building permit issuance.
The underlying property has been previously assessed for sewer, water, and street
improvements. The remaining assessment due payable to the City is $137,272.40. This
remaining balance may be re-spread against the newly platted lots on a per area basis. In
addition, the sanitary sewer and water hookup charges will be applicable for each of the
new lots. The 2003 trunk hookup charges are $1440 for sanitary sewer and $1876 for
watermain. Sanitary sewer and watermain hookup fees may be specially assessed against
the parcel at the time of the building permit issuance.
The proposed sanitary sewer and watermains in the main drive aisle will be considered
public utility lines since they will serve more than one lot. A minimum 35 foot wide
public utility easement will be required over the public sewer and watermain. The end of
the public sewer and watermain shall be at the property line between Lot 1 and Lot 2.
Erosion control measures and site restoration shall be developed in accordance with the
City's Best Management Practice Handbook (BMPH). Staff recommends that the City's
Type III erosion control fence, which is a heavy duty silt fence be used for the area
adjacent to the existing wetland just south of the site. In addition, erosion control
blankets will be required on the steep slopes on the site.
The main drive aisle through the site will be a private street since it serves multiple lots.
As such, the road must be a minimum of 26 feet wide, built to a 9 ton design and enclosed
within a 40 foot wide private easement. A cross access easement must be obtained and
44
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
recorded before building permit issuance. The developer must submit testing reports
verifying that the driveway is built to a 9 ton design.
The full access driveway onto Century Boulevard will be allowed; however, should the
driveway cease to operate in a safe manner in the opinion of the property owner, or if any
of the following conditions are met, the property owner shall be assessed 100% of the
costs incurred to correct the conditions in a fashion acceptable to the City of Chanhassen:
ao
Level of Service "F" at the intersection during peak AM and PM times.
Level of Service "D" or below at the intersection during non peak times.
Significant accidents that are attributed to the configuration of the intersection
occur that indicate a mutually recognized safety concern at the intersection.
Prior to final plat approval, a professional civil engineer registered in the State of
Minnesota must sign all plans.
Storm water calculations should be submitted to ensure the downstream storm water
infrastructure is sized adequately for the proposed development.
Drainage and utility easements shall be provided over all existing and proposed storm
water infrastructure.
Private easement for the shared storm sewer must be obtained and recorded against the
lots before building permit issuance.
Erosion Control Note #4 should include straw mulch (MnDot Type I mulch) application
with seed for stabilization.
Category 3 (straw or wood fiber) blanket should be applied following seeding in the
proposed swale in the northeast comer of the site.
The silt fence used should be heavy-duty machine sliced silt fence, metal T-posts with 4
to 6 foot spacing. Existing vegetation should be conserved as much as practicable while
installing and during construction.
The silt fence end in the southwest comer of the site should be angled up slope to inhibit
water from flowing around the silt fence.
Inlet control is needed following installation of inlet structures. Inlet control methods will
be varied before and after pavement of the parking lots. Before pavement, inlet protection
could consist of heavy-duty mono-mono silt fence with 4 foot spacing of metal T-posts
andl" rock around silt fence material. After paving of parking lots, mulch socks, sand
bags or rock and wire could be used as temporary inlet control.
Based on the proposed developed area of 5.13 acres, the total SWMP fee, due payable to
the City at the time of final plat recording is $51,772.
The owner/operator of the proposed development must apply for and receive the NPDES
permit prior to beginning construction activities.
45
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
24.
The applicant shall apply for and obtain a permit from Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek
Watershed District and comply with their conditions of approval.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: Is there an additional motion?
Councilman Lundquist: Move that the City Council approves Site Plan//2003-8, plans prepared
by Schoell & Madsen and Lightowler Johnson Associates dated August Ist, received August 1st,
dated 7/1 and revised 8/25 with a 15 percent variance from the 50 percent fenestration
requirement to permit 35 percent fenestration on the northern building elevation on Lot 2, Block
1, Arboretum Business Park 6th Addition based on the findings in the attached findings of fact and
recommendations subject to conditions 1 through 26.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Peterson: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we'll proceed with the
vote.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Peterson seconded that the City Council
approves Site Plan ~2003-8, plans prepared by Schoell & Madsen, Inc. and Lightowler
Johnson Associates, Inc. dated received August 1, 2003, and dated 7/1/03 and revised
8/25/03 respectively, with a 15 percent variance from the 50 percent fenestration
requirement to permit 35 percent fenestration on the northern building elevation on Lot 2,
Block 1, Arboretum Business Park 6th Addition based on the findings in the attached
findings of fact and recommendation and subject to the following conditions:
The developer shall enter into a site plan agreement with the City and provide the
stipulated.
2. The developer shall record the final plat for Arboretum Business Park 6th Addition.
3. The developer shall plant 13 overstory trees in and around the parking lot to meet
minimum requirements.
At least three grouping of overstory trees, with a minimum of three trees each, shall be
located along the south curb line.
The slope located along the southern and eastern property lines shall be left natural. The
applicant will be allowed to mow along the parking lot and trail if necessary.
6. A revised landscape plan shall be submitted for city review and approval.
Two landscape peninsulas shall be added, one in the northern parking lot and one in the
southern parking lot.
8. The developer shall install site furnishing including benches, bicycle racks, and tables.
46
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
The internal sidewalk system shall be constructed to bring pedestrians from the public
trails on the west and south sides into the site.
All signs shall require a separate sign permit.
Show the driveway dimensions on the site plan to read 26 feet in width and the access
comer radius.
Storm sewer design data will need to be submitted for staff review before City Council
approval.
Sanitary sewer and water hookup charges will be applicable for each of the new lots. The
2003 trunk hookup charges are $1,440 for sanitary sewer and $1,876 for watermain.
Sanitary sewer and watermain hookup fees may be specially assessed against the parcel at
the time of the building permit issuance.
On the grading plan:
Add storm sewer schedule.
Add silt fence around proposed storm sewer line from MH1 to the existing
manhole.
Revise the erosion control fence from Type II to Type III per city plate 5300.
Show all proposed 2' contours.
Show the pedestrian ramps at both sides of the access off Century Boulevard.
Show all existing and proposed easements.
Revise the flat elevation in the northeast portion of the parking lot.
Revise the side slope to 3:1 maximum along the north side of Lot 2.
On the utility plan:
o
Show the public drainage and utility easement.
Show the existing and proposed storm manholes rim elevations.
Show the water and sanitary sewer services size, type and class.
Relocate Sanitary MH3 to the property line between Lot I and Lot 2 where the
public sewer line must end.
All of the public watermain will be PVC C-900 pipe. Revise where necessary.
Add all applicable City of Chanhassen latest detail plates.
Show Century Boulevard existing street lights.
Seed and mulch or sod the site within two weeks of grading. If dirt is required to be
brought into or out of the site, provide a haul route for review and approval.
Installation of the private utilities for the site will require permits and inspections through
the City's Building Department.
Concrete driveway apron, per city detail plate 5207 is required at the proposed access
point to the site.
The building must be protected with automatic fire sprinkler system.
47
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
22.
The building plans must be prepared and signed by design professionals licensed in the
State of Minnesota.
23. Five accessible parking spaces must be provided.
24.
Accessible guest rooms and accessibility to recreation features must be provided in
accordance with Minnesota State Building Code, Chapter 1341.
25.
The building owner and/or their representative should meet with the Inspections Division
to discuss plan review and permit procedures.
26.
The plans were reviewed for general building code compliance only. A detailed plan
review cannot be done until complete plans are provided.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Councilman Lundquist: Move that the City Council approve a sign variance to permit signage on
the western building elevation based on the findings in the attached findings of fact and
recommendation.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Ayotte: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Is there any discussion? Hearing none, proceed with the vote.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Ayotte seconded that the City Council
approves a sign variance to permit signage on the western building elevation based on the
findings in the attached findings of fact and recommendation. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Furlong: With that we're completed with the new business items on our agenda so we'll
move to council presentations.
Councilman Ayotte: Just very, very quickly. I had a meeting with some of the residents at Lake
Susan Association forward to our city planner, a white paper and the specifics on it and I would
ask that that be made public to the other council so that we could possibly take a look forward to
resolution to the Lake Susan problem. That's all I have.
Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Any other council presentations?
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. None.
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Mayor Furlong seconded to adjourn the City Council
meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried. The City Council adjourned at 9:45
p.m.
48
City Council Meeting - September 22, 2003
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
49
CHANHASSEN PLANNING COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
SUMMARY MINUTES
SEPTEMBER 16, 2003
Chairman Sacchet called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Uli Sacchet, Kurt Papke, Bethany Tjornhom, Rich Slagle and Bruce
Feik
MEMBERS ABSENT: Steve Lillehaug and Craig Claybaugh
STAFF PRESENT: Kate Aanenson, Community Development Director; Sharmeen Al-Jaff,
Senior Planner; Bob Generous, Senior Planner; Matt Saam, Assistant City Engineer; Mak
Sweidan, Engineer; and Justin Miller, Assistant to the City Manager
PUBLIC PRESENT FOR ALL ITEMS:
Janet & Jerry Paulsen
Debbie Lloyd
Melissa Gilman
7305 Laredo Drive
7302 Laredo Drive
Chanhassen Villager
PUBLIC HEARING:
CONSIDER A REQUEST FOR REZON1NG FROM BG, BUSINESS GENERAL TO CBD,
CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT; REPLAT OF LOTS; CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT
FOR MORE THAN ONE BUILDING ON A LOT; SITE PLAN REVIEW WITH
VARIANCES OF APPROXIMATELY 60,000 SO. FT. INCLUDING CINEMA
EXPANSION, RETAIL AND OFFICES, AND VACATION OF DRAINAGE AND
UTILITY EASEMENTS, MARKET STREET STATION, LLP.
Public Present:
Name Address
John D. Rice
Bob Worthington
Dan Engelsma
Clayton Johnson
Milo Thompson
Gary F. Milne Rojek
Mike Korsh
Adam Arvidson
Glenn Baird
John Uban
551 West 78th Street
Southwest Metro Transit
4210 West Old Shakopee Road
Bloomberg Companies, Inc.
Bentz/Thompson/Rietow
Bentz/Thompson/Rietow
4210 West Old Shakopee Road
DSU, Inc.
510 Pauly Drive
DSU, Inc.
Kate Aanenson presented the staff report on this item. Commissioner Feik stated he had concerns
with the bus turning radius in the parking lot and the current parking situation in front of the
dance studio. Commissioner Tjornhom asked for clarification on the traffic study.
Commissioner Slagle asked about the architectural transition from the cinema building to the
adjoining addition. His biggest concern was the vehicle and pedestrian traffic patterns and if the
applicant had explored the option of having the buses come through, pick up at the new shelter,
Planning Commission Summary - September 16, 2003
and then just head along the road back to the south of the Dinner Theater. Chairman Sacchet
asked for clarification on the site plan, parking requirements, the landscape islands, lighting
requirements, signage, monument and pylon, and the gas easements. Commissioner Slagle asked
if the hotel had made any comments regarding lights and noise from this project. John Uban, the
consulting planner for the applicant, provided a handout addressing issues in the staff report, and
addressed concerns brought up by the Planning Commission. Commissioner Slagle asked the
applicant to explain the parking plan and the bank drive thru circulation. Commissioner Papke
asked about the use of the turn around in the southwest comer. Commissioner Feik asked for
clarification on the timeline of the temporary nature of the site. Chairman Sacchet asked the
applicant to clarify the number of parking spaces, the timeline of installing new stadium seating
in the cinema, the landscaping plan architectural detailing, the up lighting on the cinema, and
approval of the bus circulation by Southwest Metro Transit.
Chairman Sacchet opened the public hearing. No one spoke and the public hearing was closed.
Commissioner Tjornhom stated she was in favor of the project, and particularly liked the
architecture and the monument and directional signage. Commissioner Feik was not comfortable
with the up lighting or the bus circulation on the site. He suggested reducing the number of
parking spots in exchange for a different bus circulation route. One monument sign for the bank
portion is more than adequate. Commissioner Papke stated he was impressed with the
cooperation between the cinema, Bloomberg Companies and Kraus-Anderson and the
cohesiveness of this project but expressed concern with the traffic circulation proposal.
Commissioner Slagle stated he could not support the proposal due to the traffic circulation, but
liked all other aspects of the plan. Chairman Sacchet addressed the points the applicant brought
up in his presentation and asked about the time line if this proposal is tabled. Justin Miller
informed the Planning Commission of the EDA's time line for the purchase agreement. Clayton
Johnson with Bloomberg Companies and Market Street Partners provided a history of the project
and expressed his view on tabling the item. Commissioner Feik suggested an alternative to the
bus circulation in the parking lot with a variance on the number of parking spots to be considered
with tabling.
Feik moved, Slagle seconded that the Planning Commission table the Market Street Station
proposal. All voted in favor, except Tjornhom who abstained and the motion carried with a
vote of 4 to 0 to 1.
PUBLIC HEARING:
CONSIDER REQUEST FOR PRELIMINARY PLAT TO REPLAT 3.63 ACRES INTO 7
SINGLE FAMILY LOTS WITH VARIANCES, AND A WETLAND ALTERATION
PERMIT, LOCATED AT THE SOUTHWEST INTERSECTION OF LAKE LUCY ROAD
AND POWERS BOULEVARD, BURLWOOD ADDITION, EPIC DEVELOPMENT, LLC.
Public Present:
Name Address
Laurie &Jon Steckman
David Smith
Bob Martinka
Mike Cuccia
Kent Kelly
Bob Christensen
Larry & Kathy Kerber
1215 Lake Lucy Road
6645 Mulberry Circle East
6650 Powers Boulevard
6722 Powers Boulevard
6539 Gray Fox Curve
6648 Powers Boulevard
6420 Powers Boulevard
Planning Commission Summary - September 16, 2003
Rich Rogatz
Perry Ryan
Kevin Grafft
3441 St. Paul Avenue, Minneapolis
430 Lafayette Avenue, Excelsior
6726 Powers Boulevard
Sharmeen AI-Jaff presented the staff report on this item. Commissioners asked for clarification
on the access, storm water, and tree requirement conditions. Rich Ragatz, 3441 St. Paul Avenue,
Minneapolis was present to represent the applicants, Larry and Kathy Kerber. He provided some
background information on why the parcel was being developed in two phases. There's two main
things to address with this plat, the safety concerns and providing the ability for the two lots in
the southern end of the development to further subdivide in the future. Chairman Sacchet asked
for clarification on the tree canopy count. Commissioner Slagle asked for clarification on the
driveway alignment and the Martinka property. Rich Ragatz suggested changes to conditions 13
and 31 of the preliminary plat. Chairman Sacchet opened the public hearing.
Jon Steckman, 1215 Lake Lucy Road asked for clarification on the size and location of the
proposed storm water pond. Debbie Lloyd, 7302 Laredo Drive asked for clarification of items in
the staff report, i.e. road option E, the number of private streets, and the average lot size
calculation. Kevin Grafft, 6726 Powers asked about closing off the drives to Lots 11, 12 and 13
and then made a comment about the developer and the Martinka's working together. There was
discussion around whether or not this plat was already approved and a done deal by the City
Council's action in 1995. Bob Martinka clarified his position on the easement and asked the
Planning Commission to very thoughtfully read his memo, which is attached in the staff report.
Larry Kerber got up to dispute the fact that Mr. Martinka did not know about the road plans when
he purchased his property. Chairman Sacchet closed the public hearing. After commission
discussion the following motion was made.
Feik moved, Siagle seconded that the Planning Commission table the Preliminary Plat
request for Burlwood Addition at Lake Lucy Road and Powers Boulevard. All voted in
favor, except Papke who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1.
PUBLIC HEARING:
CONSIDER A REQUEST FOR A LAND USE AMENDMENT FROM RESIDENTIAL
LOW DENSITY TO COMMERCIAL ON 8 ACRES AND CONCEPTUAL PLANNED
UNIT DEVELOPMENT (PUD) REVIEW FOR A MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT
INCLUDING A FAMILY ACTIVITY CENTER AND TOWNHOMES ON 14 ACRES
ZONED AGRICULTURAL ESTATE DISTRICT (A2), LOCATED AT THE
NORTHWEST CORNER OF TH 5 AND GALPIN BOULEVARD, JOHN PRYZMUS,
SWINGS.
Public Present:
Name Address
Marlene Bentz
Lois Degler
7300 Galpin Boulevard
9111 Audubon
Bob Generous presented the staff report on this item. Commissioners Feik and Slagle asked
about the history of how this property became guided residential low density. Commissioner
Papke asked about access to this site from the school. Chairman Sacchet asked for clarification
on some points raised in the staff report regarding the use on this site. Tom Goodrum with
Schoell and Madsen, 10580 Wayzata Boulevard, Minnetonka, Minnesota spoke on behalf of John
Planning Commission Summary - September 16, 2003
Pryzmus, the property owner. Commissioner Papke asked the applicant to explain the number
and size of the uses within the activity center. Chairman Sacchet opened the public hearing. No
one spoke and the public hearing was closed. After discussion the following motion was made.
Feik moved, Papke seconded that the Planning Commission recommend approval of the
Land Use Map Amendment from Residential-Low Density to Commercial on the portion of
land south of West 78th Street because it is consistent with the uses along the West 78th
Street corridor. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to
0.
Feik moved, Slagle seconded that the Planning Commission recommends approval of the
Concept Planned Unit Development (PUD) review for a family activity center, subject to the
following conditions:
The development needs to comply with the design standards for commercial, industrial
and office institutional developments. Additional detail needs to be provided to ascertain
the quality of the proposed development.
Planned Unit Developments require that development design standards be developed for
the project.
o
The goals set forth in the Bluff Creek Watershed Resources Management Plan
(BCWNRMP) for the Lowlands Region are to be incorporated in the further development
of the plan.
The Bluff Creek corridor primary and secondary zone boundaries will need to be
determined and surveyed. The applicant shall arrange for the Bluff Creek Overlay district
boundaries to be field verified by staff prior to the development of a more detailed plan
for this site. In determining the boundaries, wetland adjacent to Bluff Creek have
historically been included within the primary zone.
Drainage and utility easements shall be provided over all existing wetlands, wetland
mitigation areas, buffer areas used as PVC and storm water ponds.
6. A preliminary grading plan must be prepared.
The applicant must provide storm water calculations for any proposed subdivision. The
development will need to provide storm water ponding on site for treatment prior to
discharge into the wetlands or creek. The development must meet pre-development
runoff rates for the 10 year and 100 year storm. On site storm water ponding must be
sufficient to meet all city water quality and quantity standards.
An erosion and sediment control plan shall be submitted. Type III silt fence shall be
provided adjacent to all wetland fill areas, areas to be preserved as buffer or if no buffer is
to be preserved, at the delineated wetland edge.
A minimum 20 foot wide public drainage and utility easement will be required on all
public utilities outside of the public right-of-way. All buildings must be outside any
existing or proposed easements.
Planning Commission Summary - September 16, 2003
10.
Accept points to West 78th Street, a designated collector route, shall be limited to one
access on both the north and south side of the street. The access location must be offset a
minimum of 600 feet from Galpin Boulevard, and the north/south access shall be aligned
in the same location.
11. A MnDot and Carver County permit will be required for access to the site.
12.
The proposed access onto Galpin Boulevard will not be allowed in it's current location.
The access will need to be offset a minimum of 300 feet from the intersection of West
78th Street. City approval of the access location will still be contingent upon MnDot and
Carver County approval of the proposed access.
13.
The applicant will need to submit a survey showing existing trees and woodlands along
with canopy coverage calculations and proposed reforestation.
14. The applicant will be required to pay park donation fees pursuant to city ordinance.
15.
The applicant will need to provide pedestrian connections from the site to adjacent trail
and sidewalks.
16.
A wetland buffer 0 to 20 feet in width (with a minimum average width of 10 feet) must be
maintained around the wetland basin. Wetland buffer areas shall be preserved, surveyed
and staked in accordance with the city's wetland ordinance. The applicant must install
wetland buffer edge signs, under the direction of city staff, before construction begins and
must pay the city $20 per sign. All structures shall maintain a 40 foot setback from the
edge of the wetland buffer. The grading and erosion control plan shall show the actual
wetland buffer widths proposed to meet the minimum average buffer width requirements
as well as the 40 foot wetland buffer setback.
17. The creek and the required setback shall be indicated on the grading plan.
18.
The development will require a landscaping plan. Staff recommends that significant
landscape screening and berming be incorporated along Highway 5 as well as West 78th
Street.
19.
The developer will need to locate all significant trees on the site and provide a calculation
of existing canopy coverage as well as proposed tree removal.
20.
Development will require a conditional use permit for development within the Bluff
Creek Overlay District.
21. The applicant shall incorporate stepped back roof lines as presented in the
renderings.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Chairman Sacchet summarized that the Planning Commission was in favor of family fun center
proposed south of West 78th Street but would like see more diligence with the portion proposed as
medium density to the north in terms of delineating the Bluff Creek to see what really fits.
Planning Commission Summary - September 16, 2003
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Commissioner Feik noted the Minutes of the
Commission meeting dated September 2, 2003 as presented.
Chairman Sacchet adjourned the Planning Commission meeting at 11:45 p.m.
Submitted by Kate Aanenson
Community Development Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
Planning
CHANHASSEN PLANNING COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
SEPTEMBER 16, 2003
Chairman Sacchet called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Uli Sacchet, Kurt Papke, Bethany Tjornhom, Rich Slagle and Bruce
Feik
MEMBERS ABSENT: Steve Lillehaug and Craig Claybaugh
STAFF PRESENT: Kate Aanenson, Community Development Director; Sharmeen AI-Jaff,
Senior Planner; Bob Generous, Senior Planner; Matt Saam, Assistant City Engineer; Mak
Sweidan, Engineer; and Justin Miller, Assistant to the City Manager
PUBLIC PRESENT FOR ALL ITEMS:
Janet & Jerry Paulsen
Debbie Lloyd
Melissa Gilman
7305 Laredo Drive
7302 Laredo Drive
Chanhassen Villager
PUBLIC HEARING:
CONSIDER A REQUEST FOR REZONING FROM BG, BUSINESS GENERAL TO CBD,
CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT; REPLAT OF LOTS; CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT
FOR MORE THAN ONE BUILDING ON A LOT; SITE PLAN REVIEW WITH
VARIANCES OF APPROXIMATELY 60,000 SQ. FT. INCLUDING CINEMA
EXPANSION, RETAIL AND OFFICES, AND VACATION OF DRAINAGE AND
UTILITY EASEMENTS, MARKET STREET STATION, LLP.
Public Present:
Name Address
John D. Rice
Bob Worthington
Dan Engelsma
Clayton Johnson
Milo Thompson
Gary F. Milne Rojek
Mike Korsh
Adam Arvidson
Glenn Baird
John Uban
551 West 78th Street
Southwest Metro Transit
4210 West Old Shakopee Road
Bloomberg Companies, Inc.
