PRC Minutes 2-27-07
6-7 -~(,)~
Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
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Todd Neils: No. It will be strictly a scoreboard.
Daniel: Okay.
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Scharfenberg: So Todd, do you Qeed any action items from us in terms of what kind of, I think
we're all in agreement. I think Toddand the CAA wil1.work with Little League and Softball will
work with staff on developing a plan f'or getting sCQreboards up. That would be great.
Todd Neils: Great. I appreciate your time once again.
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Scharfenberg: And just so, that was 10dd Neils OIl behalf of the CAA speaking. That's alright.
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Todd Neils: Forgot my etiquette,,//'
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Scharfenberg: Thank Y09..Todd.
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SITE PLAN REVIEW. CHANHASSEN HIGH SCHOOL CAMPUS.
Public Present:
Name
Address
r
Jay Pomeroy
Jonathan Duesman
Paul Schlueter
Anderson-Johnson Associates
Anderson-Johnson Associates
ISD #112
Hoffman: Thank you Chair Scharfenberg and members of the commission. Here's something
that I really talking about a high school in Chanhassen. I never thought it would happen and here
it is happening so that's great. Independent School District 112 is preparing to open the doors on
this brand new facility in the fall of 2009. So you start putting that into your head and it's not
going to happen, they have this summer to build it, next summer to build it and then really the
last summer it will be mostly just ready to be filled with staff and then they'll come in that fall,
2009 and fill it with kids and start off their first year. It's located on Lyman Boulevard. Still a
lot of people aren't familiar with the piece of property and so when you talk to folks, it's
somewhat hard to describe but as they see here... understanding where it's at exactly. It's 94
acres. It was purchased by the District in 2004. Just over $9 million dollars and in fact at that
time I think $97,000 per acre... back at that time it was probably the top of the heap as far as the
land acreage, cost per acre but today looks like a relative bargain and you continue to see that
trend in Chanhassen, although the market has soften a little bit in the last 18 months or so. The
property has Lyman Boulevard on the south and west. The Twin Cities and Northern Railroad
on the north side and then city parkland bounds this entire property on the east side. There's a
gas pipeline on the property and that presents a significant obstacle for developing this site. If
you look at the site plan, the school is definitely maximize the available space and is constructing
significant athletic and recreational facilities on the property. Retaining walls are also a common
theme throughout the site, and again that's due to the pipeline and then the grades on the property
and then the need to maximize the space that is available there for the school and it's use.
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
There's a trail that's an important connection on the, it'd be the northeast corner. The railroad, we
have a very interesting double box culvert located at that location. At one time the Renaissance
Festival was located north for 2 years at the property and the parking was out here in these corn
fields south and then they would take the visitors to the Renaissance through that double box
culvert on hay wagons to the Renaissance for the first 2 years. The party got too rowdy and
Chanhassenites. . .leave town so I'm not sure if was good wisdom or not but they chased the
Renaissance Festival out of Chanhassen and it headed down to Shakopee so that's a little bit of
history. Again that trail is currently used and is part of the very extensively is part of the Bluff
Creek trail system throughout our community which when it's completed will be the longest and
most uninterrupted trail system throughout the city. With the underpasses at all the major
intersections. Lyman Boulevard will be upgraded as a part of this project. It would have to be
done, constructed into a 4 lane. There'll be another underpass at the south end of this property to
facilitate that trail and this underpass. So pedestrian movement will be safe.. .Tonight we have a
variety of representatives and I'll allow themselves to introduce themselves from the school
district and the other professional service providers that they're working with. And this is an
opportunity, they'll be coming before the Planning Commission and the City Council as they'
move through the site plan process. At the Park and Recreation Commission level, there's not a
standard subdivision application. In fact I don't even think we're subdividing the property are
we?
Audience: No.
Hoffman: No. ... so it's an opportunity to educate the commission so as you work in the
community and people are talking about the high school and which way.. . they will continue, is
that you can give them first hand information from the people that are bringing it to the
community. That will be operating and building the school so I'll allow them to make some
presentations and comments and then you can engage in a conversation with them and learn
some more about the school.
Steve Pumper: Thanks commissioners, good evening.
Scharfenberg: Good evening.
