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09-23-2024 City Council Work Session Minutes1 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES September 23, 2024 Mayor Ryan called the work session to order at 5:30 p.m. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Ryan, Councilmember von Oven, Councilmember Kimber COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilmember McDonald, Councilmember Schubert STAFF PRESENT: Charlie Howley, Public Works Director/City Engineer; Jerry Ruegemer, Parks Director; Eric Maass, Planning Director; Kelly Grinnell, Finance Director; Patrick Gavin, Communications Manager; Jenny Potter, City Clerk PUBLIC PRESENT: Lake Ann Park Preserve Construction and Approach Discussion Jerry Ruegemer, Parks Director, gave an overview of the paving of the path around Lake Ann Park. He reviewed that there had been a few artifacts found in places around the lake and that triggers the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) to require the city to do further examination of the trail. Mr. Ruegemer gave several options for moving forward with the plan. The options included expanding the archaeological survey both north and south of the site, realigning the trail north or south to avoid the site, reroute the entire section of the trail, do not pave the section of the trail where they found artifacts, keep all existing paths natural, and complete phase II and mitigation. He said that if we decide to not pave the trail at this time and want to looking at doing that in the future, then the process would have to start again and the city would have to do the work that SHPO is requesting at that time. Staff is recommending that we complete phase II at a cost of $70,000 to determine if there are archeological sites that need to be addressed. Mayor Ryan asked about the grant and how we would then plan for future costs of the project. Kelly Grinnell, Finance Director, answered that the ARPA money would have to be spent or obligated by the end of the year. The city would reallocate those dollars to the general fund and then in 2025 would transfer that money out of the general fund and reallocate it for the project. Mr. Ruegemer stated that there is currently $20,000 in the archeological fund that can be used toward phase II and that we would need $50,000 more dollars to get to the total cost of $70,000. He said that the consultant would be committed to finishing phase II this year and though that is not guaranteed due to weather, he felt that it could be done this year. Councilmember von Oven asked if the paving of the path is what triggers the SHPO review. Mr. Ruegemer replied that yes, that is the case. City Council Work Session Minutes – August 26, 2024 2 Councilmember Kimber said if the intent is to have a year-round accessible path then re-routing and starting over isn’t a good plan. Mayor Ryan said that there has been some feedback that the path stays natural but a majority of people have asked for the path to be accessible and paved. She asked if the path could be plowed if there was crushed limestone placed on it. Mr. Ruegemer said that plowing would be difficult on an unpaved path due to the softness of the ground, trees, and the hilly nature of the path. The council would like to have more data and have that brought back to the October 14 meeting. They would like to move forward with using the money that is currently in the archeological fund to start working on phase II. The mayor would like to have more details about why the plowing an unpaved path isn’t feasible as well as a summary of the timeline for the project. There was also a question about ADA compliance if the whole path wasn’t paved. The goal is to get the path open for people to use. Civic Campus: Playground and Playable Water Feature material and colors selection Jerry Ruegemer, Parks Director, showed the council potential water feature options and colors for the playground equipment at the Civic Campus. There were five options of colors for the council to choose from. Mayor Ryan asked for examples of the colors to be brought in person. Mr. Ruegemer said that he would request samples to show the Council. Market Boulevard Reconstruction Project Update Charlie Howley, Public Works Director/City Engineer, showed a video model of traffic flow for the new design of Market Boulevard. The model shows traffic at the afternoon commute time. Mr. Howley said that the goal would be to put the model on the website in the coming weeks to share with the public how traffic would look for the redesigned Market Boulevard. Councilmember von Oven suggested to put the names of the businesses on the model so people could orientate themselves on the map. Councilmember Kimber suggested calling out the changes that will be made in list form. Mayor Ryan suggested to put the street names on the model. City Council Roundtable Councilmember Kimber asked if there was a way to get information out to the public more quickly about things discussed at the work session. Laurie Hokkanen, City Manager, said that before the Communication Manager left there was a synopsis of the meeting sent out after the work session meeting. She said she would look into that again now that we had a new Communication Manger in place. City Council Work Session Minutes – August 26, 2024 3 Commissioner von Oven wanted to make sure we were capturing the energy from our residents like Judy Harder who is trying to improve the city. He wanted to make sure we were getting the Citizen Action Request forms and following up on them. Mayor Ryan adjourned the meeting at 6:58 p.m. Submitted by Laurie Hokkanen City Manager Prepared by Jenny Potter City Clerk