Bentz/Thompson/Rietow
Bentz/Thompson/Rietow
4210 West Old Shakopee Road
DSU, Inc.
510 Pauly Drive
DSU, Inc.
Kate Aanenson presented the staff report on this item.
Slagle: I just have a quick question Kate. Can you tell me on page 12, if that's the best photo if
you will, or rendition. Where are the front doors?
Aanenson: They're actually around the comer.
Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Slagle: So they're on the east elevation?
Aanenson: Correct.
Slagle: So that would be then page 13 in the black and white.
John Uban: On page 10.
Slagle: 107 Okay.
John Uban: On the cinema? Page 10 would show the entry.
Aanenson: So it'd be on this side. So this is the new addition so it's moving south, so this is the
new entrance. The current entrance would be this shaded. Can you focus that just a pinch?
Slagle: So we'll have 3 sets of double doors in essence?
Aanenson: Two. Sorry, here and here.
Stagle: I'm sorry, do that again Kate.
Aanenson: Here and here.
Slagle: Not to the south, okay. Okay.
Papke: So you enter through one of those side double doors. You walk up to the landing to the
either, to the, it's hard to point out here. I'm just trying to make sure I understand how the stairs
work here. So you either make, if you come in from the southeast you make kind of a right turn.
You walk up the landing and then you make a hard, go up halfway and then you make...
Aanenson: ...addition part right here and the shaded is existing.
Tjornhom: Kate I have a question about the, row 17 seems to be where the handicap parking is.
I'm on page 1 of the site plan. To me it seems like it's far away from the cinema doors. Why
was it placed there instead of maybe row 18.
Aanenson: That's something we can work with the applicant on.
Tjornhom: Even 23. It just seems.
Aanenson: It's for all those uses that are coming to the back of that building, but that's
something, there's a requirement for that and we certainly can work with them on placement,
even on, I'm not sure they're evening showing in front of the bank. But there are standards on
that. But we can check on that.
Kate Aanenson continued with the staff presentation.
Papke: I have a question about the turnaround in the southwest corner. What is the plan for that?
Does that stay? Does that get converted to parking? And if it stays, what's it's ultimate use?
Aanenson: It will be converted to parking. This turnaround on the site?
Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Papke: Right.
Aanenson: Yes, that will stay and that will be parking on that. That's how it's being currently
used.
Papke: So the parking that's going to be created there, that's in the calculations right now?
Aanenson: Correct.
Papke: It wasn't clear from all the.
Aanenson: Yes, it is included in all the parking.
Kate Aanenson finished with the staff presentation.
Sacchet: Alright, questions from staff. Do you want to start Bruce?
Feik: I'll start. Kate first a couple housekeeping issues and a couple quick minor questions. On
page 5, the paragraph which talked about the replat. The second to the last sentence, because this
is not a subdivision, extraction fees are received. Is there a typo there?
Aanenson: Are not received.
Feik: Are not received, that's what I thought.
Aanenson: Yeah, we only get extraction at a subdivision.
Feik: Put a not in there. Another minor one, on page 16, which talks about the exterior walls.
Page 16. Exterior walls. The bottom portion of that paragraph talks about pro-finished
ornamental louvers. I'm assuming that's pre-finished?
Aanenson: Pre-finished.
Feik: That's in two places. No, I thought it'd be amateur finished. On some more substantive
issues. Regarding the Southwest park and ride bus station, is it anticipated that that will be
increased in size at all?
Aanenson: No. Currently the lease with the city is 120 stalls.
Feik: The shed portion. The shelter.
Aanenson: No. No, it'd be the approximate same size it is now. You're talking about the little
brick with the glass?
Feik: Yep. Standing there every day. Stand outside of it every day actually. I have concerns
regarding the bus turning radiuses, particularly when the buses go north from that facility and
they make the west turn in front of the dance studio. There is tons of double parking in front of
that dance studio. It's loaded, and both sides, they're double parking to drop primarily daughters
off and pick up from dance. They're double parked in front of really both sides to the extent that
Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
it's difficult sometimes to get a single car vehicle through there at 6:00 at night. How can we
accommodate or how can we address that?
Aanenson: I think that's a good question. I think that there are going to be some, that we need to
work through some of those pedestrian conflicts and I think that might be onerous on the tenant to
make sure that we identify where they need to be parking and picking up and providing that in a
better manner. More safe manner. That goes back to our original point on the circulation.
Feik: The problem up there, and my daughter used to dance there is how I know is the parking on
that north portion is dominated in the evenings by people using the recreation facility. And
literally you're parking 50, 60, 80, 100 feet away. In the wintertime when they're trying to run
across the parking lots in their tights. And so it's a natural that people park at the curb as well as
park and block the people who are.
Aanenson: And they start right after school, 3:00ish.
Feik: They do. So I was real concerned there. Also, on page 19 where we're talking about the
vehicular use, landscape area. The requirement proposed, the difference between the 18,000
square feet and the approximately 50 percent of that as proposed. You have any additional
concerns?
Aanenson: I'm sorry, could you say that again?
Feik: In the table where it's required 18,290 square feet of landscaping area and they're only
proposing 9100 square feet.
Aanenson: Yeah, that goes back to that planter islands that we were suggesting and they had
some concerns with those. I think we can accommodate. One of the things that we're also
looking at, and we've asked the applicant to look at it is there is additional right-of-way from the
railroad tracks, and maybe working with some of that to help some of the circulation issues. I'm
not sure we can get all that landscaping on there.
Feik: Okay. Is it anticipated that the landscaping next to the railroad would be enhanced then?
Aanenson: We could, yeah. Well I think part of what we want to do is improve the circulation in
this area, and try to work. One of the things that they had talked about was vacating part of that.
! think there's some opportunity to look at some of that too and increase some of the parking
efficiency in that area too.
Feik: Okay. I think that's most of my questions for now, thank you.
Sacchet: Okay, thanks Bruce. Bethany.
Tjornhom: Kate, on page 5 under the rezoning section it talks about the traffic generation. And
it just says that there was a study done and it was updated in '99. What does that study say? That
the area can handle the anticipated generated growth of traffic?
Aanenson: Yes. Because of the offset in hours, again the transit, most of that's morning and
evening for that. Those cars are sitting there during that time and then that's freed up. There will
be points of conflict as Commissioner Feik has pointed out that we need to look at that and try to
maybe work a little bit closer with those tenants and Southwest Metro, looking at how that
Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
circulates and we did point that out. We see that there's going to be some points of conflict and
we don't want people running between buses and that sort of thing so I think that's something we
need to take a little bit closer look at.
Sacchet: Thanks Bethany. Kurt.
Papke: Just one point, more for the record than anything else. Regardless of our personal
feelings about the Regardless of our personal feelings about the need for another bank in
downtown Chanhassen, you know the property owners have the full use and rights to develop
whatever business they wish there and we have no influence on that decision.
Aanenson: Correct. A retail bank would be permitted under either zoning district, whether we
change or not, that use could come forward. That's correct.
Papke: Okay. Just wanted to make sure that was on the record. Thanks,
Sacchet: Thanks Kurt. Rich.
Slagle: Kate I have a few. Let me start with the architecture and just wanted to ask your opinion
and ifI go to page, there we go, page 12. In staff's opinion is there a transition from what I'll call
the Cinema building look to the restaurant that, do you feel at all that it's a little abrupt or, and
I'm not an architect so, I'1t ask the same question.
Aanenson: I think that's a very good question and I think what they tried to do, and if you look
at, there's certain features that they tried to mimic throughout regarding shingles, this
architectural feature, finial, is that what we're calling it? The roof top with the finial and the
cupola. There's certain elements that repeat, maybe it's better shown on this reveal. And some
of the relief patterns mimic, so while one's on a larger scale, there are kind of those same patterns
are repeated on a smaller scale. And I think even if you look at the window break, that was part
of what's now playing bills. Trying to get that window look to try to mimic. I think that was
what we struggled with the most, and they struggled with the most, the architects and we did have
several internal meetings trying to figure out how to do that.
Slagle: Okay. Just curious as to your thoughts on that. I think more of a concern for me is again
the traffic pattern, both in what I'll call vehicle and pedestrian. If I'm not mistaken, I think at our
last meeting, our informal meeting, our work session, there was the dialogue about a pedestrian
walkway along the north side of the railroad tracks. Because I see the sidewalk you reference,
that would go along the north side of Pauly, but then it stops about where the movie theater
entrance is, so I have a concern that if someone had a desire to walk further east, yeah they'd be
sort of having to cut across the traffic. And then my thought is, although it sounds like there's
some concern on the applicant's part, that I do believe that if you're on that sidewalk, whether it
be on the north side of Pauly or south side, the desire to get to any of the buildings, you will again
be walking right across parking spaces, inbetween cars and so my request would be, and I'll be
anxious to hear why we wouldn't consider island somewhere in that vicinity of the cinema where
one could walk across maybe a drive and then sidewalk and so forth. Especially given that the
plan right now calls for the buses to come back again. And then that leads to my ! guess most
important question in my opinion is, did we explore the option of having the buses come through,
pick up at the new shelter, and then just head along the road back to the south of the Dinner
Theater? I mean you could upgrade that little road.
Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Aanenson: Right, that is an option. The other ultimate option is to come up, this will be Phase II,
to come up.
Slagle: To go through?
Aanenson: Yeah, because currently if you were to come up to the current, you have to go back in
front of the Timber Lounge to get back out. If you were to go straight north from the proposed
location, there's actually a curb cut on West 78th. So there's better egress but that is an option.
I'm not sure what the control is as far as getting across that other property.
Slagle: But wouldn't the other property be owned by one of the two partners?
Aanenson: It may be.
Slagle: Okay. I mean because it just seems to me that if you could, and obviously from the point
of we'll call it the existing building, which is on the bottom of your screen, I mean that's not
going to be the most scenic route but if it's only for a year or whatever until Phase II or 3
happens, you would avoid all the issues of radius, turning, pedestrian safety and I mean to me it
just seems like it would be really a nice little compromise.
Aanenson: Yeah, and that's something ultimately we talk about long term too that we want to be
able to connect those, Great Plains and Market Street.
Slagle: Okay, so can I just ask why you're, I mean why it isn't part of the short term? If there is
a reason. Maybe there's not.
Aanenson: Well again, as part of the control of the separate parcel, I mean if that's something
you want to explore, I'd be happy to advance that and work on that as a discussion point between
now and when it went to City Council if that could be a possibility. I don't know what the
concerns would be.
Slagle: Fair to ask the applicant?
Aanenson: Sure.
Feik: Rich, if I might though. If one of these future phases which calls for that parking ramp and
the additional residential to the east, that road would be in the way so we would still be dealing
with a parking radius when the construction was going on with the new phase, potentially.
Slagle: True, but I mean we deal with what I'll call construction projects daily.
Feik: I know. I'm just.
Slagle: Where they just sort of move a road or driveway or street 30 yards, 30 feet, whatever.
Aanenson: Yeah, and there's some grade issues there as you come back up onto Great Plains. It
drops down off of, as you're coming to the Dinner Theater. That road, that's the gravel road
that's in place. You're dropping down to significant grades through there.
Slagle: My last thought, I mean because that brings up a good point Kate. My anticipation just
for fellow commissioners is that it would go from west to east. In other words the buses coming
Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
from downtown or wherever would by 5, take a right on Market and then pull in so there, you
wouldn't be coming east to west down the hill, so I just wanted you thoughts on that.
Aanenson: Sure. Again, as Commissioner Feik had indicated too, there is a, and it's in there. Of
course I'm not finding it, the long term phasing for this, which we talked about at that earlier
meeting. That our goal ultimately is to get a park and ride ramp in this area, and there is
requesting for funding in place for that as part of that housing component too. To put in this back
area.
Slagle: And my two cents would be that we could work that out 4-5 years, 6 years or whatever
that may be.
Sacchet: That's it Rich?
Slagle: That's it.
Sacchet: I've got a few questions too Kate. First of all that one storage shed is coming out from
the start?
Aanenson: That's correct.
Sacchet: Now in terms of impervious surface we're within range within the 70 percent, is that
what it is?
Aanenson: There is no impervious surface in the CBD.
Sacchet: In that district there is no restriction.
Aanenson: Correct.
Sacchet: Okay. That's good to know. Now that table of parking spaces on page 9 and 10. It
doesn't seem like the numbers add up to me. It looks like the total needed for Phase I, if I add
them all up it would be 446, not 406, for the day and 479 for the night, not 460. So I just want to
point that out and maybe you can verify that.
Aanenson: Yeah, I'll let John Uban go through that. It's, I had the same concern you did when I
first read it but I'll let him walk through it.
Sacchet: So there's a way to explain it? Okay, we'll ask the applicant about that. Then the other
question I had about parking is it does not consider the Southwest Transit because that's all
shared parking or, I mean is that also a question that the applicant should answer?
Aanenson: No, what do you mean it doesn't consider it?
Sacchet: Well I look at all the items on this list, you have the fitness center, the dance studio, the
office, park and ride and so forth.
Aanenson: It's on the bottom of page 9, the 120 parking.
Sacchet: Okay, that's the Southwest Transit?
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
Aanenson: Yeah, and if you add up what I showed in that shaded area, there is 120.
Sacchet: Okay. That answers that. The cinema expansion. The text talks about converting the
remaining traditional style seating across the areas to stadium seating. That is not shown in the
plan. In the plan it's still the old style, right? The floor, not stadium.
Aanenson: I think if you go to 11...
Sacchet: So I could ask that from the applicant, maybe you can give us some insights when you
come up. And also the time phase for the, the timeline for Phase I! at this point is probably more
an applicant question.
Aanenson: Yes.
Sacchet: Okay. In terms of EIFS, which is so nicely called stucco finished exterior, there is like
in other environments we have the restriction of how much EIFS. There's not a restriction here?
Aanenson: Well that was the point I made at the beginning. When this came through in 1996
that was what was put on there. That was an old industrial building and that's how it's being used
today.
Sacchet: So the building is EIFS now?
Aanenson: Pardon me?
Sacchet: That building is EIFS, the whole thing?
Aanenson: Yes. Yes. Yes. And it was controversial at the time because of the high traffic area.
Whether or not that would be durable or not but that's the part that was given.
Sacchet: So they're not changing anything in that aspect?
Aanenson: Yeah, it will have EIFS but it will look different. Right. But it's the same product,
yeah.
Sacchet: Okay. You touched on that segment that will be left painted block. They're proposing
lines and landscape and stuff like that. Is that sufficient in staff's opinion?
Aanenson: Well, it's a tough one because currently the bowling alley share a common wall. And
part of what the...when they take that wall down the condition and how that, what that material is
in place and how it's being treated so I guess their approach on that would be, because it's kind of
an unknown, how they can treat it. What kind of applications they can put on it, that's what they
would like to do is try...screen through landscaping then try to put something that may not work.
Sacchet: Okay. On page 16 there is a statement about the exterior walls that in key areas there's
cultured stone from basically the first floor, the whole height, the way I read that.
Aanenson: Yes.
Sacchet: But it says that further design development may result in stone reaching only the bottom
part. Do we know what that depends upon or is that an applicant question?
Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Aanenson: It depends on...and on the restaurant.
Sacchet: Then on the color drawings it shows it the whole first floor. Well I think that's an
applicant question, we'll ask the applicant about that. On page 18 there's a finding and the
finding is blank. About a third down the page, just thought I'd point that out because that's
probably not intentional. Now you touched on the islands being less than 10 feet needing
irrigation tubes. That we recommend they make them 10 foot so they don't need.
Aanenson: They're right at, yeah. So our recommendation is, and we've spoken to them about
that, that they be irrigated.
Sacchet: They'd be irrigated?
Aanenson: Correct, with a drip line.
Sacchet: So from reading the staff report I came away with the impression that staff thinks it
would be better, like wider rather than put the ir tubes in.
Aanenson: Jill's recommendation is it's always better to have them a little bit wider. That's
currently how they're functioning. We think the enhancement to make them work better, the
other option is to irrigate them and what we're recommending is, and that's what the applicant
liked is the option too. Instead of making them wider is to irrigate them.
Sacchet: And it's staff's opinion that that's okay or.
Aanenson: Yes, that's an option. Yes.
Sacchet: So it's not something we could say they should do one way or the other?
Aanenson: You could make a recommendation.
Sacchet: We could. Recommendation or condition, that's the question.
Aanenson: The ordinance says, if they're less than 10 feet they have to be irrigated. So what i'm
saying is that currently they're less than.
Sacchet: Okay. Now the city, we have an ordinance against up cast lights don't we?
Aanenson: Yes. They have to be shielded. It's a philosophical discussion. If this is the
entertainment and we want a little bit more lively, a little bit loud. Attract people to what's going
on them. It's not just at 6:00, 9:00 it's dead. So but how much is too much and is it, how far is
that light casting and spilling out to other things. If we do have residential in the future, and we
just don't understand how bright that is.
Sacchet: So it's, the way I read this, staff is indicating that it might be a good idea to tone down
this lighting a little bit.
Aanenson: That's correct.
Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: And the up-lighting would certainly be one thing. Are there other aspects? I mean is
there the amount of neon, the runners?
Aanenson: Right, and there are those on there right now, the chaser lights out them right now.
What they're proposing is on, and again it's hard to see. The awning that's here, the chaser lights
underneath.
Sacchet: The whole stretch.
Aanenson: Yeah. That I think is going to be screened enough by the other building that's in
front. Again it kind of gets a little bit lively as you're getting out of your car, kind of that
excitement kind of thing. That's not as loud as what's on top at 52 feet. A little bit different, but
I don't think you're going to get as much spill off and that's how it's kind of right now and it's
actually the cinema band is pretty high that's on the building right now with the chaser lights.
Sacchet: So in terms of toning down the lighting a little bit, besides the up lights, what would
staff recommend could be targeted to mellow it a bit?
Aanenson: That's our recommendation, just that. These lights, there's lighting design standards
underneath here, underneath that, is that correct? Underneath the lower, and then there's up
lighting on the top. So that's what we're saying, we don't understand at 52 feet, how much is that
casting? How far does that go off.
Sacchet: Well we can have the applicant speak to that too. Now, I'm unclear, how many
monument signs are there really? It seems like quite a collection of them.
Aanenson: Well, there would be one, this one for the future restaurant then they have two on this,
and we're saying for this retail building, because of the bank means they could have it on the wall
similar to what we've done on some of the other that are either on the cupola or something like
that. They have that opportunity. So our concern is, they wanted one for the bank and one for
some of the retail and office to get cueing but that can be provided, you saw the awnings and
some of that. There's a nice opportunity to get some of that. Again, if you're identified as part of
Market Street Station, that's kind of your cueing right there. And there will be some directional
signs, which are allowed, so if you put directional signs, plus the two monuments, it ends up to be
quite a bit of signage and we think that's probably too much. Too much busyness going on with
the taller sign too.
Sacchet: Now talking about this pylon sign, or how you call it the tall one. How tall is it really
because it says 20 feet in the variance text but in other places it talks about 22 or 23.
Aanenson: It's 21' 10" on there.
Sacchet: 21' t0" It's on the drawing.
Aanenson: Correct. What staff is recommending is 20 feet.
Sacchet: So we are cutting off almost 2 feet from it.
Aanenson: Yes. And that's consistent with what we would allow if it was on the highway.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: And then final question. Center Point Minnegasco sent a letter about their existing gas
mains going through that. Is that a resolved issue or?
Aanenson: That's something that they'll have to work. There are existing utilities that also have
to be relocated and that were pointed out in the engineering staff report. And that's something
that indicate the easements will have to be moved and secured and when that part of it, the
easement vacations, the new easements go forward to the City Council with that portion of it.
Saam: To answer the gas question, it hasn't been resolved. I would assume that they would
relocate it in probably the new sewer and water easement. That's pretty typical.
Sacchet: Okay, thanks Matt. Yes Rich, another question?
Slagle: Just one last one. Kate were there any issues, when you brought up the lighting it
triggered a thought, were there any issues or comments made by the hotel as respect to those
rooms facing the south with lights and noise?
Aanenson: Another issue. No, they are concerned about their visibility. I did speak to one of the
owners today. They're concerned about what's going to be seen on their side so we're working
with them on that issue.
Sacchet: Any other questions? You have a question Bethany? Bethany go ahead.
Tjornhom: Yeah I just have one more question, looking at the design of the whole building. Is
Southwest Metro, are they going to be building a new building or are they going to be
maintaining the existing one?
Aanenson: That little shelter?
Tjornhom: Yeah.
Aanenson: That will, I'm not sure you can move that but a similar looking one will be moved.
Tjornhom: So then it will kind of be like what's being proposed here?
Aanenson: Yeah, and that's part of why I'm saying with the cueing with the monument sign. We
want people to know that it's still there. It's still functioning and to use it. It's an important
element and it works with their design. It's a destination to get people into that core.
Sacchet: Bruce, you've got another one?
Feik: That will be available during construction as well?
Aanenson: That's a good question. We need to ensure that that's happening, yes. That may be a
condition that we make sure that that's operational.
Sacchet: I have one more question Kate. On the loose sheet that was given us with our packet
that shows the parking, like which parking is new and so forth. The parking in the area where
that dinner theater shed is broken down, is not the padded in any way and it's not existing parking
so that made me wonder if that part of the parking included with the first phase?
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
Aanenson: Yes...that is part of.
Sacchet: That is part of what's going to happen.
Aanenson: That's part of the 120, correct.
Sacchet: Okay. I believe that's all the questions for staff. Thank you very much Kate. If the
applicant wants to come forward and present your side of this, we'd like to hear from you. Please
state your name and address for the record please.
John Uban: Good evening. My name is John Uban. I'm the consulting planner helping both
Kraus~Anderson and Bloomberg Companies, and the cinema of course is an applicant as well.
This is a joint application. We're here primarily to answer your questions and, because Kate gave
a very good overview of everything. So I think what we'll do is maybe, I'll hand this out which
is just a quick response to a couple of the recommendations that's in the staff report and go
through that, but I heard a number of other concerns that you had so I think we'll address those
specifically.
Sacchet: Excellent. Want to give us your papers, we'll pass them out here. We'll need one more
here. We can share, it's okay. Thank you. Alright, you want to just touch on those a little bit?
John Uban: Pardon?
Sacchet: Do you want to just touch on those first a little bit?
John Uban: Yes.
Sacchet: Please go ahead.
John Uban: Now first of all, there's the issue of the width of streets and certainly Pauly Avenue,
which is the main street that goes along the railroad tracks, needs to be the widest street here.