Steve Pumper: I'm Steve Pumper. I'm the Director of Finance and Operations for the school
district and kind of their point person on the Chanhassen High School. With me tonight I have
Paul Schlueter who's our supervisor of the buildings and grounds and he kind of works with all
the construction that we have for the district, and then 2 of our vast members of the project team
that we have Jay Pomeroy and Jonathan Duesman. They both work for Anderson-Johnson
Associates who are our civil engineers on this project and they are primarily responsible for the
development of the site plan, etc and will be our experts in developing the fields that you're
probably most interested in talking about tonight. I'll let them come and talk about what we have
on the site, etc. I want to reinforce what Todd said is that this was a challenging site. It's a
beautiful site. It's going to be a beautiful school. It's going to be the venue to watch games here,
it's going to be great because of the topography, etc, but there are a lot of challenges with it. The
wetlands presented a challenge. The pipeline presented a challenge. And then just the
topography, the site presented a challenge so it's going to be beautiful, it'll be wonderful, but
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
actually I don't want to take Jay's thunder away. I think it's probably the most challenging site
that he's had to work with, and they've done an excellent job. We're really happy. We've worked
with them before. They've maximized the number of fields that we can put on the site, so we
really believe we have the same number of facilities that we currently have at Chaska High
School, so the only thing I want to say on behalf of the school district is, while we have the same
number of fields, Chaska High School doesn't have enough fields to service the high school
programs it has right now. We use our middle school campus. We use fields around the city of
Chaska and Chanhassen right now so we certainly will be looking for that cooperation, and
we've had that dialogue already with Todd and Todd actually about future endeavors with the
City of Chanhassen because this site will not lend itself to enough fields to take care of our 2000
student high school campus. With that I'll let either Jonathan or Jay come up and kind of walk
through the site. Kind of show you what we have there and then certainly engage in dialogue
with you.
Jay Pomeroy: I'll just kind of give you a brief rundown on the general site and sort of the
program elements involved with this and some of the features associated with the site and some
of the challenges associated as well. I think you know in the packets that you were provided it
kind of talks about the size in general and Todd did a good job mentioning sort of that, what are
the boundaries to the site and what's coming through the site. First and foremost, you know we'll
obviously be situating here in the middle is the school itself. Across the site there's about 90 feet
of real grade change. It sits on a bluff. The high point right here in the middle and that's where
we've located the school itself. With that you know getting access to the school we've got 3
points of egress/ingress to the site. The first being down here off of Lyman and Audubon.
Strictly that's more seen as for bus traffic than onto the site. Providing a road in and to the east
side of the school here for about 30 buses and turn around over there. The two primary points of
entrance to the school site for vehicle traffic would then be off Lyman, making a access point out
here by aligning with Lake Hazeltine Drive and the second one up here a little bit just south of
the railroad. What we've got parking counts right now we're looking at about, spots for about
1,000 cars parked around the site. And obviously you see here on the plans to the north and to
the west of the school site, the school building itself. So that would be the vehicular traffic
patterns into the school site itself. To the north of the gas line is where the majority of the
sporting venues are going to be located. Right here, basically in the middle would be where the
football stadium would be located. Access to that would be right through the middle of the site
across the gas line. The gas line, there's some limitations as to what we're allowed to do for
grading options there. There's some fill that we're allowed to do on top of the actual gas line.
Gas easement itself. 100 foot easement, but they're limiting too. We really can't do any cutting
if we wanted to. That's kind of what is making us put in so many retaining walls adjacent to the
gas easement itself. But pedestrian traffic would come from the parking lot here in the north and
greet, before you get to the stadium itself there'd be a central plaza area where concession
building, ticket booth would be located there. But then down here, kind of sunk down into a hill
we have the football stadium and 9 lane running tracks. There would be, the retaining wall that
would wrap around, not quite 2/3 of it itself. The highest point would be along this edge here
where the home side is, and you're looking at about 6 foot high retaining wall there. But the
seating itself would be set up on a hillside. This area to the south and east would be along, about
a 3 to 1 slope down there so it'd be kind of a nice vantage point for watching games at night. Just
to the west of the stadium itself there would be the baseball and softball fields. Both fields are
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
going to be ag lime infields associated with them. Perimeter fencing would be around them as
well. We're looking at having a scoreboard for actually the softball field, the baseball field and
stadium field itself, so providing 3 scoreboards. Seating and everything for the baseball fields.
We've got some grade change here that's going to benefit us for providing some, I guess I'll call
it some unique seating in the sense that, you know by tying both the softball and baseball fields,
there'll be a concrete pad for bleachers. But however we got a little bit of grade change between
the plaza and the baseball field where you know it might provide a kind of nice little vantage
point for, you'd actually be a little bit above in the plaza from the baseball field elevation so you
can... but then along the gas easement itself we're going to have this here, there's some retaining
walls. We've really worked through the grading a lot in 2 months time. I mean it's kind of a
revolving thing. We're also one day you know something comes to light and we're like oh wow,
you know it changes this. Let's do that. We've really eliminated a lot of the walls that are going
up in this area itself. We're still going to have walls along the, or a wall here at the edge of the
outfield for the baseball and a small wall here for the back part of the center field for the softball
field. But we're looking at doing, just bringing in a little seat wall here that would be along the
first base line for the baseball field and a little bit higher wall there, so we're giving kind of a lot
of open bend places for people to view the games themselves. Walking then, take you down sort
of past the stadium itself. We're going to have the 12 foot wide bituminous path that would lead
down from the concession building, wrapping around the stadium providing the visitors access
down to their seating area down here. A retaining wall would wrap on half of that path itself
because you've got grade change coming down this path to the discus and shot put area. Really
worked a lot and tried to get the relationship between the field and this wetland and everything to
kind of sit in there and not be a really tall, intrusive vertical wall. So we kind of stacked some,
the field events in here to try to minimize the overall impact to the site. Tried to mess with some
of the events in the area. But you would come down the path here and you've got the shot put
and the discus areas down there. There's going to be a significant wall along this edge here
between the field events and the wetlands just to the east. What we're at right now looking at is
doing a double tiered wall. The concern we've had is, you know shot put, throwing the discus, if
you're standing right there, we're looking at probably about the highest spot. About 28 foot high
wall. It's going to taper off so the highest point we're looking at is about 28 feet, so the concern
we had is if you're standing there, you've got a fence here and you're looking on 28 feet, so we
worked to break this wall up. Pretty much from this point here all the way along over to this
corner off the edge of the discus. Tiering it down to a 3 foot wall. You've got your fence and
you've got a 3 foot wall dropped down to the next planter area there to kind of help break that up.