Getting 26 feet on that I think is quite doable. I think there might just be a couple places where
technically it may not meet that. The other issue is the driving aisle within parking bays, which is
your normal parking area. 26 feet is really kind of wide compared to the standard. It's usually 24
feet, which we have created, and that's good for perpendicular parking. We have one area
through the interior that is sort of our interior pedestrian street, because that's where the sidewalk
is on both sides. We don't want to narrow the sidewalk up unnecessarily. We would like to have
that be a good pedestrian experience, but that is angled parking and that technically works the
standards for that type of parking is a 22 foot wide driving aisle. And that's how it functions, so
we will work with staff to resolve those dimensions but we will be asking for something less than
26 feet in parking areas, and it works perfectly fine. Throughout all of Minnesota, 24 feet is the
general standard. We would also, it's just an issue of, maybe it's clarification with, on number 19
and the approaches to the site. We're trying not to re-build Pauly Street and the approaches and
so forth so just to put in a little extra concrete here and there I think we'll just keep them the way
they are, but we'll cooperate with the city engineering standards to make those work well.
Emergency overflows. This is for drainage water in the parking lots. We have one area that,
where we have between the two buildings, where we don't have much grade fall and we need to
have less than a foot of separation. That's another engineering issue. It's a very small drainage
area but we think we can work something out there.
Sacchet: That's between which buildings? In there, okay.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
John Uban: What happens is, we don't want to then create an odd slope on the sidewalks or
within the parking area to just create another couple of inches of depression to move water. So
we just think that for a small drainage area that something less, maybe 8/10 of a foot might work
just fine. The area around the mark, the front of the theater, which is our number 24. We need
that to be open. Part of this design is to create a good viable entertainment district that's sort of
buried into this site. It doesn't really have a public street frontage. It has a railroad track which is
kind of grown up and shaggy looking. So part of this is the pylon sign that has some fun
happening on it, and then the other part is having a fun fagade to this parking, or to the marquee
and then we just don't want to put another set of islands in front of that unnecessarily. So that's
why we've left that open. We've tried to meet everything everywhere else. Technically you are
getting more landscaped area in this plan than you have today out there. So this is a pretty good
improvement I believe. What we've tried to do, just to kind of explain the site plan a little bit, is
to create a street facade and that's why the buildings really line up. We've changed the grade. If
you go out there today it's kind of rolie polie and then the old bowling alley sits in there and
that's all at a different elevation, and the hotel to the north is up even higher, and so we have this
sloping terrain and we happen to have a lot of bad soils in there as well but we're trying to create
this nice pedestrian fagade and so that has a lot to do with how we grade the site and assemble the
buildings. So on this we're trying then to really make it look quite attractive. Let me quick go to
the cinema lighting, number 29. We will work with city staff so it will work within their
parameters and yet at the same time create something really fun. And number 30, the two
monument signs. This is an issue that's quite important to us. We have combined a building,
we're trying to create a main street or any street really, and usually you have a variety of
buildings, kind of architecture, but they're all connected. So you know they're broken up into
blocks. The detail on the office and this multi-purpose building has some of that same dynamic
going on. Now we could have separated the bank as a separate building which is very typical
suburban development, and had it's own sign, and then had the retail building and then perhaps a
little office building. Three little buildings, each with their own monument signs, and instead we
put them together in a unified street looking building. And it's because of that we really need
another monument sign to help address the retail activity, and so we really find that the signage is
an important component. So we hope you consider that. Bus circulation. Let me show you a
drawing I have here which just helps a little explain that circulation. This is the plan that shows
the easement. This is the existing theater. This is the Frontier Center. Dance studio and so forth.
Here's the main Chanhassen Dinner Theater. Number one, there's over 100 new parking stalls
This will change the dynamics of how people park in that area, and this is being added not at
Phase II, and that's part of our chart on parking I think was misleading. It's really part of Phase I
so it's being added right up front. And this line of course is the park and ride. The park and ride
building and drop off right here. These dark bus little diagrams here show the buses, how they
would circulate. The dashed lines show the turning radius and how they work within the parking
lot so they work, they make the turns and it works within the parameters of the design of the bus
and their requirements. This once again is a temporary situation. It's not permanent. It's only
for a couple of years. Our future road will go to the north is really our most anticipated next
improvement, because it allows us to create another little street facade and add retail along that
street. So we anticipate that being really the best circulation for the buses, and with parking and
the dance drop off, that starts to happen more intensely after 6:00 and really the buses stop
running at about that time, so we'll work to make sure the schedules and the tenants kind of
cooperate to make sure we don't create a problem there. But that is a temporary situation. The
other thing is, we're going to encourage more people, especially for the dance studio and exercise
people to park over here, and we think that's also a good place for pick-up and drop off and we
can just reorganize how they use that parking. So this new 100 stalls of parking I think is really
going to improve how everyone operates out there and for temporary time should not be a
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
significant problem. I think then our last comment here was just that you have the plat in front of
you. You didn't have that a few days ago and we apologize for that. But all of this we believe
we can resolve with the city. The city staff and work out some of these details. We're really here
then to answer any of your specific questions. We know there's perhaps some more about
lighting but lighting has not settled down on the cinema yet. We're still designing and working
that out, so we will be working with staff on that. The general architecture of the building, we've
worked out with staff and we think works out quite well. Milo Thompson is here and is here to
answer any of your questions about architecture specifically. Material, design, how the buildings
work. We've really tried to create something that's really going to add to the city, to this area.
We've organized these uses. You have to understand we're kind of, it's redevelopment so we
have a lot of parameters that are very difficult to deal with and here it's elevations of adjacent
buildings, the kind of configuration that's already been built and how to adapt to all of it. And so
far things are working out and sometimes a little flexibility on the part of the city will be very
much appreciated. So that ends our presentation except for any questions you might have.
Sacchet: Thank you. Questions from the applicant.
Slagle: I have a few. First of all, can you address if you may, any thoughts as to the suggestion
or the question regarding the buses going east behind what I will call the Dinner Theater, which
on a number of days would just join another 20-30 buses that are there from special groups and
clubs and so forth.
John Uban: I do not have the topo for this whole area to show you, but you'll recall there's a
steep rise that, this area around the back of the dinner theater is strongly sloping, to the point that
I'm sure a bus will not want to go up it. So just paving the existing arrangement does not work.
But if you start to grade it out, we get into significant walls to try and protect the existing parking
that is at a plateau above, and so there's a lot of cost in trying to create a road back there that's
only going to be torn up when we come to do the parking ramp. Why we chose a parking ramp in
that specific location is it will have multiple levels that will then be terraced right into the site, so
at the very top level can function with the theater. The lowest level will work for bus circulation
and when this is completed, our bus circulation is going to go straight through. It will then be
part of the ramp, the bus shelter, everything will be built into the ramp, very much like Eden
Prairie is today. And that's really the kind of great thing about this plan is that we have these
sequence of improvements that come about with the future funding opportunities that Southwest
Metro's looking for, for that parking ramp. They get to over double the size of their facility and
having that ramp tied in with the other commercial activity. But to try to do improvements today,
and kind of waste all that money and not have a good solution, just isn't in the cards. If the city
thinks it's a better solution and would like to help on this development, we are not asking for any
financial assistance from the city but if this is very important to the city, that might be some way
the city could contribute to this project. But I think the best solution, at least for right now is to
get our road to the north opened up with Phase II, as soon as possible, which will happen after we
get everything leased up and moving on page 1.
Slagle: You know if I may. I think you have a wonderful project here but I have to respectfully
disagree with the thought that going northward between the two buildings onto 78th, which is
going to be a tight turning radius for a bus, which there's not a lot of buses today on that road,
and then make your way eastbound to get to 5 or to get to 101, it seems to me to be going into the
heart of our city with buses. Where if you really did go east, and I might disagree that the hill
would be an enormous cost. I know you didn't use enormous but I think that that could be
worked out, but I just want to know your thoughts, and you gave them. I don't know if I
necessarily agree, but the thoughts of getting back to Commissioner Feik, of people dropping off
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
families and numerous kids that will be going to the cinema, I would think our number one goal,
other than the ultimate redevelopment of this property would be safety, because you're going to
have your attraction. The lights. The music. This is a destination center and you're suggesting
that people, at those two facilities park to the east, which are number 13 and 19 on this page 1. I
don't even see a sidewalk from those parking lots over to the current building. So I guess what
I'm saying is, boy all and all I think you're on the right track but from a traffic flow, both
pedestrian and automotive/bus, and then I'm going to lastly ask you a question about the southern
what I'll call green spaces now, but I do know we did talk about it at our meeting that there would
be some parking along the south side of Pauly, which I don't see. Why wouldn't you, if I can
ask, why wouldn't you want to keep that southern part of this property in what I'm going to call a
green space with trails and perhaps you would have some lighting and you would have vendors
with stands or, and I just came from New York over the weekend and I mean Central Park is just
a magnet for everything. So I'm just curious as to why you would want to fill that up with
parking spots.
John Uban: Central Park and the railroad that runs along here I don't think are comparable but.
Slagle: Well let's talk green space that might be a little bit.
John Uban: It is not an attractive green space along there, and the way it's operated. But if the
city can get control of the right-of-way, then there are lots of possibilities, but we can't do
anything more because we don't control the railroad. We've taken the parking off, we did at one
time look at parking going to the south, but we don't control all that property. We have some of
it, but not just enough 10 feet or something like that.
Slagle: So you have 10 feet from the south of Pauly Drive and that would be the extent of your
land.
John Uban: That's the extent of it, yeah. To the railroad. The railroad is, the tracks are offset in
the right-of-way so there's actually sort of surplus right-of-way on the north side of the track. So
they don't technically shouldn't need quite as much up there, but we know that railroads operate
quite slowly, and to resolve something as big, look at decision in years, not days or months or
anything like that. So this is our best plan given the land that we do have control of.
Slagle: Last question. With respect to the bank and the drive thru. Explain to me, if I'm a
customer of this bank, how I would access the drive thru and where I will go once I'm done.
John Uban: Sure. The main entrance to the drive thru comes off of Market Street, and there's
signage here. Come in. Pull into the lanes specifically designed for the drive thru. It circulates
around and underneath the canopy. Exit. Come out around through the parking lot and out this
way back.
Slagle: Any concerns about once someone is, I mean I think your entrance into the drive thru
seems logical and easy. Are you a little concerned with traffic congestion and again pedestrians
walking to a movie theater or restaurant and having bank drive thru traffic?
John Uban: No. We have sidewalks there on both sides and it doesn't really cross anything of
significance. So I'm not concerned about it. We clearly would have liked to have exited out onto
Market Street, or Market Boulevard rather, and that just, we figured the city didn't want us to do
that. So we had to bring it back through the general circulation of the parking lot.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Slagle: Okay, that's all.
Sacchet: Thanks Rich. Kurt. Any questions from the applicant?
Papke: Yeah, just to reiterate on a, kind of following on one of Rich's comments and reiterating a
question I had before. The turn around to the southwest corner there. So if I understand it
correctly your goal here is to make the minimal changes to Pauly Drive. That's your objective
here?
John Uban: Yes. One thing that we're doing right now it just bumps into parking here so we're
creating a road section through here so that Pauly, which we're proposing to rename to Market
Street, would come up through here. Actually it will keep on going straight through but at least at
this point to go north.
Papke: It just seems like the turnaround that currently exists for the park and ride right down
there, from which we're going to derive 21 spaces, is that correct? We're going to get 21 spaces
out of that and it's going to kind of sit like a little island on there. Can you estimate how many
people would actually use those 21 spaces and under what conditions?
John Uban: We anticipate that it would all be employee parking.
Papke: Employee parking. That would probably be the only people you could get to park there.
John Uban: Oh yes exactly but you have to put them somewhere and we'd rather have them out
there than sitting right in front of the store where they would always park because they're the first
ones to the site. Now we would love to actually move Pauly Avenue to the south, but we don't
think that that would create, it lines up with roads on the other side and at this point we don't
anticipate city engineering allowing us to do that. So we're caught with that space and we might
want to look at a little more efficient parking pattern but at least right now we're just trying to use
what's there until a better idea comes along. We will have a pylon sign there, the one that you've
looked, and that actually will probably pull it back a little bit more from the right-of-way to give
it the kind of visibility. We found that there's a railroad sort of shack that sits right on Market
Boulevard on the south side of the tracks, and at least where we have it now we think that shack
kind of blocks the view so we're going to pull it back to the east a bit to get out of that.
Papke: Did you examine any alternative uses for that space other than 21 parking spaces and a
turn around?
John Uban: If they still had Fotomarts and things like that, that might work but at least right now
we don't see a market for that.
Papke: So your answer is no.
John Uban: Not at this point.
Papke: Okay. That was my only question. Thank you.
Sacchet: Thanks Kurt. Bethany.
Tjornhom: I don't have any questions.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: Bruce.
Feik: Yes please. Help me out a little bit with the timeline here. We're talking about temporary
conditions with buses and what not. Help me out a little bit in, with your crystal ball, if this goes
forward and moves through council, what is your timing of events? How do you see this
developing and give me some idea how long temporary is temporary?
John Uban: How much is temporary?
Feik: Yeah.
John Uban: Dan Engelsma is here from Kraus-Anderson. But let me start out and I'll let me
correct me if I'm wrong, but what we'd like to do, the purchase of the property is scheduled for
November from the city. And at that point the demolition of the bowling alley is the first thing to
happen. And then trying to do the footings and some of the utility relocation, some of that can't
happen during the winter so we'll pick up again in the spring, but we'd like to be open with this
facility a year from now easily. Once that is opened, and it probably will take a year to get full
tenancy, to get it filled so there's cashflow, and at that point Bloomberg Companies that owns the
other piece where the road would go to the north, that is when we would take a look, is the market
there to support the next building, which is about 24,000 square feet right next to the dance
studio. And in that area that would redevelop and put the new one, when the market calls for that
next building, and we hope that's in 1 to 2 years, that's when that will be built.
Feik: Then address the restaurant pad on the north portion. How does that fit into that timing as
well then?
John Uban: It should happen within the next year. Almost at the same time. At least we're
anticipating at this point.
Feik: Okay. Those are my questions.
Sacchet: I have a few questions as well. The calculations of the, or that's not really calculations.
The adding up of the numbers of the parking spaces had me baffled. Because it's not a straight
addition. I mean you add them up, you get a different total.
John Uban: I apologize that I probably should have brought the new dinner theater south parking
up so it's part of Phase I, but when you do calculate, it's probably a typo on the sheet that the
numbers I don't think add up correctly.
Sacchet: Yeah they don't, that's my point.
John Uban: Yeah.
Sacchet: So which one is correct, the totals or the small numbers, do you know?
John Uban: I don't know because I haven't gone through all this to double check.
Sacchet: So we certainly would want that straighten out before it goes to council. That would be
good. And then I had the question about the cinema, converting into stadium seating which
according to the text seems to be scheduled for before a lot of this development actually takes
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
place, but then the plans actually show it, what I think shows the old, the internal so I was just
wondering how that fits together.
John Uban: The theater, yeah.
Sacchet: If you could address that, clear that up for me I appreciate it.
Glenn Baird: Good evening, I'm Glenn Baird with the cinema. We have 4, verbally we have 8
stadiums or 8 theaters in our building right now. 4 of them are non-stadium and these 4 here are
currently sloped floors and what we'd like to do is, we're targeting January to start. We're going
to reduce the number of seats in here when we convert it to stadium so I don't have an exact
number in front of me but we're going to be reducing the capacity of those 4 theaters which will
help coincide with the parking needs.
Sacchet: So you're making 3 out of those 4, is that correct?
Glenn Baird: No. They're going to be 4 but for example, this particular theater has 209 seats in
it. It's probably going to reduce to approximately 150. And each theater is a little different size
and depending on exact layout, it will reduce seating and parking needs.
Sacchet: So actually that answers my question because I was thinking you were actually
changing the numbers in there but the layout stays the same.
Glenn Baird: Yeah, the actual four walls remain the same.
Sacchet: The walls stay the same, okay.
Glenn Baird: Capacity will reduce.
Sacchet: And that will happen before the big development actually takes place on the outside?
Glenn Baird: Yes.
Sacchet: Okay, that was my question about that one. In terms of the second phase for the
cinema, is that tied into the second phase of the whole Market Station?
Glenn Baird: We're trying to coordinate that with the construction of the restaurants and the
major area out front there.
Sacchet: Then I would think that it looks like the second phase for the cinema, there's going to
be a challenge with the parking. I guess that will be addressed in the planning phase of that.
Glenn Baird: Yes, you're talking about the potential for occupying the alleyway inbetween the
two buildings right now?
Sacchet: Exactly.
Glenn Baird: Yeah, that's pretty much a question right now. It's something we'd like to plan for
the future but I don't think we can, obviously with the number of spaces there now, I don't think
we can accommodate any expansion until this overall development with the parking ramp, it all
has to come together in order for us to come to the city and request expanding it.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: Okay, thank you for answering that. Now with an architectural landscape question with
that painted block that's going to be exposed on the west side of the cinema. The staff report says
will be mitigated by landscaping. When ! looked at your landscaping plan I didn't really see
particularly much happening in front of that wall so I wanted a little clarification about that
please. On the west side there, yes.
John Uban: We truly have not designed anything for that yet.
Sacchet: So that's still to be determined?
John Uban: That's still to be determined but we have some grade changes there, and we need to
work with the cinema and how they're exit doors work into that space, but our initial plan was
actually a metal grid, an arbor trellis on the side of the wall so we can get vines and some other
things to grow out there, but we need to make sure that can work with the exiting of the theater.
And we just haven't worked that out yet, but we do want to treat that space so it's attractive.
Sacchet: And then another architectural question, I asked that of staff. The staff report says you
have cultured stone. Actually the picture shows cultured stone the full first story in the key areas,
like where there are entrances, but staff report makes a statement further design development may
result in the stone only being on the low park. At least that's how I'm reading it. And I'd like a
little clarification, what are the how come and what are the variables that would possibly make
that be not going up and what's the framework? If you could touch on that I'd appreciate it.
Milo Thompson: I'm Milo Thompson, architect.
Sacchet: Welcome.
Milo Thompson: This probably is the best drawing to put up here for that, if you could zoom in
on that. Much of this really is rather flexible as you work out the details but as the project stands
now we are proposing that the cultured stone would be brought to the top of the windows on the
bank on three sides. And that on the entrance, not the entrance. This used to be an entrance
tower but I think we've made a very nice improvement by moving the entrance to the office
building on the back side. Making it also a front so we don't have a back side to this building.
But as a feature for the retail that would occupy that, we are showing stone facing also up to the
top of the window in this turret. We show on the, I can also address another question that had to
do with the cinema while I'm here and with the same point. The cultured stone that we are
proposing is one which simulates a split face so we develop a more refined look to the stone and
here you can see on the office building it is used as base. We think that's a good technical detail
because the hardy board material normally should not come down to the contact with rain or
snow. So that would be continuous as a detail for the office building and elsewhere. Going back
to the continuity of that material on the other part of the project, we have a low wall which
defines an outdoor seating area, and also enhances the outdoor dining which is under this portico
here. This is a covered portico. On the question of the abruptness of the building, one to the
other. This probably exaggerates the difference of these buildings, which we consider an
advantage here because the cinema truly should stand out. It's a very different kind of building.
It's scale is different and there is a strong desire on the part of the owners to not have strict
continuity with the others and make this a more unique building, thus the special emphasis on
lighting, a little more glamour and animation. When you look at the ends of this building though,
here's where you see the abruptness. If you look at it from the other side, this view I think shows
the relationship better. Where you can see a screening wall or the screening parapet of the
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
cinema wraps around and becomes part of this building so there's a sloped roof here. It ends in a
gabled form at the end making a kind of a special feature at the corner. You begin to see then an
architectural compatibility is more grounds at that point. There is also the discussion of the stone
differences. It's felt that we should keep the masonry basis to these buildings, and in this case
however it should be more dressed and this is a more traditional cut stone look, though it is a
cultured stone or pre-cast of some sort. And then finally the material on the restaurant kitchen
part, there's a wing of the restaurant which, there was just mention about the west wall here and
difficult, unresolved as yet detail of the grade changes here and we're working on that. But at this
point these would be exits for the theaters and just behind this building we would have a service
area for the kitchen areas and the waste, material in and waste out tucked around that comer as
well as screened mechanical equipment. So this wing represents basically the back of the house,
the kitchen part of the restaurant. And it too is thought to have the fa9ade of cultured stone.
Gary Milne Rojek: My name is Gary Milne Rojek. I'm also with Bentz/Thompson/Rietow and
Milo and I are partners. Just in a little further clarification of this issue of the hardy board siding
and the cultured stone. One of the issues, it's purely an issue of development, or further
development because there are certain ends of the building that end in a shed or more of a shed
arrangement. For example, this is hard to see but for example on the retail and office end of the
building, that ends in a motif that has that hardy plank siding with the cultured stone base low.
On other portions such as the bank and the turret, we're showing those as the cultured stone.
However we'd like to reserve the option as we develop this further and to be able to balance the
entire building against that design.
Sacchet: So you'd rather not be locked in at this point?
Gary Milne Rojek: Correct. It's purely that that hasn't gone through it's last development.
Sacchet: Okay, that answers the question, thank you. Another quick question about toning down
the lights from the cinema. Obviously that's, we've heard some comments that you'd rather not
do that. Could you briefly address that in terms of how important is it to have all these chase
lights and neon strips and up lights and do you see flexibility with that?
Milo Thompson: The owner may want to comment too but I would just offer these observations.
On the elevation, there's a strong protecting expression here in the canopy that permits drop off
and waiting and containing interesting things of posters for coming attractions in these niches,
and to make this more attractive and lively, we are showing decorative lighting at the leading
edge of this that runs around this side and on the east. The lighting that we were showing
included not only lighting mounted on this canopy, which shows in better detail right here, and in
cross section here. These are the lights that will be mounted on top of the canopy and lighting the
face of this building and the signage here. Now that particular light could be very easily
controlled so there would be no spillover. I mean it's focused directly on the wall. And you can
assure that it doesn't spill over into any areas seen from the outside. The additional light, and I
think these were the lights staff was commenting on, lighting the top of the turret and in particular
this finial, and again those lights can be shuttered down so there's very little light escaping the
object that it lights. So it could be, this could be managed from a technical point of view that
would take care of the objection. Now we don't feel that this probably is absolutely essential.
It's nice to light a feature but if that's not desired in the city, it's probably not as important as
other kinds of lighting, which in the spirit of classic and traditional cinemas, is a lot about light.
And things that flash and animation and so, and located in the middle of the site as this is, there's
real need to bring some festive look at me sort of lighting.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: Okay, thank you. Last question, just to clarify when you presented first about the
Southwest Metro you mentioned, and you actually have this written in your write up that's point
number 31 that the bus circulation plan has been submitted to Southwest Metro. They have not
yet responded?
John Uban: It has been submitted to them. Bob Worthington is here from Southwest Metro and
he could respond directly, but this has been submitted and I believe the Board has approved
everything.
Sacchet: Is that something that could be addressed from the Southwest Metro, without putting
you on the spot? If you can, that would be very helpful.
Bob Worthington: I'm Bob Worthington from Southwest Metro Transit and to answer your
question directly, the commission at their meeting earlier did review the plan and recommended
an approval for the concept as it was presented. There's still some fine tuning that has to be done
in terms of the language of the easement, the easements, the number of parking stalls, the design
of the shelter, etc, but those can be easily taken care of within the timeframe of the approval
process here with the city.
Sacchet: So basically Southwest Metro is in agreement with this layout?
Bob Worthington: That's correct, we are. We are.
Sacchet: Okay, thank you very much. That's questions from the applicant. Now this is a public
hearing. I'd like to open the public hearing, invite anybody who likes to comment about this
proposal, come up and state your name and address for the record and let us know what you have
to say. Is there anybody who'd like to address this item? Seeing nobody, I'm closing the public
hearing. Bring it back to the commission. Time for comments from the commission. Who
would like to start? Do you want to start Bethany? Ladies first. AIright.
Tjornhom: I'm sure we'll hear about the bus situation and everything from Rich so I'm just
going to say that, when I got this copy of the site, I loved the architecture. I thought you really
did a good job using the examples you gave us at the earlier meetings which each of you had
taken with existing buildings in Chanhassen so I thought it was really nice. And I'm all for lights
! guess on the cinema and I'm for the monument signs telling people where it is. How to get
there and what's there. It just makes sense because if I'm going to, I mean I have a hard time
right now finding the cinema. It's not marked very well you know and so I just think it's a
service to the community by showing people where to turn, what's there and what they can do so
I guess that's my only comment that I am in support of the monument signs and the flashing
lights.
Sacchet: Thanks Bethany. Bruce, want to take it from here?
Feik: Sure. I'm not sure where to start. I guess I'll start with the up lighting. I'm not
comfortable with lighting the top, the very top of the theater, particularly what I'm going to call, I
don't know what the technical term. It looks like a weather vane. We've had other applications
before this body before and we were pretty firm regarding up lighting and for that matter I would
like to be consistent on that. As for the buses, I know Southwest Metro signed off on this but I'm
really not comfortable. I'm not comfortable to the extent that I would give up parking in
exchange, temporary parking in exchange for a different mode of getting the buses back out on a
temporary basis. A variance. I would give up, and the applicant's really going to hate this, I
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
would give up the pad restaurant in it's entirety until, based upon the parking, until we could, if
we needed to trade parking, until we could get Phase II. I really, really, really don't want the
buses to go by the dance studio and back through the parking lot. I think that's really not what
we should be doing. So I've got serious concerns on that. As for the monument signage, I think
one monument sign for the bank portion is more than adequate. If they need to trade off signage,
given the proximity of the pad restaurant to Market, I certainly think they could trade a
monument sign for the pad restaurant. The pad restaurant could get rid of their monument and
give it to the bank, trade it off, but I don't really see the need for four monument signs going
down that stretch from, you know starting at the railroad track and ending at the back of the hotel.
So I'm in strong disagreement on the reducing or sticking with the number of signage's, and
obviously my big one is the buses. Quite frankly I don't think I can go with this proposal as
drafted based upon the parking, without some serious changes here. That's it.
Sacchet: Thanks Bruce.
Feik: Though I like the project and I know we need to have something downtown. You know I
know we need to get this resolved.
Sacchet: Thanks Bruce. Want to jump in Kurt?
Papke: Yeah. I've been very impressed by the cooperation, the cohesiveness of the plan here. I
think the cooperation between the cinema and Bloomberg and Kraus-Anderson is fantastic to see
something that's so, that fits so well together. I think the plan is overall very good. I don't really
have any issues with the lighting. I think this is kind of a showplace situation here. It is a
cinema. I don't really have any issues with that. The traffic situation is going to be a real
sticking point here. We represent to some extent the residents of Chanhassen and let me try to
put this as a very brief story. Imagine I'm 15 years younger and instead of taking my daughter
off to college I ride Southwest Metro every day and I have a 3 year old daughter that goes to the
dance studio. And today I park my car in a very easily accessed location to pick up the bus that
gets right back on the highway and I'm good to go. No issues. And now in the new
configuration, instead of very quickly getting in and out to my parking lot to grab the bus, now I
have to drive all the way to the interior of the parking lot in order to park my car to take the bus
out in the morning, and when I get dropped off in the evening, I see the bus. I get off the bus and
I see the bus going around the circle here and practically running over my daughter and wife as
they exit from the dance studio, okay. And I say, what was the City thinking when they did this?
Okay. This makes no sense at all to me so I think there's going to be some real visceral reactions
to the circulation proposal here. I mean it's just not drawings on a sheet of paper. These are
human beings and little kids that are going to the dance studio so I think this is going to be a real
sticking point for me. That's it.
Sacchet: Thanks Kurt. Rich.
Slagle: I won't touch too much on those topics other than to say that I believe that this proposal
as it is in front of us, I cannot support due to the traffic. Architecturally I think it's fine. Mr.
Thompson, thanks for clarifying my question on the difference between the cinema and the
restaurant. I think conceptually it's great but I'm really in a sense questioning the thinking of this
pattern because if this is a destination center, which to me means people. People would be at the
forefront of this thinking as to how people move from their vehicles or sidewalks, and so I think
in the combination of lack of sidewalks, I do think there needs to be more sidewalks. Not
because I like sidewalks but I truly think from a safety issue, coupled with the fact that we are
talking about having buses and a hundred and some odd cars every day, in the morning and the
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
afternoon, and I have to at least to the fellow commissioners question, I don't mean to question
the intent of the point but 6:00 1 think was the time that someone said tends to wind down. Well
that would tell me then that most people downtown are having to get off of work at 5:00. Welt I
work in Coon Rapids and I make the drive typically leaving at 5:00-5:30, and traffic is still busy.
Heading out to the southwest at 6:30-7:00. So I think I would probably move that time 7:00-7:30
before it quiets down which most of us are going to a movie at 7:00 because you've got to get to
bed at 10:00 or whatever the case may be, so in the end of this, it's a wonderful project. We need
it but I have to tell you either I would be supporting tabling it and asking the applicant really to
come back with some additional ideas and concepts. I'm still waiting to hear an answer as to why
we can't go eastbound for the bus, other than there's a hill. Almost asked Southwest Metro but it
sounds like they've approved it. I hope they raised that concern in their meeting or at least an
option. If they didn't maybe they should. But no, I think this is enough of a reason not to support
it. Or table it in the sense of supporting it and hoping they come back with some.
Feik: Mr. Chair? I think on this issue is I think we have to be fully aware of the nebulousness of
the word temporary. Temporary could be 2 years. It could be a year. That would be wonderful.
Temporary unfortunately in marketing conditions could be 5 years, and this could be a situation
that is going to be, that we could live with for way too long.
Slagle: Let me just add one last point to that. Commissioner Feik's point. This, I believe this
application asks the city and it's residents to put up with, lack of a better term, this configuration
of traffic pattern for the temporary time until market conditions allow you to go to Phase II. My
question is why wouldn't we put it on at least one of the partners of this application to allow
buses to go to the south of their property where again there's been many cases on a daily basis
20-30 buses there anyway. In the parking lot, and it would avoid all of the problems that we've
brought up today. I guess I don't know why we wouldn't do that.
Sacchet: Well I've got a few comments too, not to be repetitive. To address some of the points
the applicant brought forth. I would ask to work with staff about the drive aisle width. It looks
like they're intending to have the main road to the full width, but possibly a little more leeway
between the parking. That'd be a work with staff situation. The lighting, I really don't think up
lights is acceptable because that's how we treat everybody in the city, and I think those parapets
and things that can be lighted from above with down lighting. I mean the only thing you would
have a hard time lighting is the thing on the very tip, and I wonder if that could be internally lit if
you want to light it. But that would be consistent with how we treat everybody else in the city.
We're pretty clear about that. Drainage between the building, I think that's a work with staff
situation. Mitigating, I think the extra landscaping, if you'd like to have less of those landscape
islands in the parking lot, we can do something else maybe to mitigate that to balance the scale.
So far that's mostly work with staff items. I don't think that would be reasons to table. The two
monument signs, I think it's a large building. There's a lot of tenants in there so personally I
could be convinced that it needs two of them. Also is that unresolved situation with the painted
block on the kitchen side of the restaurant on the west side of the cinema. It's a work with staff
thing. Cleaning up the parking numbers is definitely something that needs to be done before it
goes to council. Now the big thing, and I'm torn whether this is a reason to table or whether this
is something that we just want further study. What I'm hearing from fellow commissioners that
the thing with the buses is enough reason to table. I could go either way on that one. It's
definitely an issue and it, I really dislike the idea that we're kind of having this whole park and
ride as an after thought. It's not the first thought, and I understand that. I mean you're setting up
businesses here. You're creating a big business center, entertainment center and the park and ride
is not lucrative from a financial viewpoint. However, from a city viewpoint, from a community
standpoint it's extremely important and I certainly agree with staff that you want to make sure it's
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
properly marked on the site. Not just as an after thought there, and I would go as far as also
looking at this circulation thing as it's more than an after thought. It's an oversight. I mean it's
encouraging to hear from the Southwest Metro people that this seems acceptable. From a
community standpoint it's not really acceptable to have these buses go right in front of the door
of a dance studio. Right in front of the door of the cinema. And I think it would be imperative to
find a better solution. Now my question is, is this a reason to table or not. That's the part I'm not
totally clear about. I'm totally clear about that alternatives need to be studied, need to be looked
at, and there must be a better solution.
Feik: I'm prepared to deny or table.
Sacchet: Deny or table, okay. Hang on. I would not think that this is a reason to deny, that's my
personal opinion. I would be able to go along with a table though. What's the time line Kate on
this application?
Aanenson: You do have additional time. The review deadline date is 10/29.
Sacchet: 10/29, and having heard from the applicant that you're looking at starting the activity in
November, it would not really upset your time line if we take a little time so I think in that
context I would be in favor of tabling. Are there any more comments from commission?
Aanenson: Can I just add one other thing?
Sacchet: Yes, go ahead Kate.
Aanenson: There's an agreement with performance, and maybe the assistant city manager wants
to comment on that but there is a performance time line with the city as far as when to move this
forward as part of their purchase agreement, and I don't have those dates in front of me and I
need to clarify it with Justin.
Sacchet: Would you want to address that Justin please.
Miller: Good evening, Justin Miller, Assistant to the City Manager. When this proposal
originally came to the City Council or to the EDA I should say, they were very specific in that
they wanted to see very strict deadlines on this proposal. One of them is that the site plan
approval would be gained by September 30th. There's a little bit of wiggle room in there because
they did extend the 30 day clause. I'm not totally sure if those 30 days apply to this section of the
purchase agreement, but there is some pretty strict time lines on this. Once it is sent to council
for their approval, I believe the November timeframe was talked about for closing. There will be
some time after City Council approval that there will need to be some things to get in order for
closing, so obviously the sooner this is approved the better for the city and for the developer.
Sacchet: When is the next Planning Commission meeting this could be addressed if we table
Kate?
Aanenson: Next one would be October 7th.
Sacchet: October 7th. Then it would go to council like mid-October so that would definitely
curtail a little bit.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Aanenson: Unless you wanted to hold a special meeting, which has been done before too. I
guess the question needs to be asked too is, if I may, if the applicant has the ability and wants to
take that time to work through that issue. Does that make sense?
Sacchet: Can you repeat please?
Aanenson: Part of your goal is to ask of them to come back and study it. I think maybe the
question should be asked to them, does that make sense to ask them?
Sacchet: Yeah, actually you wanted to say something and if you want to please address us, that's
be good. We don't normally take comments at this stage of discussion but since it's a big, I
support this project very much. I think we all expressed that we really like this project. We just
have this bone here we're chewing on with this bus thing.
Clayton Johnson: I'm Clayton Johnson. I represent Bloomberg Companies and Market Square
Partners, the partnership and let me just give you a little history. This site, the park and ride
easement is not on our land. It's on the city's land. The city solicited proposals for development
on this site, which there have been four. All of which have failed. In our opinion, the reason they
failed is the location of the park and ride. Since we own the land to the east we were the only
ones that could come up with a solution of moving park and ride inside, off of that very prime
comer that's going to generate a lot of tax revenue. But we have to operate within what we can
control. In other words, we're not, we have leases on some of these properties that you would
like to tear down in Phase I! and in phase 3, and we do too, but these are subject to leases that
have to be, we have to work through that. And so the choice was, do we wait monnana until we
can do this whole big project, all three phases which may be 7 or 8 years, or do we attack it in a
phased mode, and that's what we came to the EDA with and they supported that. And honestly
we've got the best, John Uban, I don't know who we can find that can do a better job of looking
at the traffic patterns and so on. It may not be ideal in terms of the traffic pattern of the buses but
I happen to say I'm hard pressed, unless these guys, I don't know what 2 weeks is going to do in
terms of being able to give us those alternatives. We can't go through that road. We'd have to
re-build that road. It involves going through land that's currently under lease to other people and
major costs. We're coming to you with the only proposal, out of the four, that's so far gotten this
far. And the city has all these parameters. Million one on the land. Park and ride. No city
assistance. We've worked within all those parameters and done the best we can. And yes, the
bus is going to go in front of the dance studio, and yes the dance studio, that's an issue right now.
It's an issue right now because people don't want to park more than 5 feet from the door. We
know that and that's just something, so I just don't know what 2 weeks is going to buy, and if
John or Milo have any ideas, Dan, I'd be happy to address it but you know we're working within
all of these parameters of cost and options and you know I don't think we can come with anything
that's significantly different. The idea of removing the pad site for the second restaurant. The
kills the deal. That kills the deal. We need the revenue from that pad site in order to pay the
million 150. If the city wants to take a discount from the million 150, sure. Eliminate the pad
site, sure.
Sacchet: I appreciate your frankness.
Clayton Johnson: Thank you.
Sacchet: Bruce did you want to?
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Feik: Yes, I'd like to continue this discussion a little bit further. As the gentleman said,
temporary could be 7 or 8 years.
Sacchet: Yes.
Clayton Johnson: Or it could be 3.
Feik: Albeit. I guess I would be willing to, and we could get this done in 2 weeks, is I would be
willing to entertain a variance on parking to re-configure the egress shall we say for the buses so
that they come in. They make an immediate sort of U turn and come out that first aisle. Get rid
of, I played with it a little bit while I was up there. You get rid of those 18 stalls or whatever is
on the north side of one island and you've got to clip the comer. You've got to clip the comer so
you're taking part of the 20 stalls on the south end of the aisle to get back out. Yeah, that works.
Aanenson: Where are you talking about?
Feik: Well, move your pencil down and you take that aisle there, the drive aisle going west. You
take the first 18 stalls out on the north side.
Aanenson: You mean these right here?
Feik: Yep, the first 18 on the easterly portion of that drive aisle. That gives you the bus turn
around. You drop 3, 4, 5 parking stalls on the south portion, westerly comer.
Sacchet: A place to make a turn around is what he's saying?
Feik: Yeah. Get the buses out of the, you know. And then we can restore those parking spaces at
a later date. For 22, 23 parking stalls, I really don't want to sacrifice any kids. It ain't worth it.
And I would much prefer to do a variance on parking then, and I think that's doable in 2 weeks.
Sacchet: Question of Kate. If we would ask for a bus turn around in that comer, and that would
take away parking spaces, as Commissioner Feik suggested we'd be willing to sacrifice for this,
would that need a variance for one thing, beyond what's already in front of us?
Aanenson: I believe so. Again we'd have to look at the overall mix.
Sacchet: Because what I'm trying to determine is, is this something that could be clarified with
going to council or is this something that should come back here?
Aanenson: Well it was noticed with variances so you would just add that as an additional
variance with your findings being the fact that it provides for better circulation and that's the
reason you would support it, and if that was part of your motion, it could move forward. And
with the direction that the staff work with the applicant and Southwest Metro to provide better
circulation between now and the time it goes to council. So you wouldn't have to see it back.
Sacchet: Because I mean, we hear a lot of dramatic pictures here and I think we need to balance
that a little bit, I mean just for discussion amongst here now. I mean these buses are not going to
be speeding around these corners. These buses are going to be doubly careful going around there.
There could be speed bumps, there could be things. Mitigating factors but it's, I think we have to
nevertheless in order to be fair, you have to be careful that we not over dramatize the aspect. I
mean it's not ideal, these buses going in front of these stores, but on the other hand, it's not going
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
to be a like a street with traffic. I mean you'd expect any driver in a bus to be real careful in a
situation like that. Kurt.
Papke: What is the current bus traffic through there? How many buses per day are we talking
about?
Aanenson: I'm not sure if someone from Southwest Metro could say.
Bob Worthington: ...unfortunately I'm not a part of the operations side of the organization so I
couldn't give you a definite answer in terms of number of buses. We do have more than 10 that
go through the peak hour pick up and delivery of passengers at this location.
Feik: That's the peak time.
Bob Worthington: That's about the best I can offer as an answer at this point.
Sacchet: We're not talking buses by every couple minutes. I mean we're talking a bus usually
maybe one an hour and during peak time maybe half hour or something like that.
Feik: Well they've every 10-15 minutes in the evening and obviously the morning is fairly
irrelevant. You know it's 6:00-7:00 in the morning. Not too many people are going to the
movies. But you've got Saturdays and you've got Sundays and.
Sacchet: Right, definitely.
Feik: I mean I personally think, and I'm not the engineering and planning department here but,
and ! would like to hear the applicant's comments regarding the ability to accommodate that kind
of a turn around that I talked about. Could that work and is it, with the 22 stalls or temporary
might be, or whatever it is, which might be as the gentleman said, 7 or 8 years.
Aanenson: Just to be clear too on one issue and that's the fact that the parking easement that runs
on the property that they have to accommodate is for 120 stalls. If you take those out, it just
means reconfiguration of how many are assigned to Southwest Metro. Just to be clear.
Feik: Correct. Or they just be, they're re-signed in another area.
Aanenson: Exactly.
Feik: Right.
Sacchet: Would the applicant want to make a statement about the possibility of having an actual
turn around area in that corner? The feasibility of it or the problematic aspect or how easy it is
and so forth.
John Uban: Yes, we would like to make a statement about that.
Sacchet: Thought so.
John Uban: Part of that area is already existing parking and islands that are landscaped and so
forth and we have a general reluctance to kind of tear into that. We certainly could explore with
Southwest Metro, if there's some other configuration of a turn around might work for them but
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
the thing is, I don't think at peak hours, I think this is, I don't have the specific information to tell
you but I think there's a fear that you might have that is greater than reality. Realize that buses
are everywhere and they tend to operate the most in fairly dense urban situations where you have
a lot of pedestrians and they're basically there at the sidewalk and that is the condition under
which they're designed to operate, and they have a very good pedestrian safety record. So I am
not at all afraid of buses going around next to sidewalks where people are crossing and waiting.
And I think that the frequency of it is very low when you think about the interface with the dance
studio and so, I mean clearly we can bring you better information on how that would operate.
We could explore some other turn around but I think it's going to be a significant expense that
somehow has to get incorporated into this. That particular location is also, we're trying to make
sure that we don't physically remove parking that the theater now uses. I mean that's another
issue for us. And so that parking or turn around idea does physically remove parking that is now
used by the theater. So that's an issue. My bottom line is, we could come back in 2 weeks and
just share information but we really do need to move this forward to the council. If you'd like us
to work with Southwest Metro and just bring you the facts and see what else can be done, we'd be
happy to do that. Specifically 2 weeks from now, I understand it would be a meeting just for that
and see if we could at least get more informed about what is really going on and what the fears
might really be. And we'd be happy, we don't want you to be afraid of something that we're just
not ready to give you lots of detailed data on tonight. We didn't think that was a significant issue
at this point.
Sacchet: Well, appreciate that. Thank you very much. Yes.
Papke: We haven't talked much about the planned Phase II northern egress here, you know going
straight north from the park and ride. Would there be any way we could use that to solve the
problem? Is there any way to accelerate that particular piece? Just be able to get the path through
a northern egress.
John Uban: I don't have the detailed plans to show you but there's a significant amount of work
to build that particular road. We even think there might be some, if you look at the back side of
the theater, there's some pretty good utilities in there as well and that is another element we have
to get, work with. Also, to really make it work well, I believe we have to adjust the sort of
architecture of the side of the theater as well, so it isn't as simple as just kind of paving a road up
there. And we certainly could explain that to you in more detail but it's not just, it's not as easy
as it looks is the bottom line.
Papke: The bottom line is that's not an option at this time I'm hearing.
John Uban: Right.
Sacchet: Alright, thank you very much. ! think we need to move ahead and we have quite a
spread here of feelings how hard we want to press this bus issue. All the way from people I think
denying or tabling to tabling or moving it through. If we deny it it goes to City Council with that
recommendation. If we table it, then it has a 2 weeks wait. If we approve it go through with
conditions, they can work with these recommendations and concerns we have before they go to
council, so that's basically the 3 options. Is there any comment?
Feik: I just have one more. With all due respect to the applicant, I'm looking at the as-built right
now, and the number of islands that you're already modifying and changing, the cost issue to do
this turn around really doesn't wash in my mind. We're removing potentially part of the south
end of one island and you're already reconfiguring and probably starting over on this westerly
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
island of this other one so from a cost issue that one doesn't hold water in my mind. ! still feel
very strongly about this. I'll leave it at that.
Sacchet: Okay.
Slagle: My last comment is, I'm in support of everything about this project, including lighting,
signage, you name it with the exception of this traffic pattern. And the traffic pattern is a big
enough reason to table it or deny it.
Sacchet: Well, anyone dare to attempt a motion here?
Feik: I move we table it.
Sacchet: We have a motion to table. Is there a second?
Slagle: Second.
Sacchet: We have a motion, we have a second.
Feik moved, Slagle seconded that the Planning Commission table the Market Street Station
proposal. All voted in favor, except Tjornhom who abstained and the motion carried with a
vote of 4 to 0 to 1.
Sacchet: Do you want to comment why you're abstaining?
Tjornhom: I guess Southwest Metro came through and approved the route. They approved the
whole scenario of the buses coming through and I don't know, I feel like there are buses that run
through downtown Minneapolis on a continual basis and no one gets hit, but that's just my
opinion. You know if I'm going to cross the street with my 3 year old, I'm going to look 2, 3, 4
times to make just no one hits us no matter where I am and so I just don't think it's an issue.
Sacchet: Alright, thank you very much. Looks like we see you back in 2 weeks, and again I want
to emphasize that we do like your project. That we do support it but really the issue that we
would like to look at is this traffic situation. To have an understanding, a grasp what the
alternatives are. If there are none, there are none but it hasn't been studied and we'd like to see
that. Okay. Thank you very much.
Slagle: Point of reference?
Sacchet: Yes, go ahead.
Slagle: Can I ask staff if we can get from Southwest Metro their thoughts on what was submitted
to Southwest Metro as far as the plan.
Aanenson: Yes. We'll also get the number of buses that come through and yes. And just for
clarification, that next meeting is October 7th. It's actually we have an extra week so it's 3 weeks.
Sacchet: It's 3 weeks from now. Okay, we'll see you back in 3 weeks. Let's take a 5 minute
break. We'll reconvene at 9:15 sharp.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
PUBLIC HEARING:
CONSIDER REOUEST FOR PRELIMINARY PLAT TO REPLAT 3.63 ACRES INTO 7
SINGLE FAMILY LOTS WITH VARIANCES, AND A WETLAND ALTERATION
PERMIT, LOCATED AT THE SOUTHWEST INTERSECTION OF LAKE LUCY ROAD
AND POWERS BOULEVARD, BURLWOOD ADDITION, EPIC DEVELOPMENT, LLC.
Public Present:
Name Address
Laurie &Jon Steckman
David Smith
Bob Martinka
Mike Cuccia
Kent Kelly
Bob Christensen
Larry & Kathy Kerber
Rich Rogatz
Perry Ryan
Kevin Grafft
1215 Lake Lucy Road
6645 Mulberry Circle East
6650 Powers Boulevard
6722 Powers Boulevard
6539 Gray Fox Curve
6648 Powers Boulevard
Powers Boulevard
3441 St. Paul Avenue, Minneapolis
430 Lafayette Avenue, Excelsior
6726 Powers Boulevard
Sharmeen AI-Jaff presented the staff report on this item.
Slagle: Your last drawing you showed I think, is it Kohman and Infanger?
A1-Jaff: Yes.
Slagle: Could subdivide their lots to additional properties...
A1-Jaff: Yes.
Slagle: Okay. So basically if that was the case, if you go back to your Option B. If you went
back to Option B or Option C, did those take into account the additional two homes or do they
assume right now that Kohman and Infanger, if that's how you pronounce it. If not I apologize.
It only looks like there's two lots that.
Al-Jaff: Correct, and I don't know how viable this option is any more only because this parcel
has been platted.
Slagle: Okay. Okay, so.
Al-Jaff: You have a neck lot or a flag lot here, and it does not allow for the subdivision of
Kohman and Infanger's properties.
Slagle: So it might be, for our purpose tonight, assume that they probably won't subdivide, or
can't any further. Those two lots.
A1-Jaff: Under scenario E, Option E, because that's what was adopted by the City Council, they
will be able to.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: Well, let me clarify. I mean the way I understand it from the staff report, this is history.
Option E was adopted. Is basically where we're at. That's the foundation we're working from.
The rest is just a story. I mean that doesn't have any bearing on our considerations here tonight,
isn't that?
AI-Jaff: That's correct. I just wanted to tell you how we got to this point.
Sacchet: Right, and I think that's important for everybody.
A1-Jaff: And from a policy standpoint, we've amended our ordinances. Private streets. Neck
lots. All of these are variances.
Sacchet: So with the Option E they have the possibility to subdivide those two lots that you've
shown us? So that's not really a point for discussion is it?
A1-Jaff: With Option E?
Sacchet: Yes.
A1-Jaff: Kohman, Infanger can subdivide.
Sacchet: And that's what the current situation is.
Al-Jaff: Correct.
Sacchet: Okay.
Slagle: That will be 14 and 17. Okay. So my question is this, the Chair is obviously correct in
that Option E is the only thing we're looking at. I just want to be clear.
Al-Jaff: Correct.
Slagle: The City Council approved this option that has in essence 4 private.
Sacchet: We don't have any legal over that.
Slagle: I understand. I'm just, I mean.
A1-Jaff: Now remember, this was approved back in '95-96. And this is the basis that we were
working off of, and this is the direction that we gave the applicant.
Slagle: Okay.
Sacchet: Did you have something too Bruce?
Feik: Yes, Option E, I want to clarify something that I'm seeing here. On Option E the private
lot which goes to the north which goes to Lake Lucy Road, on the plans I've got they show access
onto Powers inbetween Lots 3 and 4. Does your plan show that as well?
Saam: I could clarify that. That's not an access. It's meant as a partial hammerhead turn around.
So it won't actually connect into the Powers Boulevard pavement.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Feik: Okay, that was my question, thank you.
Sacchet: Oh it doesn't connect?
Saam: No, it's not proposed to.
Sacchet: Okay. Well that's important to know.
Saam: Just the turn around for the private street.
Feik: That was my only question, thank you.
Sacchet: Alright, you want to go on Sharmeen please.
A1-Jaff: So as part of the Golden Glow Acres, we, Mr. Ravis dedicated the right-of-way for the
bubble of the cul-de-sac right here. The intent was to facilitate the future construction of the
street. If this street was built, this private street would then be closed off. Traffic would be
redirected to the bubble of the cul-de-sac and then out to Powers Boulevard.
Sacchet: Including that house between the cul-de-sac and Powers?
Al-Jarl: That's the intent.
Sacchet: So that house that's currently accessing to the east would then access to the west.
AI-Jaff: Correct. This is what it would end up going.
Sacchet: Alright. Just to clarify that. Thanks.
Al-Jaff: And again, this was for safety reasons.
Sacchet: And that was decided, that foundation that they're building from.
AI-Jaff: There are conditions of approval on the Golden Glow Acres that reflect that basically if
the cul-de-sac is built, that this would be closed off.
Sacchet: And is it accurate to assume that when this discussion happened, the then residents of
those parcels that we're actually looking at tonight, had their involvement, every possibility to be
involved as much as they wanted in that decision, correct?
A1-Jaff: Now, please bear in mind that the only people that remain from the original group are
Mr. and Mrs. Infanger, Mr. Kohman, Mr. and Mrs. Kerber. Everyone else is new.
Sacchet: Is new. But nevertheless, these agreements were a part of the public record that were
made at that point.
Al-Jaff: Correct.
Sacchet: Okay.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Al-Jaff: And when this was happening, the only individual we were working with was Mr. Ravis
who resided right here.
Slagle: Is it true that he is, if I read right, he has sold that property?
Al-Jaff: Yes. Long gone.
Sacchet: Okay. Continue please.
Sharmeen AI-Jaff continued with the staff report on this item.
Sacchet: Questions from staff. Who wants to start? Kurt, do you want to start?
Papke: One clarification on the change to item 11, and the item 11 itself. What's the rationale
for closing that during construction?
Saam: It is a county road there, Powers Boulevard. They want to limit direct accesses off of a
county road, so with the development of this, there's no need for that gravel driveway, so we
want to just have a condition saying that with the development it's got to be closed. That's the
only reasoning.
Sacchet: Rich, no questions? Bethany?
Tjornhom: Just for my own interest. What kind of outlet structure is needed to control the water
discharged from the pond? What does that mean?
Saam: It's basically a man hole with two different holes in it to let the water in, and they're at
different elevations and those elevations control the normal water level of a pond. Basically
where the water's going to be in the pond. And it's something with every development that we
require as a standard item.
Tjornhom: Okay, that's it.
Sacchet: Bruce.
Feik: Wetland. I did not see that these were being replaced at a 2:1 ratio.
AI-Jaff: They are under, they have to, that's state law. Well if you look on page 18, condition
number 1. When it says wetland replacement shall occur in a manner consistent with Minnesota
Wetland Conservation Act and the number, that's what.
Feik: And this would qualify for 2 to 17 Okay. That was my only question, thank you.
Al-Jaff: I don't think Lori would let that one go by.
Sacchet: Quick additional questions. Like we've seen there's a new letter here from the
Martinka's. The Martinka's. I was just wondering with that temporary cul-de-sac being built,
would the Martinka's also access that temporary cul-de-sac? Is that something that's been looked
at?
A1-Jaff: It's a public right-of-way.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Saam: I would guess since the private, their existing private driveway is going to remain with
this plan, they would access their site off of that. But they certainly have the right to go on the
public right-of-way. However it wasn't going to be paved. There was not going to be a paved
connection between the existing private driveway and the new public cul-de-sac. Do you follow
that?
Sacchet: Okay. So they could potentially keep their current access...
Saam: Yes, that was the plan. That was the plan.
Sacchet: ...pretty much parallel to the cul-de-sac, which yeah I mean they're in their rights for
doing that. Couple of other engineering things Matt. Bethany touched on the water, storm water
situation. It talks about the infrastructure downstream from the culvert being kind of lacking or
not quite there enough, could you tell me a little bit more about that?
Saam: I'm sorry, I didn't follow you. The infrastructure downstream from what?
Sacchet: Yeah, presently there's an old public storm water infrastructure downstream from the
culvert. I'd like to understand that a little more.
Saam: Maybe I can clarify this showing you the overall area. Let's just zoom in on this. Maybe
a little more Nann. Thank you. Here's the site, and there's proposed pond basically right there.
Our nearest existing storm sewer is down here. Basically at the comer of that street. Mulberry
Circle I believe it is. We have no storm sewer along Lake Lucy Road between that catch basin at
the street and the Kerber property. So what we're proposing as a condition and what's in the staff
report is to put that outlet control structure in the pond and basically pipe from the pond in our
right-of-way down, and let them connect into that existing catch basin.
Sacchet: Okay, that's good to know. Matt, it also talks about storm water from the temporary
cul-de-sac. Where would that go? Is there an idea of what happens with that?
Saam: That's something that we need to discuss more with their engineer, myself and Lori
and...but yeah, it's basically the storm water coming off this temporary cul-de-sac. We don't see
a need for them to build a big pond just for this little street at this time. Now when this all
develops, and I think Lori added something in the staff report that we'll work with the developer
and the existing property owners to look at a long term solution to the storm water.
Sacchet: Okay. And then it talks about additional right-of-way might be needed on the north side
for Lake Lucy. Does that have an impact at all at the current plat? With the lots. Does it
accommodate this?
Saam: A little bit but I think we've solved it. What I'm referring to is up here on Lake Lucy
Road. As other sites to the west have developed, Lake Lucy Ridge, Ashling Meadows, some
other ones that developed before you all were on the Planning Commission, we acquired
additional right-of-way along Lake Lucy. Lake Lucy's a collector road. By code we need 80 feet
of right-of-way there so with development, if we're lacking in right-of-way, we obtain additional
right-of-way as the properties develop. So what we're requesting, I believe there's about 33 feet
of right-of-way there now. So if you cut the road in half, half of 80's 40 so we're requesting an
additional about 7 feet so we'll have 40 feet of right-of-way there. And how that, the implication
to the plat is that all these lots are pretty much at the minimum for width and everything so what
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
we're proposing to do is just slide this street down the 6 to 7 feet that we would need in order to
gain the right-of-way here. The street would be just off set I mean by 5-6 feet from existing
Shenandoah Circle. We believe we can live with that. It's not 30 feet or 100 feet. It's basically
right across the street.
Sacchet: So you would shift the whole thing south?
Saam: Yes, that's what we'd propose to do.
Sacchet: Okay.
Saam: Let me just point out, that way the applicant wouldn't lose any lots.
Sacchet: Okay. Otherwise it would have an impact.
Saam: Potentially, yeah.
Sacchet: Okay. The trees. The trees. The dear trees. That's a little fuzzy in this proposal. I
mean if the staff report says some of the trees were counted actually are not really on the
property, but then on the other hand it looks like it was re-calculated. Basically to come up with
the number of how many trees need to be replaced, so staff is satisfied with that?
AI-Jaff: Yes.
Sacchet: As a condition number 2, minimum of 3 overstory trees shall be required in front of
each of these lots. These lots are not that huge. Is there enough room for a driveway and 3 trees?
Without crowding them, we think there is?
AI-Jaff: According to the city forester.
Sacchet: According to the city forester, okay. Okay we addressed this one. I think that's my
questions. Thank you very much. With that, would the applicant want to come forward and
address us please. State your name and address for the record and let us know what you have to
say please.
Rich Ragatz: Rich Ragatz, 3441 St. Paul Avenue, Minneapolis. And I would like to start out
again, I'm going to have to give a little history of things in a minute here but I've been working
with Larry and Kathy Kerber on this 5.17 acres since April and I think before we get into the
specifics of the development and why I think it's something that should be approved, I wanted to
get into the history so you can understand why we're at this point on a relatively small site like
this, doing two phases. So ! guess to start out with the history. I've been working with Sharmeen
and Matt, as she said since April, and went in there and talked to them several times and had
several different proposals that I brought forth and each time I was pretty much shot down
because there's two main things that we have to do here. We have to, safety's a big issue and the
second one is you have to allow the two people on the southern part of the development, the
ability to subdivide in the future and you can't do, you can't have more than 4 lots off of a private
drive so that's one of the big issues. And then the second is the safety concern. Rather have
traffic coming off of a 31 foot improved public street versus a 20 foot private drive, so we tried to
come up with some different options on that but it all came back to Option E and I think in the
end that is the best thing for this area. So then starting out early on, in April and June I called all
the adjacent property owners and just let them know that I was going to be the property owner
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
that's going to move forward and work with the Kerber's on development of this site, and left my
name and number and if they had any questions or comments, to please feel free to call me. Then
it moved onto July and I started to show some of the plans that we've come up with and I can
start out with the first plan here. And this plan is the July 3rd plan. It shows right here. We're
connecting with the existing cul-de-sac that was platted back in '96, and the 50 foot right-of-way
and just a little portion of the property, there's a right-of-way and just a very, very small portion
would be on Martinka's property.
Sacchet: If I could ask you to go relatively quickly through the history, because we have another
applicant and there are people here that would like to address that so, if you could mainly focus
on the actual current proposal, I would appreciate that very much.
Rich Ragatz: Oh, and not go into the history.
Sacchet: Well you can touch on it but what I'm asking you is if you could just really summarize
the history part please.
Rich Ragatz: Okay. Okay, that's fine. SoiTy about that. We went through several different
alternatives and I guess we went through the alternatives because we were trying to be, work with
everybody so this would be a win/win situation for everybody but based on the '95-96 Option #E
that was adopted by planning and council, the only way to move forward and develop this is to
get the Martinka property to work with us and, met with him several times. We had a
neighborhood meeting and showed him plans and tried to work with him and in the end I really
never understood what he wanted, and I asked him several times and he never came up with
anything and you know I have some time constraints. I'm working with the Kerber's, contractual
obligations and we wanted to move forward with what we thought was the best plan and let
planning and City Council take a look at it. So we went through a couple different renditions and
in the end we think this proposal here that has the temporary cul-de-sac and doesn't impact
anything in the easement is the way to go and I'm willing and would love to work with everybody
to get this thing finally connected to the easement that was done in '96. So ! guess I was going to
touch on some other things but I think I'll just get to the meat of the.
Sacchet: If you would, I think that would be appreciated.
Rich Ragatz: Alright. All the lots in the development are 15,000 square foot minimum lots.
They all have at least 90 foot frontage and 134 feet deep or more. The average about 18,000
square feet. We're only asking for one variance for a private drive and that's mainly to save the
mature trees. There's two oak grove, burl oaks on the site and several other mature trees on the
western property boundary and if we were to put a cul-de-sac in that way, it would really destroy
the trees and ruin the natural features of the site. So secondly, also looking at mitigating the
wetland which is 5,963 square feet because it's a type I wetland. It's basically a muddy hole with
reed canary grass and if we were to put homes in there, the people that live in the homes would
probably mow that. Fertilize it. It wouldn't act or look like a wetland so it's probably best to
move it off the site. So what I'm looking to do also is custom grade the site and I wanted to
clarify that if we were to custom grade I think we could do a little more in terms of tree
preservation for this. And we're looking to build the road as close to the easement as possible
and eventually extend it if we could. And this would be the first addition and as a part of it, we'd
be deeding Outlots A and B and the future road and right-of-way for the second addition, and I'd
be delighted to move forward with the entire thing as soon as everybody else is willing to move
forward on it too, and I thank you for your time and look forward to your feedback.
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
Sacchet: Thank you very much. Question from the applicant. Commissioners. No questions
from the applicant? One quick question. You mentioned the custom grade, is that part of the
current application in front of us or is that a change to the current? The way you were talking.
Al-Jaff: It is not. Right now it's mass graded.
Sacchet: Okay. So you're proposing that rather than mass grading you'd rather do custom
grading?
Rich Ragatz: Yeah, custom grade it and then work with the city if we can save more trees then
it's better for everybody.
Sacchet: And apparently there was not a disagreement but a difference in counting of the trees,
the canopy cover. Has that been resolved between staff and the applicant and you?
Rich Ragatz: Yes it has.
Sacchet: It has, okay. So you're basically concurring with the numbers that staff put into the
staff report at this time?
Rich Ragatz: I think, generally we are. Yeah.
Sacchet: Well, okay. Well that's good enough for me. Okay, thank you very much.
Slagle: Chair, I do have a couple.
Sacchet: Commissioner Slagle go ahead.
Slagle: If I may. Can I ask, you made reference on a couple times in your presentation of the
Martinka's, if that's how you pronounce it. That you just couldn't work it out. Is there a simple
explanation as to what you needed from them?
Rich Ragatz: Well according to the '95-96 resolution that was adopted, the only way to connect
to the cul-de-sac is to have some right-of-way and a portion of the road, a very minor portion on
his property and since his property's affected by the development, he'd have to sign the
development application.
Slagle: So was that a small parcel of land, safe to say?
Rich Ragatz: Yes.
Sacchet: It's the little comer.
Slagle: With the cul-de-sac.
Sacchet: That little corner there, yeah.
Slagle: Okay. And then the last question, pertaining to maybe the property you used to own, if I
understand it. What I'll call the, how do you pronounce his name?
Rich Ragatz: Egyhazi.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Slagle: Yes. Under proposal E, we're working with, are they connecting, is their driveway on
Powers, is that what it's going to be?
A1-Jaff: There's an existing private street.
Slagle: Correct. I just want to make sure I'm not getting confused here Sharmeen. That that is
not going to be closed. Okay, but you made the comment future development, they will close that
and they will have to go through the cul-de-sac.
Al-Jaff: Correct.
Slagle: ...from some folks that that maybe wasn't what was thought, so I want to make clear that
they're going to go around their house, even though their house faces Powers. They're going to
drive around the back end of their house.
Saam: The whole point Commissioner Slagle with that one is to close that access to Powers.
Slagle: ! understand but I just want to make sure that that property owner's fully.
Saam: And I wasn't around when that was adopted, Sharmeen was, but from everything I've read
and from what Sharmeen's brought me up to speed on that, that's been the intention all along.
Slagle: You believe that that property owner knows that that will.
Rich Ragatz: They're well aware of that, yeah.
Sacchet: Thanks Rich. Bruce.
Feik: One quick thing. In going forward the Martinka's will access Powers how?
Rich Ragatz: Well they'll currently have the existing access.
Feik: They have a current gravel road I believe.
Rich Ragatz: Gravel road that goes through.
Feik: And that will continue?
Rich Ragatz: Well it will continue or they can use the new improved street and just have a gravel
road from there.
Feik: Okay, thank you.
Al-Jarl: Our preference is to limit the number of access points onto Powers Boulevard.
Sacchet: Could we ask, could the city ask them to use that temporary cul-de-sac?
Saam: Sure, I guess we could but they have an existing easement off what will be Rich's...
Sacchet: Whether it makes sense or not, yeah.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Saam: Yeah, I mean if they have rights to do it, then. But see with development our plan was to
close that.
Sacchet: I don't know whether the Martinka's are here tonight. Probably if they are I would like
them to speak for themselves. We got the letter from them that sounds much more reconciliatory
than what the staff report reflects so if they're here, I hope they talk.
Rich Ragatz: Yeah I just want to add one thing. I mean part of the reason we're doing this
temporary cul-de-sac is there is an easement for access and utilities and I was willing to bring the
public street and have it connect to the Christensen and Martinka property, which would provide
a public street which is over and above the current requirements of the easement, and also bring
the utilities and stub them off at the property. But he thought, and he never said that he'd be in
that instance willing to relinquish his rights in the easement so it didn't make sense for me to
move forward if there's that possibility. It's too risky.
Sacchet: So from your vantage point there has been sufficient discussion between you two?
Rich Ragatz: Yeah.
Sacchet: Alright.
Rich Ragatz: Yeah, and I just wanted to clarify two things. In the preliminary plat that Sharmeen
brought up. Number 13. Perry and I have talked to Matt about this and you had mentioned the
last time that we talked that we could maybe, you were open to suggestions on other ways to
maybe go about this if they made sense.
Saam: Yep.
Rich Ragatz: So okay, just want that. And then on page 17 of the same thing, number 30. No,
31 I'm sorry. Also wanted to add, it says a financial security must be supplied to the city. I
wanted to add in there, for developer's pro rata share of cost.
Feik: Isn't there typically a multiple on that?
Saam: What do you mean a multiple?
Feik: If you're doing a bond or if you're doing a letter of credit it would be.
Sacchet: 1.2 or something like that.
Saam: Oh, 110 percent. Yeah. Yeah.
Sacchet: Okay, so it'd be 110 percent of the pro rata share.
Saam: I think what he's trying to address is he just wants to pay his own fair share and he would
just like that clarified in there. We're fine with that.
Rich Ragatz: And that's, oh go ahead.
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
Slagle: Point of clarification with Matt. On that 13 that we just talked about, you said you're
open to suggestions. I'm assuming, and we just talked about the closest one.
Saam: Yeah, how that came about, you can see they don't propose that on their plan. They kind
of propose just out letting it into the neighboring property. Lori, the Water Resource Coordinator
and myself sat down and came up with this proposal and I just communicated that to Rich's
engineer, that this is what we've come up with. You know you're welcome to look at it but what
you've proposed right now really doesn't work for us. So we're open to other suggestions but
this is what we've come up with right now. So barring any other ones, I guess we'd like to go
with this.
Sacchet: So you don't see a really an alternative at this point but you're willing to entertain if an
alternative is presented to you, but the original proposal, to just let it out on the neighbors
property is not acceptable.
Saam: Correct.
Sacchet: Okay. So would a work with staff be sufficient then at that condition?
Saam: Sure, work with staff on finding a resolution to the pond outlet or something like that.
Slagle: I can see one that's more generic...
Sacchet: Did you want to address another one?
Rich Ragatz: No, those were the ones I wanted to address.
Sacchet: Thank you very much. With that, this is a public hearing. If anybody wants to come
forward to address the Planning Commission on this item, please come forward now. State your
name and address for the record and we listen to what you have to say. Anybody takers with
this? This is your chance.
Jon Steckman: Good evening. I'm Jon Steckman. I live on the property west at 1215 Lake
Lucy.
Sacchet: Would you want to point out which one it is, just for our orientation. Okay, excellent.
Some beautiful trees there.
Jon Steckman: Pardon me?
Sacchet: Beautiful trees on your property.
Jon Steckman: Most of them are on the Kerber property, but a few. The only question I have I
guess, and that's more of a question. A couple questions. With the pond, I guess do we believe,
and I did talk to Rich a number of times on the phone and worked out very well. But I guess with
the pond, and the question maybe is to you, or over there, do we think that there will be water in
that pond? I know I talked to, about that just in general. It's quite a huge pond that borders my
property and just was interested in the possible depth of that pond. Where we thought that would
be.
Sacchet: Can you answer that Matt please?
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Saam: Sure. Yes, the pond is intended to hold water. The plan shows a normal water level
which is in generic terms where the water will usually be at of 995. The bottom of the pond is
990, so it'd be about 5 feet deep at it's deepest point.
Jon Steckman: Yeah, and I was just wondering about, sometimes you see the ponds around and
they're quite reedy and mossy so what we have, which is going to be to a couple people's back
yards, I was just interested if that could flow into that potential, proposed storm sewer, or
something related to that. So, and then I just wanted the clarification on that point number 13,
since I was the property currently where that might out flow or where it was originally proposed
but, and then if that storm sewer goes through, that would be in the easement, we could lose some
trees related to that on my property so I was just concerned and wanted staff to know that I guess.
Saam: Okay. I'll just mention, ifI can add to his.
Sacchet: Go ahead.
Saam: That the easement would be on the Kerber property. The pipe would be on the Kerber
property. So our intention would be to limit the destruction I'll call it to things on your property.
And I'll add just one more thing. The way they have this pond set up, in staff's view would be
advantageous to your property if and when at some time you would develop. You would also
have back yards which go toward the pond. The pond would be all set up for his drainage, that
sort of thing so.
Sacchet: So, but what you're saying Matt is that once your property develops, his development,
that private street could actually use that as storm water pond as well? Is that what you're
saying?
Saam: Yes. So...basically right here so you can see what I'm saying. His property would be set
up just like this one with a walkout's, whatever, looking at the pond to take care of the storm
runoff. So I just want to point that out. It's good for future development also.
Sacchet: For runoff, not necessarily for storm water from the other private street though.
Saam: Well unless they put a catch basin in and piped it there.
Sacchet: Okay. Alright.
Jon Steckman: Thank you.
Sacchet: Thank you very much. Anybody else like to address this item. This is your chance.
Please come forward.
Debbie Lloyd: Hi, Debbie Lloyd, 7302 Laredo Drive. I'll try to keep it short but I've seen some
things in the staff report that I'm questioning and I just caught the stuff tonight so please bear
with me. First question is, even though council approved this back in 1995 for E as the option,
because it was not developed, is not required, is that correct or not?
Sacchet: It's my understanding that the council decision was for Option E and that we're
building on top of that. Are you saying are we locked into it?
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Debbie Lloyd: But because it wasn't, because it did not move ahead.
Sacchet: Well some of it did. Like the cul-de-sac on the south is dedicated.
Debbie Lloyd: So we are locked into Option E?
Sacchet: Pretty much.
A1-Jaff: I'm sure there are other alternatives. However, based upon the cul-de-sac, the right-of-
way for the cul-de-sac and the alignment that we have, yes. You can say that.
Debbie Lloyd: Okay. I think the number of, I'm going to change my focus a little bit here. I
think the number of accesses is not a positive thing. Two private streets is not a positive thing.
Private streets, the maintenance of those streets is left up to the owner of the property. I believe a
public street should serve this area. Not be served by two private streets and one public street. In
terms of, let's see. On the preliminary plat, page 6. Average lot size. I had a question mark on,
it's shown as 21,323 square feet. Actually the developer said the average is about 18,000 square
feet in his statement so staff report is not correct there.
Sacchet: Sharmeen, I think that number comes from your compliance table doesn't it?
A1-Jaff: Correct.
Sacchet: And it looks to me like you added up the lots and then divided them by the number. So
I didn't check the math but.
Debbie Lloyd: What is Lot 1, Block 2 with 41,336 feet?
Sacchet: That's the lot on the southeast corner, right?
Debbie Lloyd: This is really poor, can you read it here?
Rich Ragatz: I'm talking about the...but if you use all 7 lots, it does average to 22.
Sacchet: That makes sense, okay. That resolves that question. Thank you for clarifying that.
What else did you find Debbie?
Debbie Lloyd: On page 9 under streets, the last point. The last line. The additional right-of-way
needs to be platted. So if it isn't platted it affects the buildable area I believe. And I don't know
if that's part of the calculation. Just a notation.
Sacchet: Yes, it seems like that's not been worked out at this point Matt, is that accurate?
Saam: Yes, however the lots will stay the same. Other than Lot 1, Block 2 would decrease by
that 7 feet because we're essentially pushing everything south so the big one will lose a couple
hundred square feet or whatever it is.
A1-Jaff: They're platting the entire subdivision now.
Sacchet: Okay, and as you pointed out you don't have an issue with the street being offset by a
couple feet.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Saam: No. Shenandoah is a sub-standard street so possibly in the future if that would get
upgraded, we could...on center.
Sacchet: Okay, thank you.
Debbie Lloyd: Okay, one other thing I wanted to point out about the private streets for Lots 1
through 4. Because of having private streets there, actually there's a gain to the property owner
of 10 feet, because now you're requiring 30 feet for a private street.
Sacchet: Can you repeat that? I'm not sure ! got that.
Debbie Lloyd: You're requiring 30 feet here of width. For a public street there would be a
requirement of 50.
Sacchet: Correct. That's one of the advantages of the private street.
Debbie Lloyd: Right, so there's almost a full lot gained by putting in private streets. The
calculation is around 10,000, if I calculated correctly, about 10,000 square feet.
Sacchet: So the point being? That they would lose a lot if it were a public street?
Debbie Lloyd: Correct.
Sacchet: Did you also take into consideration that there are two private streets if they would go
down the public street in the middle where all the big trees are, that actually the easement for the
public street would be shared between the easterly and westerly lots. Is that accurate Matt?
A1-Jaff: Yeah. Yes it is.
Sacchet: Okay. Because I would think if you take that in consideration, then I'm not sure
whether your point would really.
Debbie Lloyd: Well there is a gain on each lot when you put in a private street. It's just a point.
Sacchet: ...where would you go with that?
Debbie Lloyd: It's just a point that you're gaining a buildable lot and granted it's a development
that's been passed already but I do want to make that point because of the private street issue. On
page 17, point 25. This does not mention that the driveway must be 20 feet wide. It says it's
required for the private drive. That word should be private street so there's no confusion after all
the code changes we went through.
Sacchet: Okay, can you say this again so we're all on the same page? You're looking at number
25 on page 17 and what would you change?
Debbie Lloyd: Point number 25. The driveway should be paved to 20 foot width.
Saam: If I can add something to that, and the only reason we didn't add that is because they're
already proposing it at 20 feet.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: So it's already there.
Saam: It's already shown on the plan as 20 feet, yeah.
Debbie Lloyd: But I would like to change the word from private drive to private street.
Sacchet: Is that consistent with our language?
Al-Jarl: Yeah.
Sacchet: Okay, good point Debbie. Thank you.
Debbie Lloyd: And apart from that, the only other point is meeting the variance requirements for
private street, but again if this has been approved, I don't know if it's a moot point or not. But the
variance study here did not go over point by point, let's see. Page 14. Variances. You have
point 1 through 4 but you have a general finding. In the finding it is possible to serve this site
through a public street so you need to work through all those variances I believe in order to
sufficiently meet the variance. Thank you.
Sacchet: Thank you Debbie. Am I correct by assuming that those considerations were made
when this originally was chosen as Option E?
Al-Jaff: Now please remember that back then it was not a variance.
Sacchet: It was different, okay.
A1-Jaff: We were operating under a different set of rules.
Sacchet: Alright. This is a public hearing. Anybody else would like to come forward, this is
your chance. State your name and address for the record please.
Kevin Grafft: My name is Kevin Grafft. I live at 6726 Powers.
Sacchet: Is that on the plat there?
Kevin Grafft: Property 13.
Sacchet: Property 13, thank you very much.
Kevin Grafft: Just a couple quick and easy questions. Main question is probably, I'm not sure
who to address this to. What was the main reason for closing down the private drive to homes 11,
12 and 137
Sacchet: Matt, do you want to address that please.
Saam: Yes. One to limit direct accesses onto Powers Boulevard, a collector. High traveled
street, and two, was approved that way under the Golden Glow development, which is that
development to the south. The development contract for that site says that when this future cul-
de-sac public street is put in, that private street will go away.
Kevin Grafft: So once this addition's put on, that will close off the 3 homes down there?
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Saam: Yes.
Kevin Grafft: Because the one lady will still have, the old Ravis property will still have her
access them?
Saam: I'm not sure which one the old Ravis' is.
Kevin Grafft: Number 18 there.
Sacchet: Why don't you point it out on the plat there.
Kevin Grafft: Right down here. Ravis' is right there. So you're going to shut these 3 homes and
route them...
Saam: Yeah, good point. That would come out here to the cul-de-sac.
Kevin Grafft: Well then who's going to be responsible for maintenance of that road?
Saam: When this gets built it will be a city street so we'll plow and maintain it and everything.
This will remain a private street as it is now.
Kevin Grafft: Okay. Then just one last quick question. This is kind of regards to Mr., is it
Ragatz? Ragatz. As far as Mr. Bob Martinka's inability to be accessible. I have a letter here
from his attorney that's talking to you saying that he is willing to talk.
Sacchet: Yeah, I believe we have a copy of that letter as well. It's the letter from September
15th?
Kevin Graft: I want to say it's July.
Feik: He's got a letter from an attorney. This is from Martinka themselves.
Sacchet: Oh, this is from Martinka's themselves, okay.
Kevin Grafft: July 25th. So I was kind of confused by that.
Feik: In reference in paragraph A of the Martinka letter. Reference to paragraph A.
Sacchet: Alright.
Kevin Graft: Because Bob's been kind of the spearhead in our area, kind of the bring us abreast
and work hard as far as coming up with a solution for everybody so.
Sacchet: So your point being that some additional...
Kevin Grafft: It's kind of confusing why he's been contradicting this all night.
Sacchet: Yeah, but the point you're making is that it would be good to have some additional
discussion there? Is that basically what you're saying?
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Kevin Grafft: Correct.
Sacchet: I mean I don't want to put mouth in you, words in your mouth but.
Kevin Graft: I mean it's been totally opposite so I'm kind of confused by that I guess.
Sacchet: Yeah, July 25th. That's the letter that was actually in our staff report.
Feik: Oh yes in the back.
Sacchet: That's the one you're referring to, right?
Kevin Graft: Correct.
Sacchet: Okay.
Kevin Grafft: That's all I have.
Sacchet: Thank you very much. Anybody else want to address this item? This is your chance.
It's getting late so I'm going to close it if nobody else stands up. Nobody else stand up? Are you
sure Debbie.
Debbie Lloyd: I'm really sorry because I know we're trying to keep these as short as possible. I
just guess I'm like really confused. So if this was already approved, the subdivision was
approved.
Sacchet: That's my understanding.
Debbie Lloyd: The purpose of this meeting then is to allow the variance?
Sacchet: We're looking at the plat, we're looking at the variance and the plat. Two things. Plat
and variance.
Debbie Lloyd: But the plat was already approved.
Feik: Conceptual.
Al-Jaff: The Ravis plat. Golden Glow was approved.
Sacchet: The Golden Glow plat.
A1-Jaff: Which resulted in certain alignments, dedications put in place.
Slagle: If I may.
Sacchet: Go ahead Rich.
Slagle: Mr. Chair, and I want to get back to my thing from the beginning of this presentation, and
! appreciate you trying to keep us on track, but I still have a question and that's why I was trying
to get more history of this options because is this indeed E, call it E, the only framework that
we're allowed to work with, because I'll give you an example. We had the development on
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Powers, and I won't go into the details, that we called premature and I'm questioning why this
wouldn't be somewhat premature as well.
Sacchet: Can you say why?
Slagle: I'm not sure why but I'm just asking. What I'm saying is, we had a developer, or
applicant who wanted to develop their land and we as a commission voted that it was premature.
And what I'm saying is we're sort of being instructed, and I don't want to put words in the staff's
mouth but this was already approved by City Council. You have to work under this guideline.
And I have yet to see anything from the meeting of '95 that showed that, so I'm taking you guys
on your word that that's our framework.
Sacchet: Well let me clarify that. I mean obviously the issue in front of us is not which one of
those 4 or 5 options is appropriate.
Slagle: I understand.
Sacchet: The issue in front of us is, the option that was chosen by City Council and I assume the
Planning Commission at the time, on that basis here's a plat. Does this plat work? Does this plat
meet the regulations and ordinances of zoning. That's the question I see in front of us.
Al-Jaff: And the Ravis plat was approved based upon Option E.
Feik: Right, but this plat was not filed. This was a conceptual plat. It's just conceptual... It was
not a filed plat. It wasn't a done deal.
Slagle: Correct and that's what I'm trying...is we have the ability Mr. Chair I think, to look at
this proposal and if you will question certain things and have the ability to do that without
thinking that a previous City Council approved this.
Sacchet: Okay, question to staff. Is that accurate? Do we have within our reach to go back and
evaluate these options at this stage of the game?
Slagle: Not what I'm asking.
Sacchet: That's what I'm asking. I know that's not what you're asking but we might as well go
all the way here.
Saam: I'll give my opinion and I think what we, because this is what Rich talked about. Rich
Ragatz the developer brought that up right from the beginning and what we've always said is, the
council has the ability to change and say you know that council back in '95 didn't know what
they were doing and just throw that out the window. I guess in my opinion we really don't. We
have a development contract in place. We have platted right-of-way that we want to hook up, so
we've already looked at the whole area. Gone through all the options. I think the plan's in place.
We build off of that. Can we tweak this? Sure.
Sacchet: I mean but basically staff's position is we don't want to reinvent the wheel in this
particular case.
Al-Jaff: Well we spent a good 6 months on the Ravis plat. Going through all of those options
and 6 months might be an exaggeration. But it was quite.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: Well I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision just by judging what we're going through here
tonight with this.
Al-Jaff: It wasn't...and our initial recommendation to the City Council was that this was a
premature development for the Ravis. We said until Kerber is ready to develop, Ravis should not
move forward, but.
Slagle: And I guess what I'm, if I may, what I am suggesting is that with the absence of a couple
of parties of this, who have properties in this already, let's just say design proposal. That's
maybe the wrong word, I am wondering why we can't help that process along to reach an
agreement to all parties to then have a solution that works for everybody versus leaving a couple
folks out. That's really what I'm getting at.
Al-Jaff: And in all honesty, if you look at this proposal, and we've spoken to Mr. Ragatz about
this, one of the reasons he's calling it Phase I, Phase II is because with Phase I he's able to
develop the entire property located to the northwest and then in the future when the remaining
parties are all on the same page, they would be able to continue this cul-de-sac.
Sacchet: Yes. Actually we're still having an open public hearing.
Feik: I think I'm understanding you. Basically, I'm going to paraphrase what I heard and you
tell me if I'm wrong. We're doing Phase ! until they can secure that triangular piece of dirt to
access the Golden Glow Court.
Al-Jaff: And Mr.
Feik: That's the only thing that's holding this thing up as a two phase is to get that triangular
piece of dirt.
AI-Jaff: Correct, and Mr. Ragatz needs to work with Mr. Martinka to vacate, or.
Sacchet: To come to an agreement. Simple.
AI-Jaff: Come to an agreement.
Sacchet: So we still have an open public hearing here. We have not heard from the Martinka's
so I assume they're not here. Here's another person though who'd like to address us. Please
come forward.
Bob Martinka: Good evening and thank you. As I said in the opening statement of my memo to
you.
Sacchet: Name and address please.
Bob Martinka: Oh I'm sorry. Bob Martinka...
Sacchet: You are here. Welcome then.
Bob Martinka: As I said in the opening statement in my memo I sincerely wish both the
developer, Mr. Ragatz and the seller, Mr. and Mrs. Kerber you know every success in this
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
regardless of what the configuration is. Personally we got our little place back there in the woods
and our lives will continue and we've got a large family and it fits us pretty well but, I kind of
promised a couple folks that I would not be standing up here this evening and I'm here for one
reason only, and that is to you know this is all on the record and I want it to be accurate. There's
a couple of things that were said here tonight and I'm not suggesting that they were said you
know with any intention to have it appear other than it really is. However, Mr. Ragatz said I have
conducted neighborhood meetings. Mr. Grafft is here from the neighborhood. Mr. Smith is here
from the neighborhood. Mr. Cuccia is here from the neighborhood. Bob Christensen is here
from the neighborhood. There was never a neighborhood meeting until one evening late in the
process I personally called Rich to join an informal group for coffee out in front of Mike's house
and we chatted about a few things. The subject of easement I invite members of the commission
to very thoughtfully read my memo. I made a number of overtures to bring the subject of
easements on the table. Never, ever once did the developer approach me on the subject of
easement. Never did we turn down or reject consideration of setting aside of the easement, and
indeed I initiated procedures with my lien holder in case I was approached, which I never was
approached. Ever on that subject. That needs to be set clear for the record because the Martinka
residence, property is being, appearing to be used as a, you know as a reason why the
development is being done in two stages. And may I just encourage you to look more carefully at
what appears to be that little corner of property that has to be crossed. It's a 25 foot line and I
invited staff to come out and look and take a walk. I also, at Sharmeen's recommendation, very
well advised recommendation, you know mentioned to the developer out in the field, have an
engineer's chalk line drawn so I could better see and understand what we're really talking about.
Because what we were talking about was the proposal never discussed in advance. I discovered,
you know I learned about it for the first time when i picked a copy up from Sharmeen's office,
who by the way has been really very helpful and responsive and cooperative. That proposal put
the right-of-way within 2 to 4 inches of the string of some of the oldest, tallest evergreens in
Carver County, and threatened their survival. I went in to see a staff member in the planning
council and he said well, yeah. Those trees would probably have to go. Well, they define the
whole character of that property. Never discussed in advance so you know I think some of those
things, had there been a little planning in advance, as I suggested in the last paragraph of that
memo, and encourage you to look at it, who knows. We might have a win/win situation that Rich
referred to there. Well, I don't want to belabor that point just that I think the record needs to be
corrected, particularly on those points. I made perhaps a half a dozen initiatives on the subject of
easement and never got a response.
Sacchet: Appreciate your.
Bob Martinka: The subject's never been brought up.
Sacchet: Appreciate your sharing that with us. If I may ask you a question or two.
Bob Martinka: You bet.
Sacchet: I think you are accurate in that that road alignment would have significant impact onto
the trees to your east. If by looking at the plat I think it's very evident that that roadway, going to
the cul-de-sac of Golden Acres, Golden Glow, or what's it called?
A1-Jaff: Golden Glow.
Sacchet: Golden Glow Acres. Would have a significant impact on the trees. Not on your
property but just across your property line to your east. And you expressed that would have a
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
significant impact on the character of your residence. Now from that I would be inclined to
conclude that you do have a resistance for that roadway to go in, which I fully understand.
Bob Martinka: I have resistance to making decisions and taking action without everybody with
the best interest sitting down at a table and some advance information and the guidance and
gradually moving towards a best mutual outcome that we can have and that opportunity has never
been provided.
Sacchet: Then I have another question of that. Were you aware of that road being planned when
you acquired that property?
Bob Martinka: No sir.
Sacchet: Okay. Well that's part of the problem. Okay.
Bob Martinka: You know that property is going to be developed at some point in time. They just
ain't making land no more, especially in Carver County, and we're open and reasonably easy and
trying to be okay folks to work with. That really has not been the process that's been used. The
process that's been used you know, here's a plan. That's what we're going ahead with, or
respond to it and I think if everyone were involved at the earlier stages of the process, everybody
had a chance to listen, to express their thoughts, their concerns, their recommendations.
Sacchet: Then part of what we're struggling with here tonight is that a lot of this planning took
place what, 8 years ago. And most of the people here, actually almost all of us were not here.
Bob Martinka: She gave you a short course in the background, yeah.
Sacchet: Well I appreciate your coming to speak up. Thank you very much.
Feik: Mr. Martinka, one question please. As a stakeholder, what would you have us do?
Bob Martinka: I would have you structure a new look with this, as almost as though we were
starting from the beginning because I think there are some options out there. You know Phase I,
Phase II with Martinka's easement apparently being the, so.
Sacchet: Sharmeen points out that you did submit a proposal from what you would encourage?
Do you want to zoom in on that Nann? Yeah.
A1-Jaff: This is the Martinka property. And the Christensen's are right here. What this calls for
is a cul-de-sac that terminates in front of the Christensen property. A foot path, oh this is a
private street. A foot path and then where the cul-de-sac bubble sits would be turned into a mini
park area for the neighborhood.
Sacchet: And the access of those properties to the south would stay the way it is?
AI-Jaff: Correct, so they would not be able to further subdivide.
Sacchet: Okay. Thank you for pointing that out Sharmeen.
A1-Jaff: Sure.
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
Bob Martinka: There's been an expression of non-interest by those two parties in developing
their properties now. Obviously times change. Houses sell, etc but.
Sacchet: Alright. Thank you very much. Appreciate your comments. Thank you for stepping
up, even though you apparently promised some people you wouldn't. We definitely wanted to
hear from you. With that, unless somebody else wants to address the commission, yes. There is
somebody else. Please come forward. State your name and address for the record and let us
know what you have to say.
Larry Kerber: Larry Kerber, 6700, well ! own the property at 6700. I live at 6420 Powers, and
the only comment I have is, I'd like to, I think I disagree with Mr. Martinka. He was well aware
of this project and proposed turn around, everything when he bought the property. The person he
bought it from Bob Peterson and I discussed it even when Martinka bought and I said, does he
know. And Bob says oh yeah, I showed him Option E. Showed him everything. So maybe he
just forgot or something.
Sacchet: Based on information you have, let's not go there. I mean this is, but I appreciate yes.
You made your statement, I appreciate that but I don't think we want to discuss that. That's not
our scope here. Obviously we have some disconnects here and I wish people could work those
out, but that's not our task here at Planning Commission.
Al-Jaff: And if the Planning Commission would focus on the proposal that is before you today.
Sacchet: Yeah and basically, anybody else want to address the Planning Commission here? This
is still open public hearing. Last chance. I'm closing the public hearing. Bring it back to
commissioners. And to emphasize Sharmeen's point, our task here is this proposal that's in front
of us. Our task is to look at this. Does this meet the city regulations, ordinance, zoning and make
a finding on that. Whether we agree with the staff. Whether it needs to be tweaked or where we
go with this. That's basically the task that's in front of us as a Planning Commission. With that I
would want some comments, and the group is pointing to you Rich.
Feik: I'm just pointing at that end.
Slagle: You know I'm not exactly sure what to say on this one to be frank with you. Actually I
don't have anything to say right now.
Sacchet: Okay, that's good enough. Anything more from you Kurt?
Papke: It's clear there's been some breakdown in communications here, but I think the plan in
front of us involves 7 lots and were there to be other alterations here, you know it doesn't sound
like they would affect the 7 lots in question here. I think the developer should be given the right
to proceed with what's on the table right at this time and have all these other considerations taken
into account as we move forward with the rest of the development.
Sacchet: Thanks Kurt. Bethany, want to give it a stab?
Tjornhom: You know I just agree with what happened at the other end of the table. I guess I
agree with everything they said and I approve, or I think it is a good lot development and good
luck.
Sacchet: Okay, thanks Bethany.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Feik: I'm in a quandary. I would be not nearly as resonant as I am if the easement that access the
Martinka property out to Powers, that piece would go away and we would eliminate one more
access onto Powers on a temporary basis. That would make me very comfortable with what's in
front of us. I guess my question to you Matt is, we've got the proposed cul-de-sac which dead
ends you know right off of the Powers coming in 100 feet or whatever it is, and then just to the
south of that another, help me out, 30, 50, 60, 75 feet.
Saam: That's about right.
Feik: Is the gravel road to the Martinka, if I'm pronouncing it properly I hope, and then we go
another 200-300 feet and we've got the private road that was ultimately to be abandoned if this
could go in. I can live with the private road to the south. I would have liked to have seen some
accommodations by the developer here to try to really encourage this abandonment of that one
gravel road just south of the new road.
Saam: Could I add two points?
Feik: Please.
Saam: To that for you Commissioner Feik. First of all staff is fully in support of getting rid of
that gravel drive. Putting in the entire public street cul-de-sac. Having everybody come off that.
We told Rich that. In fact his previously submitted plan showed that. However in discussions
with him, that he told us, he wasn't able to, as you know, come to an agreement with Martinka
and I think Christensen also has a stake in that easement. Without getting rid of the easement,
which Martinka and Christensen have to sign off on, I don't think we can require that. We can't
shut them off.
Feik: I understand but now we've got a cul-de-sac that comes in 100 feet or so and then to the
southwest comer of that cul-de-sac we've got a private road, which is going to skirt that cul-de-
sac by about 4 feet.
Sacchet: Or less.
Feik: Or less. And then ultimately wander back out to Powers.
Sacchet: It doesn't make sense.
Feik: It doesn't make sense at all.
Saam: I agree. If the residents would be willing to get rid of just even that far east portion and
come off the cul-de-sac we would be in favor of that. The city.
AI-Jaff: Mr. Ragatz has no control over this.
Feik: I understand that.
Sacchet: Yeah because Mr. Martinka is in his rights with having this easement. Anything else
Bruce?
Feik: No.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: Alright, my turn. This is sticky, judging by how long it takes. I'm going to get real bad
marks from the City Council by having such a late meeting again.
Feik: We're not done.
Sacchet: I know. Basically I agree with everything that's been said. I think the applicant is in
his full rights to develop this. It's a proposal that's based on previous decision of City Council in
terms of the private road. The wetland alteration is reasonable. Do I like it? Well, yeah I'm a
tree guy and I'd like to see a little more consideration for trees, but that's not a reason to hold this
up. But I do agree with Commissioner Feik. I think to have an additional access to Powers
within 80 feet or less from another one existing is not acceptable and I think this would be reason
to table it and ask the parties to discuss this. For the Martinka party, there are really 3 issues.
One is the easement from the potential temporary cul-de-sac out to Powers. And I don't know
whether legally we have a sound foundation to turn it down on that basis, but I certainly think we
have a solid foundation to table this on this basis and asking the parties to work on this. Now the
other two aspects that affect the Martinka property. One is that piece of property that would have
to be taken for that roadway alignment, which I don't think is that big an issue. I think for the
Martinka property the real issue is the road going in there and all these trees coming out, but
that's a separate issue from the access onto Powers. I think it's reasonable to table it on that basis
and ask that to be looked at and worked on and come back to us and we will take it from there, so
that's where I'm at.
Feik: I have one more quick question before we go any further.
Sacchet: Go ahead.
Feik: Matt, the lot block, Lot 2, Block 1 existing house, the large lot, how does that structure and
how do they access when this is done to Powers?
Saam: I believe they go through that gravel drive also, don't they?
Rich Ragatz: Yes, it'd be the gravel drive.
Saam: Yes, they also access that way.
Sacchet: Through the same access as the Martinka.
Saam: Yes.
Sacchet: So that's a shared easement there, okay. Well yeah, good question Bruce. Any other
aspects, otherwise I'd like to have a motion. Anybody dare to make a motion on this one?
Bob Martinka: If you deny me I'll respect your decision but I would ask for 30 seconds.
Sacchet: Okay, please come forward. We're late either way. 30 seconds go fast though.
Bob Martinka: When I bought that property I was never aware of a development that would
encroach on our property, nor that would jeopardize these massive evergreen trees. Of course I
was aware of a cul-de-sac that borders our property and that a road someday would run through
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
there but I really, I need Larry to understand that and I need you to understand it because my
veracity is kind on line.
Sacchet: Appreciate, thank you. And it only took 30 seconds. I appreciate that particularly. Are
we ready for a motion?
Feik: I'1l move we table.
Sacchet: Do we have a second?
Slagle: I'll second.
Feik moved, Slagle seconded that the Planning Commission table the Preliminary Plat
request for Burlwood Addition at Lake Lucy Road and Powers Boulevard. All voted in
favor, except Papke who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1.
Sacchet: So we have 4 to 1. Anything you want to add? You made your position pretty clear.
Papke: I think I made my comments pretty clear.
Sacchet: Okay. So we see you guys in a couple weeks. 3 or more. And I think we had enough
discussion on it that we know why we tabled this. I'm not going to go back into this further, and
I would like to move onto our last item on the agenda.
PUBLIC HEARING:
CONSIDER A REQUEST FOR A LAND USE AMENDMENT FROM RESIDENTIAL
LOW DENSITY TO COMMERCIAL ON 8 ACRES AND CONCEPTUAL PLANNED
UNIT DEVELOPMENT (PUD) REVIEW FOR A MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT
INCLUDING A FAMILY ACTIVITY CENTER AND TOWNHOMES ON 14 ACRES
ZONED AGRICULTURAL ESTATE DISTRICT (A2), LOCATED AT THE
NORTHWEST CORNER OF TH 5 AND GALPIN BOULEVARD, JOHN PRYZMUS,
SWINGS.
Public Present:
Name Address
Marlene Bentz
Lois Degler
7300 Galpin Boulevard
9111 Audubon
Bob Generous presented the staff report on this item.
Sacchet: Questions from staff.
Feik: Sure, I'1t start. Bob, this was guided as residential. The piece that's on the east of Galpin
that now is occupied by the Kwik Trip, how was that guided?
Generous: It was guided for commercial, medium density residential or and parks and open
space.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Feik: Okay. How did, and were you part of the study that ultimately came up with the guiding of
this. How were these two parcels differentiated from each other, particularly in light of the
southern route for West 78th Street?
Generous: I wasn't a participant in it but the city did not want to create commercial uses at every
intersection, at every corner of every intersection and they decided that as you go west from
Galpin you were going into a residential area.
Feik: But we've got residential north of the Kwik Trip though as well, so the conditions are
virtually identical, except this wasn't built.
Generous: We had medium density to the north of the Kwik Trip. Walnut Grove, the townhouse
project.
Sacchet: That's medium density, yeah.
Feik: And the Kwik Trip wasn't even buildable until the soil corrections were done with the
extra materials from Highway 5, is that correct? The site was not buildable.
Saam: They took out an interim use permit, a grading permit for like 50,000 cubic yards to be
filled on that property.
Feik: Right, right. Because that was significantly lower. I mean it wouldn't even have been able
to be developed as commercial if left as the way it was.
Saam: Probably not without the fill, no.
Sacchet: Go ahead Bruce. Any other questions?
Feik: Is there any, I guess is there any compelling reason, I guess I'm having a hard time. What
is the compelling reason not to rezone this?
Generous: That's a legislative. It's a policy decision on the city's part.
Feik: Okay, thank you.
Sacchet: Bethany.
Tjornhom: Not right now.
Sacchet: Not right now. Kurt.
Papke: What is the access to this site from the school? One can envision you know a business of
this nature, I mean this isn't a retail facility. This is something that's obviously catering to
children so if I was a student at Bluff Creek Elementary, how would I access this site?
Generous: You could cross under Highway 5 and under West 78th Street with the pedestrian
underpass and then come up on the north side of West 78th Street and take that west across Galpin
and then come across the street again, or you could cross at grade on Galpin.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Papke: So it would be reasonable to assume that there would be some amount of traffic, after
school type traffic that might use this facility on a pedestrian or bicycle or skateboard basis or
something.
Generous: That would be the hope, yes.
Sacchet: Point of clarification. There's sidewalk on both sides of Galpin? That's what 1 read
from the plan.
Saam: Yes, I believe there's trail on both sides of Galpin. West 78th however I believe there's
only the trail on the north side. That is something though that could be added with, as you get
into a site plan for this site, you know to add sidewalk.
Sacchet: Go ahead Kurt.
Papke: Okay, that was my only question. Thank you.
Sacchet: Rich, your turn.
Slagle: A couple questions. Bob, the parcel that is directly to the west of, let's call it the rec
That's a bad word. The family whatever. Activity center. What is that? I mean I
center or.
know it' s.
Generous: This started with right-of-way down here. This is...
Slagle: I know but as you go westward, the parcel of land, you know follow.
Sacchet: Let's say between the project and Highway 5. I think that's, let's stay between the
frontage road and Highway 5.
Generous: Yes, it's Arboretum Shopping Center.
Slagle: Okay. And that is the, was that the Shell or the coffee?
Generous: Yes, sure.
Slagle: And the restaurant. What I'm getting at...
Generous: Strip center, yeah.
Slagle: And then Holiday Inn across the street. So, yeah that's on the south side. So then I go to
Vasserman Ridge, if I'm not mistaken at least the first groupings of homes are twinhomes, is that
correct?
Generous: That's correct, yes.
Slagle: So, we're suggesting, at least if I heard you right, that townhomes would not be
acceptable in that area to the north of West 78th but twinhomes could be workable.
Generous: Under their existing zoning ordinance, correct.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Slagle: Because obviously tying that in with what's behind it. So my last question is, in that
study that the City Council approved whatever year it was, at that point did they know that West
78th was going to flow the way it is?
Generous: Yes, that was determined as part of that study was the alignment.
Slagle: Okay. With that being said then, if I hear you right you're suggesting in that area, that
this family activity center is currently proposed for, you would envision homes with a Kwik Trip
on one side, Highway 5 on the other, or on another side. I mean within I'm going to say 40 yards.
Generous: That was what the study came up with in the land use recommendations.
Slagle: I just want to be clear about that. Okay.
Sacchet: Alright, I've got a few questions too. Page 5 of the staff report. The city will
encourage the development of the neighborhood services center where appropriate. The proposed
development would not perform as a neighborhood service center but a community wide
attraction. Are we saying we don't want a community wide attraction?
Generous: At this intersection? That's what the Highway 5 study said, no we don't.
Sacchet: Why?
Generous: Traffic. We don't want to have every comer with commercial.
Sacchet: Traffic, is there a better place then next to a freeway? I mean a highway or whatever
we call Highway 5.
Generous: Well no, that's where you want traffic to be.
Sacchet: Yeah, I'm just asking. I'm not trying to pin you down Bob. The proposed development
would reduce the potential number of dwelling units in the city. We're talking about how many
units that we would lose?
Generous: 15.
Sacchet: 15, okay. Policy requires that the development scenario proposed for the property strive
to preserve and enhance the Bluff Creek corridor. The current proposal does not adequately
protect the Bluff Creek corridor. Besides doing a delineation study, what else? I mean can you
give me a little bit of an idea of what we're shooting for.
Generous: Well we'd probably have to find out where it is and meeting the setback. Doing the
plantings, things like that.
Sacchet: Sounds like a good idea. So design standards would need to be developed and all that.
Generous: Correct.
Sacchet: Design standards would have to be in place for a concept PUD to be gone through?
Generous: No for, that's the next step.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: That's the next step.
Generous: Right.
Sacchet: Okay. Alright. We're asking that the access from West 78th Street is 600 feet away
from Galpin. But then we ask that the access on Galpin is only 300 feet away from 78th. It's an
engineering question Matt. I just was wondering, the logic doesn't seem to add up quite right for
me. I mean 78th is less busy than Galpin. It seems like if anything it should be the other way
around. People want offset on the Galpin side than on the 78th side, right?
Saam: Yeah.
Sacchet: So is there a reason why it's this way?
Saam: Yes.
Sacchet: And the reason is?
Saam: Galpin is a collector and the code says 600 feet or you line them up. However access to
this parcel couldn't happen. There isn't 600 feet of separation.
Sacchet: So it can't be done so.
Saam: Yeah, I mean remember we are recommending that that not be allowed. However,
ultimately it would be a county decision. MnDot would have input in there. We would probably
defer to them.
Feik: They would, if allowed they would probably say right-in/right-out.
Saam: Well yeah, they're not going to open that median. That would be the only thing it could
be, yeah.
Sacchet: Now it seems like the crux of this whole matter in front of us is that, and it said at least
3-4 times, the proposed development is inconsistent with the comprehensive plan designation. If
we would recommend approval to the land use map amendment, that would bring it into
compliance, right? I mean that's basically.
Generous: Well that's part of it. Those other, policy issues would still be in place but we could
find...
Sacchet: We can, okay. So really the question in front of us is, is this consistent with the
comprehensive plan or not.
Generous: Yes.
Sacchet: And based on the findings that you explained, this was guided as residential, even
though it's between frontage road and highway, and on both sides however we have commercial.
Okay. In terms of the concept PUD. What exactly is needed for a concept PUD? Can you help
me out.
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
Generous: Well general size of the development, layout of housing, number of dwelling units.
Sacchet: Now does the layout have to be somewhat accurate or can it be so so?
Generous: Well, it's only a concept. Usually they try to put everything in there at the concept
stage and then you bring it down to what would work.
Sacchet: Because we've had one concept PUD in front of us where I was really disappointed
how so so it was. It was a very big one as I recall most of us were here. This one is at least as so
so as that other one. Not to be derogatory but, so let me see. Do I have other questions? No, I
think that's enough questions for now. Would the applicant want to tell us their view of what's in
front of us here. We'd like you to come forward and state your name and address for the record
and let us hear what you have to say.
Tom Goodrum: Thanks Chairman and members of the Planning Commission. My name is Tom
Goodrum. I work with Schoell and Madsen representing John Pryzmus, the property owner.
Address is 10580 Wayzata Boulevard, Minnetonka, Minnesota. It's 11:00 so I know it's running
late and I'll try to be brief on this.
Sacchet: Appreciate that.
Tom Goodrum: Actually a former city planner myself so we had a policy in the city I worked at,
that things should stop at 11:00 because decisions are kind of weary after that.
Sacchet: Well our curfew starts at 10:30 isn't it, if I remember right, so we...
Tom Goodrum: So I'm very aware of what's before you tonight but we do have a guide plan
change. These things are important. They're big issues. As I said, I was a previous planner. I
know zoning requirements and comp plan amendments. I also worked for the Met Council, take
it the way you want it, but comp plans are a big deal for me and I take them seriously. And so in
doing this plan I was very considerate and concerned and that is an appropriate use for this
property. I appreciate the comments made by the Planning Commission before I came up here. It
makes my presentation a lot easier if I could jump on those right before I jump into some of the
more details of plans. I think you're right. It's a 1995 was when the City Council looked at this.
That was 8 years ago. We had a previous discussion before here, 7 years ago that many of these
decisions are made. Can they be changed? Of course they can be changed. There's a lot of time
inbetween, a lot of things happen. Actually when you're looking as somebody else has
mentioned, commercial on four corners. Is that something that we wanted and no, if we don't
want commercial on four corners. To the south we have a rec center. We have residential to the
south. We have commercial on one corner on that piece of property, so I don't see where there's
a concern or an issue with that one part of it so I appreciate the person bringing that comment up.
I used the connection with the school I think is also very important part. That's what the focus of
this project is. It's the family center. It's one where it supports a neighborhood. It fits in well
with the neighborhood. It fits in well with the rec center. There's two different activities going
on out there. You have the ball fields, the soccer fields, the rink at the rec center. Here you have
a different type of activity, but still family oriented. Indoor gold ranges, the BMX, the outdoor
golf thing. It's something I saw, and as I looked at this is where they compliment each other. I
have kids. They're all in sports. You bring a child over to the soccer game. The other two are
bored stiff. Want something to do so you're trying to entertain them. This is a place to go with
them .... back in 1995. We have to look at today's market and today's land uses. Other items
that were brought forward was, the Bluff Creek requirements and if there's some, and I made a
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
note of this too in my prepared presentation and a lot of comments in the staff report on the Bluff
Creek requirements. We had conversations with city staff, Lori Haak and other members of the
staff on what those requirements are and we're very conscience and aware of how to, how our
plan fits in those. The environmental issues on this site is a delineated wetland. That has been
done. So we know the constraints and we're showing our setbacks and we're meeting those.
That's a wetland in the northwest comer, and I represent that. The only other significant
environmental issue is the Bluff Creek that runs north of the property. There's nothing on the
property up to that north property line. It's pretty vacant. John planted some trees and that's the
only trees on the property so talking to Lori, talking to staff, looking at the site, code requires a 40
foot setback from the primary zone. We have a sanitary easement running across that property
line. That's 80 feet wide so at close we're getting 80 feet from Bluff Creek. Twice the size of the
normal standards. There's no real reason to move the primary, secondary zone into the site.
There's nothing there to protect. That zone and staff had agreed in conversations should be
established around the tree line. 40 feet from there or 80 feet. So we are very conscience. We
prepared for that. I know it's concept but we put a lot of effort into this concept because as Bob
said, this is the first stage. If we don't get past this, it's dead in the water so this is important to us
and it needs to be shown that we put some thought, we put some effort and we are concerned of
staff's issues. So with that I'll briefly go over a couple of things that were said. This site was
designed to be developed, with the developments occurring, and I'll just give you some quick
thoughts on what's on our mind set going through the development process of this. That was, we
are respective of what's happening around us. The site, with the activity center being in this
corner, we purposely moved it as far, or as close to this intersection as possible. The reason we
did that, because we see this as everybody else does, as a transition from the medium density and
the school property. We have housing up in here. It's a transition piece from the highway. With
the building, the activity moved to this comer, we have an outdoor golf area here. Outdoor golf
area here. The parking moved, or this area. The building, and as you've seen before, it's a very
attractive building and it was designed with an architect to meet the corridor architectural
standards. So we have looked at that and so we hope to, and this is the representation of this is
looking from the north to Galpin, 78th Street intersection, looking into that site so people driving
down 78th Street to their residential homes, this is what they'll see, and we believe it's a good site
to look at. It's very pleasing to the eye and it will be the same look along Highway 5 too. But by
putting this to this corner, the second reason for doing that is that we're leaving this open space
here. We wanted to preserve as much open space as possible to help with that transition. We
know this is an issue. We have residential over here. We have an activity center over here. We
wanted space. We want to provide for that. Allow for how the landscaping we desire to go into
this piece to break that item up. Also there's a building, acts as a physical barrier. The property
acts as a buffer, a transition period between the Highway 5 and the residential area. The building
itself acts as a physical barrier. It's an attractive building. Tucking the outdoor, the only outdoor
activity on this site is away from the residential facilities. There are some possibilities of batting
cages and a skate park. Again, they'll be this side of the building. Those haven't been decided
yet. So with the activities, the buildings screening those, everything else is inside. It's a
completely enclosed activity center so the impact to this, the residential area is going to be
minimal. And I'll step to the traffic issue that was brought up and why we're looking at these
streets in a little bit. So to follow along with our thinking, we're moving up to the northern area
for the residential area. Again transition. Always thinking transition. Townhomes of this size
are similar in size and character as what you have at the Vasserman Ridge. Because of the lot
issues, the size, the shape of the lot, we just couldn't work with the twinhomes on this property,
and we also had a difficult time seeing these high end twinhomes sitting on a piece of property
that you have commercial, medium or higher density in this comer. You have a lot of restrictions
on the property with the sewer easement setback and the wetland, so again we have higher traffic
on a collector street here, collector street here. It's a busy comer. We needed to make that
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
transition of property. We just don't see the upper end townhomes that you see over here
working on this corner. Because of the narrowness of the lot, the smaller row houses, the
townhomes made a real nice transition so we're moving from transitioning again from building
units over here with 4 to 6 units, building, moving down to 4 units, single story moving down to
twinhomes and transition to twinhomes. It's something that we see as phasing and pleasant to the
eye and it's an easy transition to make. Working with the road alignment. I did have a discussion
with Matt early on the project, again trying to put our concept together and make them work. We
were looking at 300 feet and another separation. That conversation's in the early stage. We
didn't have any plans but it was said that 300 feet is an okay separation. Things must have
changed when site plans came in front of the staff and they had another chance to look at it, but
what we want to do again twice, to do with two rows. One, higher traffic with the townhomes,
even though there's only 12 of them there with the activity center. Keep that traffic near the
intersection. We're 300 feet away .... happening in this area. The people are not impacting the
larger single family homes in this area over here. The second access, the three twin homes. It's
separates a dividing line on the north property. It separates the twin homes that transition to the
other twin homes. There's not a lot of traffic there. Having a second access we see, instead of
having all the traffic stuck in this corner, to keep it closer to Galpin...their own private access.
They'll keep the traffic movement easier. Less confusion with the townhomes and activity
center, and also I want to get at something that was brought up. Sorry I'm talking fast but I know
the lateness of the hour, but there are a lot of issues that need to be brought up. Again the
separation question came up and someone on the commission brought that, why 300 or 600 here
and 300 here and I also pointed that out when I went through the staff report because here, they're
both collectors. They're both serve the same function. We have a 300 feet for this service road
that's going to serve between these two. They're okay with 300 feet if the county approves it
along this item, so there you have an approved 300 feet along the busier street in this area, and
we're jumping to 600 feet for the less used traffic area. Again a little conflict in the report and
again we probably need some clarification on why we need to do that. We think our plan is better
served for this development and for this area. I'm skipping around here so I've got to take a look
at my, but another item or area I wanted to touch on and that was the whole issue with the loss of
single family homes in this area and what this does. The staff report points out that there's going
to be 33 homes that they perceived to be on this site and with only 18 showing, we're down 15.
Now 15's not a lot but staff had brought up that, several times in the report that it's something
that should be a concern. Also in the report though it talks about the size requirements for lots
and the single family home is 15,000 square feet. The twin homes, you have a minimum of
10,000 square feet. You do the math, it's 33 twin homes, that's 660,000 square feet of land that
you need to meet those zoning requirements. We only have 610,000 square feet of total parcel so
physically it's not possible and that doesn't count the streets that need to be placed and it doesn't
count the setbacks or other zoning requirements. Not only talk fast but I draw fast too. Here
what we're showing is low density residential, 15,000 square feet lots. Minimum 125 foot depth.
This is what you could do on this site as a quick sketch. You've got 13 single family homes
there. We're proposing 18. We're saying that our development's 18. Matches what could
physically be done under low density residential. To go any higher than 13, 14, 15 lots is going
to require a PUD concept plan. Same type of stuff we're looking at today but right now under
current zoning, current guiding, you don't get 33. You get 18 and we're, or around 18 and we're
proposing that same number so we are looking at not losing any density. Keeping the same
amount of other density that was, that could be developed there under current code. Plus as Bob
had noted in his report with the comp plan, he had several comments or notes from the comp
plan. The tax base and the quality housing. We're keeping the same number of housing. We're
bringing in a commercial tax base. We are hitting both of those standards as noted in the
comprehensive plan. Several other items in the comprehensive plan, I won't touch on them but
were also mentioned and I believe that you look at it the same way, we get two different answers.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
...that's meeting all of those comp plan amendments so the quality of life, we don't see low
density housing being equal or the same as other low density housing in the area, as noted in the,
as...the comprehensive plan. The tax base one again. A couple other issues brought up in the
staff report I just want to clarify or clear up. First I was a little discouraged when I read that they
compared this to another part of the comp plan and it was referenced in here as comparing this to
a neighborhood service center, and later in the plan it notes that commercial service center is a
gas station or convenience store, that type of use, and activity center is more closely related to the
recreational facility across the street. So I don't know where that designation came from. I hope
that, we're not a gas station.
Sacchet: We gather that.
Tom Goodrum: Okay, so on the last one I'll touch on is a concern of future use. With the PUD
and if it's commercial what happens if this sells and somebody else moves in. That's the beauty
of the PUD and that's why we like it with this plan, because we know that's a concern. With the
PUD, with the city approves it, they can make any stipulation they want with that PUD
resolution. We adopt it as a PUD, the only uses on this property should be recreational facility,
residential, institutional, office. Whatever you say you want. You have that ability so the issue
or the concern of future land uses should be resolved with the PUD process. Again as other
things, the comment on the staff report's comments, but I'm not going to go there. I think you get
the idea.
Sacchet: Appreciate that.
Tom Goodrum: Thank you. That's in a nutshell..
Sacchet: Thank you very much. Questions from the applicant. Any questions from the applicant
here to the north? Kurt.
Papke: I have a question about the specific concept plan information that you provided. This is a
60,000 square foot facility. But you seem to have very ambitious goals for what you'll contain in
that 60,000 square feet. You list an indoor miniature golf course, golf reality, batting cages, skate
park, BMX, go carting, swimming pool, all these things to fit in this space would have to be
pretty small or maybe I'm not doing my math right. Can you maybe give us just a little more
color as to what the actual contents might be and the size of them? Or haven't you gotten that far
in your planning stage yet?
Tom Goodrum: I'll let John but we have looked at all those different items and John's the master
mind with this and I'll let him speak.
John Pryzmus: I can maybe help you out a little bit there. It's still in the concept phase but, oh
my name is John Pryzmus and I live in Villard, Minnesota. As far as the two rings on the plan
here. The inner ring is high walls. You need the high walls for the batting cages, the golf reality,
the children's play area like say a McDonald's type thing. A double story indoor miniature golf
course. Those things will be in the inside. The go cart track will be on the outer ring which will
be a lower part and that's when you see the building you have all the windows, it's all glass
around the whole building, and you'll see this lower area. You don't need the same height for go
cart tracks, BMX racing, as you would say, and some of the things that we're going to do, we're
going to change it out. Like in this wing coming in here, we could have an indoor skateboard
park but we'd maybe only have it for 3 days a week, and we could raise it up because the
ceiling's would be like 26 feet high. So I mean there's going to be a lot of engineering that's
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
going to go into this. The swimming area will be in the L-shaped area by the Highway 5. And
that whole eastern wing will be more for the young children with birthday parties and that type of
thing. There will be activity center for young adults, maybe 2 nights a week. You know I don't
want it to be like a teen center per se, but a couple nights a week that might be fine. I'm not sure
there's going to be a couple upscale outdoor miniature golf courses and possibly a netted, if we
could screen it well enough, a golf practice area. Just indoors, I'm not going to be as big as Pat
Ryan's golf reality, but we'll have 4 screens. I won't be as big as Grand Slam with batting cages,
but we'll have 4 indoor, maybe 4 outdoor. You know I won't be a one issue thing, but the
skateboard park, we could have maybe an outdoor one, maybe an indoor one. There's going to be
some new innovative things that my customers have come up with. Possibly a human, a foosball
court and they play it up at the church deal up by Brainerd. I have to go look at it but hire a
consultant to do this. And I'm not sure, there's a lot of things that will change throughout this
process but it's going to be for family fun, but geared to sports. It's not going to be like a health
club type thing or that so. That just gives you, and I don't know exactly how it's all going to be
working out.
Sacchet: So you're still working out the details basically?
John Pryzmus: Yeah, we'll work out all the details. This is just to get this approved if we, to not
go any further but then I'll be spending a lot of time bringing in architects to design the golf
courses and design the, all the different things we'll have to be very upscale.
Tom Goodrum: Commissioner Papke, to address your question directly, the reason we're able to
be this flexible and have these different options is because the building is going to be a multi-
purpose, the walls be able to move, shift around so we're going to be able to do a lot of different
things, at the same time or different times. That's why we are able to bring so many items to you
as a potential on the site.
Sacchet: Question from the applicant?
Feik: No.
Sacchet: Question from the applicant? Quick question from the applicant. Outdoor activities,
just want to clarify. You mentioned all the open space to the northwest that is.
Tom Goodrum: That's correct.
Sacchet: That area would have outdoor activities?
Tom Goodrum: No.
Sacchet: Not at this point. So outdoor activities are really just on the other side? South and east.
Tom Goodrum: We're looking for the outdoor activities...but we're keeping it down by the
highway. Keeping that open space between...
Sacchet: Just want to be clear about that. Okay. And just a comment about your assumption
about the Bluff Creek. The fact that there is sewer in there doesn't give an indication where the
Bluff Creek primary is. Unfortunately we do have city sewer in primary Bluff Creek, as far as I
know in some places, so just a word of caution there. With that, this is a public hearing. Thank
you very much for your presentation. This is a public hearing. I'd like to open the public
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
hearing. Anybody want to come forward and address this item, this is your turn. Please come
forward. State your name and address and let us know what you have to say. And considering
the late hour I'm not going to wait very long. Nobody stands up, I'm going to close the public
hearing and bring it back to commissioners. Comments from commissioners.
Slagle: I have a quick question for staff.
Sacchet: Go ahead.
Stagle: Are we, and maybe the question is, are we able to hypothetically approve a land use
change for what I'll call the property to the south side, and not approve the PUD for mixed
development on the north?
Generous: Yes.
Sacchet:
Slagle:
Sacchet:
The answer is yes.
I heard that. That's it. That's the only question I have.
Only question?
Slagle: Yep.
Sacchet: Alright.
Slagle: No.
Well we're actually to comments. Do you want to add some cormnents?
Sacchet: We're going to go down this line then. Give it a try, Kurt please.
Papke: Okay. I'm not conceptually opposed to this. I think even though this is zoned residential
at this point, I think that the use that's being proposed on the south piece of the property here, it
makes some sense. ! mean if you look at what's surrounding it and the viability of putting in
lower density residential in here, I think there's some logic to where things are going here so I'm
not totally opposed to this.
Sacchet: Alright, not totally opposed. Bethany.
Tjornhom: I'm going to say what I wrote down I guess for my thoughts for this. It's getting late
and ! don't want to ramble. Part of my decision is if I'm going to follow the city's
comprehensive plan, which I guess as a planning commissioner I'm supposed to do?
Sacchet: Well the question in front of us is, do we want to make an amendment to that. That's
the big question.
Tjornhom: Okay.
Sacchet: Correct Bob?
Generous: That's the number one issue.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Tjornhom: Okay. And so part of that then encompasses the protection of the Bluff Creek
corridor. Now was that addressed enough to where everyone feels comfortable that yes, it would
be protected and it would be okay, or is that still a question that's not answered?
Sacchet: According to the staff report it's not sufficiently answered.
Tjornhom: Okay.
Sacchet: Correct Bob?
Generous: Right. That, in moving forward that would be one of the primary things that we look
at and further filling out the development.
Tjornhom: And that's a big thing?
Generous: Yes.
Tjornhom: Okay. And then another thought of mine is, you know putting low density in a high
traffic area, which it has become now. That doesn't make sense to me. I guess I love low density
but I just don't see a nice low density development going in there, at least I wouldn't want to live
there, on Highway 5. And then I guess one thing I have is what is best for the community? You
know would this be well served by everybody in the community, so I don't have any comments.
! guess just questions I don't know how to answer.
Sacchet: Well you made comments, thank you very much. Bruce.
Feik: I look at this as an opportunity to really I think correct a zoning, an underlying zoning,
particularly on the south side of West 78a~ Street. I've looked at this up West 78th one way and
down the other and quite frankly Bob, I don't get it. I really don't get why this was zoned as it is
and I think it was, I think in hindsight, not knowing what went into it, ! think it was an error and I
look at this as an opportunity to correct that error.
Sacchet: Anything about the concept PUD?
Feik: Well generally I like everything on the plan. I understand it's rough. I understand that the
applicant is reluctant to probably spend a great deal of money developing something if it's going
to get shot right down. It doesn't make any sense for us to ask our residents to do that kind of
stuff so I think at this point, it's cobbled together here a little bit in a way that I think I can get my
arms around it and visualize it. I like the way it steps back. I like the scale of the road with the
higher roof lines, you know interior to the space. I like it.
Sacchet: Alright, thank you much.
Slagle: I'll just add that, as witnessed by my question, I'm fairly comfortable with approving a
land use change, if we're allowed to, on the southerly portion south of West 78~. I'm not in favor
of the current proposal to the north, for a couple of reasons. Another thought that I would throw
out for us to consider is, if this was to go forward and give underlying conceptual, is what would
be the hours of a place like this. I think you've got to be concerned when you're talking batting
cages and miniature golf and.
Papke: Go cart tracks.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Slagle: Go cart, well I think that's inside. But you never know, they could put a door and it goes
outside. So anyway.
Sacchet: Don't worry about it now, we're not there yet.
Slagle: That's sort of what I'm thinking. So I would support southerly, not north.
Sacchet: Alright. My comment. I'm in full favor of the land use amendment. I do not think that
low residential makes any sense in this corner between a highway and two collector roads. I
think it's a no brainer that part, really. I mean I can't figure out why anybody would want to
make that low density, or residential for that matter. Any kind of residential. Even if it's high
density. ! mean would you want to live there on that comer between two major roads on every
side? Plus it's consistent. We have between a frontage road and between Highway 5 we have
commercial on both sides, so ultimately I think that's a no brainer. I would however want to
specify that this land use amendment applies to that part between West 78th and Highway 5
because that's where that takes place. Now, the other part, the concept PUD and I think, I
appreciate your comment Bruce that for concept we can't really expect somebody to go way out
and go through all the details and the investment and all that. As a concept ! support this, that
there would be medium density to the north. However, I don't think it's cooked yet. I think that
part is far from cooked. We don't even know where the Bluff Creek primary zone starts and the
secondary is, and as I mentioned, where the sewer line is, that's absolutely no indication of that
unfortunately. I wish it were. So that needs to be looked at. I mean that part needs to be worked
at so I'm a little bit in a quandary in terms of the concept PUD. If the concept PUD just means
that there is medium density or what we call that up to the north side of West 78th, ! would say
I'm in full favor of it. If it means that it starts looking at in more detail in terms of how many
accesses, whether it's four~plexes or duplexes, how close they are to Bluff Creek, I would say I
wouldn't be able to support it at this point. So I don't know, whether you can help me out Bob. I
mean I've been struggling with that concept PUD thing before.
Generous: Right and the outcome of a concept PUD is you're supposed to provide the parameters
for the person to go forward. So what are the issues they need to address or finalize to make it
work for you.
Sacchet: So if in your opinion the 20 points that you've put together as the alternative proposal,
you didn't number them. It's 20. Does that sufficiently guide somebody to work on this as a
concept PUD?
Generous: Direction and if you have like the direction that you like the concept of stepping back
the roof lines, that would be another item that we can incorporate as we develop design standards.
Sacchet: Well and my answer with that, I would be able to support also the concept PUD frankly.
So that's where I'm at. Any more comments? If not I'd like to get a motion. Yes, one more
comment Kurt?
Papke: There was some discussion before with the loss of residential property. You know I'm a
reasonably new commissioner but on the other hand I've been around long enough to remember
just a month or two ago we had the opposite concern with the property across from the Crosby
Park development where there was a proposal to take something that was zoned residential and
do commercial. So we can't say well we can't change anything both directions. There would be,
this is definitely beneficial to the city tax base so I don't think there's any issue with that.
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
Sacchet: Alright. Anybody want to try to make a motion here please.
Feik: I'll try.
Sacchet: Okay, give it a shot.
Feik: Based upon what I'm hearing from the rest of the commissioners here, and I don't think
this is exactly what the applicant was looking for but I think it might be a step in the right
direction if that works for them. I move the Planning Commission recommends approval of the
land use map amendment from residential to low density. Excuse me, from residential low
density to commercial on the southerly portion. On the portion south of West 78t~ Street.
Sacchet: A second?
Papke: Second.
Sacchet: Friendly amendment. We would add since the staff report really doesn't back up that
recommendation, I would like to add something like because it's consistent with surrounding
USES.
Feik: A little more broad than that even. Consistent with uses along the West 78th corridor.
Sacchet: Okay. Is that acceptable?
Feik: It works for me.
Sacchet: Okay.
Generous: You know that other point about the error is good to put in there too.
Feik: Oh, and sure. Comma.
Sacchet: Well, I would caution about that one. Let's stay away from that.
Feik: You can have that in your address to the City Council for me.
Sacchet: I would stay away from that in the official wording. We have a motion, we have a
second, we have a friendly amendment.
Feik moved, Papke seconded that the Planning Commission recommend approval of the
Land Use Map Amendment from Residential-Low Density to Commercial on the portion of
land south of West 78th Street because it is consistent with the uses along the West 78th
Street corridor. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to
0.
Feik: I have a motion, I move the Planning Commission recommends approval of the concept
PUD, review for a mixed use development including a family activity center on the portion south
of West 78th Street period.
Slagle: Then how do you tie in the mixed use? Point of clarification.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Feik: Well I think by, oh, oh, oh. It would not be a mixed use. So let me rephrase that. Let's
strike mixed use. I move that the Planning Commission recommends approval of the concept
planned unit development PUD review for a family activity center on the portion south of West
78th Street.
Slagle: We're going to be able to...
Generous: Yes.
Slagle: Second.
Sacchet: Do we have any friendly amendments? No? No conditions on it?
Feik: Oh, excuse me. Yes, conditions as stated below. Except some of them are residential.
Sacchet: Most of them are mixed use oriented, aren't they?
Slagle: Can we table that part?
Sacchet: Yes we can, but we have a motion. The motion would have to be withdrawn.
Feik: Is that enough to go to council to give the applicant a clear signal so that he can move
forward if he chooses to?
Sacchet: Yeah, I think tabling wouldn't be bad idea.
Slagle: Point of clarification. Isn't, if I may, isn't the intent of our motion that we just passed, to
really address just the land use. I mean he could be bringing us whatever.
Sacchet: It could be a bowling alley.
Slagle: Yeah, exactly so I guess what I'm getting at is, we deal with the land use and then the
applicant can further refine.
Feik: So you want to table the PUD?
Sacchet: With the hope that we get a little more frame around it from staff as well as from the
applicant because staff basically worked very hard on the premise that the land use would be
denied. The land amendment would be denied, so I think the reason to table could be to have
staff work it from the other end.
Feik: Do you mind if I ask the applicant if that would cause undue hardship or if you would like
us to review that.
Slagle: I don't think it matters.
Sacchet: You could ask, as long as we get a real brief answer.
Feik: Real brief.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: Are you under time pressure John?
Feik: Table the PUD portion. Approve the land use amendment portion to give you time to work
out additional details on the family fun center so that we have something a little bit more to
review.
Tom Goodrum: We'd like to, I understand what you mean you need more information on the
concept but we did want to move forward. We've already spent a lot of money on addressing the
concept plan .... before the City Council to see if it's okay...
Feik: Well we've got that already recommended.
John Pryzmus: ...if we want to do something with the batting cage we could do that at a later
date, is that what you're saying?
Sacchet: Did you want to add something Matt?
Saam: I was just going to add, you had said staff worded the staff report for denial. We did
include conditions just in case you did so all those conditions kind of address what our concerns
were.
Sacchet: And I think they're well taken those, but he didn't include those in his motion.
Feik: Well not yet, but I'm not maybe done. Maybe we have to include those.
Sacchet: Maybe you could say those that apply.
Feik: You know they work. They work. They're not specific to mixed use so far.
Sacchet: Most of them apply.
Feik: I generally would, let's include all of them unless you want to delete one or two
specifically under a friendly amendment, I'm going to include all of them.
Sacchet: Okay, we have a motion with all these conditions. Do we have a second to the motion
with all these conditions? Did we get a second yet to this?
Slagle: I have a point of clarification.
Sacchet: Clarification first.
Slagle: Are you concerned at all about, even though it's a conceptual PUD that the northerly
parcel, without, I shouldn't say.
Feik: No.
Slagle: You're not concerned about it?
Feik: No because quite frankly that could develop independently with either this applicant. This
applicant could sell it. It could go a variety of ways.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
Sacchet: Would have to be subdivided.
Feik: Could have to be subdivided. It's going to be platted and everything else, and then we've
also got additional road issues which with potentially two accesses that have to get worked out.
Sacchet: Can we on one piece of property have a PUD for one half the property? That is not the
other part of it.
Generous: You can and actually there's two properties here. When MnDot took that road they
created two parcels.
Sacchet: So it is two properties. We're fine then. Okay.
Feik: It's a winner.
Slagle: Second.
Sacchet: Okay, we have a motion. We have a second. Everybody in favor. Oh, do we need to
tweak anybody? Yes, I do have a tweak. In those conditions 1 through 20. There's a lot of
would's and one should. They should be shall or will. Not should or would. Should or would is
neither here nor there. Okay. Is that acceptable?
Feik: That's acceptable and I think I have one more. With the applicant shall, l'm looking at the
rendering you know, work to have a, how do I want to say it? You step back roof lines or
something reasonably consistent with the rendering, as far as the.
Sacchet: Yeah, this will come back. This is just concept.
Feik: So that's it.
Feik moved, Slagle seconded that the Planning Commission recommends approval of the
Concept Planned Unit Development (PUD) review for a family activity center, subject to the
following conditions:
The development needs to comply with the design standards for commercial, industrial
and office institutional developments. Additional detail needs to be provided to ascertain
the quality of the proposed development.
Planned Unit Developments require that development design standards be developed for
the project.
The goals set forth in the Bluff Creek Watershed Resources Management Plan
(BCWNRMP) for the Lowlands Region are to be incorporated in the further development
of the plan.
The Bluff Creek corridor primary and secondary zone boundaries will need to be
determined and surveyed. The applicant shall arrange for the Bluff Creek Overlay district
boundaries to be field verified by staff prior to the development of a more detailed plan
for this site. In determining the boundaries, wetland adjacent to Bluff Creek have
historically been included within the primary zone.
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Planning Commission Meeting - September 16, 2003
3.
o
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
Drainage and utility easements shall be provided over all existing wetlands, wetland
mitigation areas, buffer areas used as PVC and storm water ponds.
A preliminary grading plan must be prepared.
The applicant must provide storm water calculations for any proposed subdivision. The
development will need to provide storm water ponding on site for treatment prior to
discharge into the wetlands or creek. The development must meet pre-development
runoff rates for the 10 year and 100 year storm. On site storm water ponding must be
sufficient to meet all city water quality and quantity standards.
An erosion and sediment control plan shall be submitted. Type III silt fence shall be
provided adjacent to all wetland fill areas, areas to be preserved as buffer or if no buffer is
to be preserved, at the delineated wetland edge.
A minimum 20 foot wide public drainage and utility easement will be required on all
public utilities outside of the public right-of-way. All buildings must be outside any
existing or proposed easements.
Accept points to West 78th Street, a designated collector route, shall be limited to one
access on both the north and south side of the street. The access location must be offset a
minimum of 600 feet from Galpin Boulevard, and the north/south access shall be aligned
in the same location.
A MnDot and Carver County permit will be required for access to the site.
The proposed access onto Galpin Boulevard will not be allowed in it's current location.
The access will need to be offset a minimum of 300 feet from the intersection of West
78th Street. City approval of the access location will still be contingent upon MnDot and
Carver County approval of the proposed access.
The applicant will need to submit a survey showing existing trees and woodlands along
with canopy coverage calculations and proposed reforestation.
The applicant will be required to pay park donation fees pursuant to city ordinance.
The applicant will need to provide pedestrian connections from the site to adjacent trail
and sidewalks.
A wetland buffer 0 to 20 feet in width (with a minimum average width of 10 feet) must be
maintained around the wetland basin. Wetland buffer areas shall be preserved, surveyed
and staked in accordance with the city's wetland ordinance. The applicant must install
wetland buffer edge signs, under the direction of city staff, before construction begins and
must pay the city $20 per sign. All structures shall maintain a 40 foot setback from the
edge of the wetland buffer. The grading and erosion control plan shall show the actual
wetland buffer widths proposed to meet the minimum average buffer width requirements
as well as the 40 foot wetland buffer setback.
The creek and the required setback shall be indicated on the grading plan.
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Planning Commission Meeting- September 16, 2003
18.
The development will require a landscaping plan. Staff recommends that significant
landscape screening and berming be incorporated along Highway 5 as well as West 78a~
Street.
19.
The developer wilt need to locate all significant trees on the site and provide a calculation
of existing canopy coverage as well as proposed tree removal.
20.
Development will require a conditional use permit for development within the Bluff
Creek Overlay District.
21.
The applicant shall incorporate stepped back roof lines as presented in the
renderings.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Sacchet: Comments for council. In summary we are in favor of this whole thing. We think it's a
good concept. We'd like to.
Feik: On the family fun center.
Sacchet: The family fun center on the south of 78th Street. We'd like to see a little more
diligence with the portion that is proposed as medium density or what's call to the north. In terms
of delineating the Bluff Creek and see what really fits in every which way, but we are very clear
on the south side. That it fits and it's a good use and we support it. Any additions to that? No
additions to that.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Commissioner Feik noted the Minutes of the Planning
Commission meeting dated September 2, 2003 as presented.
Chairman Sacchet adjourned the Planning Commission meeting at 11:45 p.m.
Submitted by Kate Aanenson
Community Development Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
72