Soften the edge so it's not such a vertical impact along the fence, and then the greater part of the
wall would then be offset from there. Just back, back up just on the other side of the easement as
you can see there's two 4 court complexes for tennis over there adjacent to the buildings
themselves. Again with the amount of grade change in the site, we're high here. The west side
of the school and this parking lot. Terracing down at about 3 to 1 slope along the grass here to
the first series of tennis courts right here. There would be an access path along just the west side
of that, but then from there begin terracing down at about another 3 to 1 slope to get down to this
lower complex of tennis courts. Access for there being provided through the stairs. For one of
the things that's been requested all along is for the football players and this kind of ties in with
site access, pedestrian access to the site, would be how do you get the football players here at
halftime back to the school. Right now the design is that there is access back here. We are able
to provide a path across the easement itself. We were able to raise grade across there which
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
helped dramatically, or at one point we had a very extensive series of walls over here. And
interviewing and sort of having conversations with the gas line, we had to raise the grade,
therefore provide a path. It is not going to be a handicap access path. The site just doesn't allow
it unfortunately. The most we'll have is about a 9% slope right in this part of the path itself but
then it does flatten out in this area right here. The walk right here is handicap accessible. Going
into the northeast corner of the site where the remaining field event areas are going to be located
is, we've got 2 practice softball fields down here and a practice, or regulation sized soccer field
but then sort of a small practice, 180 foot by 180 foot soccer field. We tried originally to try to
get a full scale, or full sized soccer field in there. However we were limited in the fact thai we've
got a 20 foot setback requirement from the actual wetland boundary, and by the time we factored
that in and the grade change, we weren't able to get a full sized field in there. And then as you
can see here, as Todd had alluded to, is just sort of this connection with the path over to this
existing path and the below grade crossing underneath the rail line over there. I did forget to
mention too that there will be 2 additional practice soccer fields just on the south side of the gas
line itself. Tucked between Lyman and the parking lot there, those will be full sized practice
fields there. I probably left a few things, I went on the fast side. I don't know if you were able to
keep up with some of that... talk a little fast but, I think that's pretty much kind of the general
framework. I'll certainly answer any questions anybody might have.
Daniel: I have a few questions. What type of turf is the stadium field going to be?
Jay Pomeroy: Well the option right now is I think we're looking at two. I mean grass versus
artificial.
Daniel: Is there one way, is there a particular way that the district would like to see?
Steve Pumper: We certainly want artificial surface. It's...to contain grass. We're also putting in
at least 3 alternates and once those bids come in, we'll see. We're also, we're taking bids on the
football field and the 2 soccer practices, so we'd like to see all 3 of them artificial.
Daniel: Is the site going to be prepped at all for possible future expansion with a dome, much
like Minnetonka has?
Steve Pumper: No.
Scharfenberg: Jack, any questions?
Spizale: Concerning this gas line, would that be like covered with grass then?
Jay Pomeroy: The overall plan, yeah. You've got to create... and plan for the entire site. And
we have, the strong element of the wetlands to the east is kind of a big impact to the site so we're
looking at creating a lot of native and prairie grasses around the entire site itself so just sodding
what we need to sod but then a lot of these perimeter areas that don't need to be maintained is
providing a lot of prairie grasses. Especially along this gas easement. It's not a maintainable
reall y area...
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
Spizale: .. . doing any over grading or take dirt away from that spot as far as using it?
Jay Pomeroy: Yeah. I mean the limitations are, they basically said we can fill a certain amount
over the actual gas pipe itself and then sort of the periphery of it but as far as cutting in, they
maintain a, or they have a standard of, the amount of fill that needs to over the top of it and
pretty much where it's at and we just can't do any cutting is about the only option we have to help
this filling. Originally our intent was to just not touch the actual gas easement itself, but in the
realization, and in talking through with the gas company what we can do, that really, filling this
portion down here was a huge benefit to the site in the fact that it really minimized the amount of
retaining walls that go, that was going on around the tennis courts and stuff, and even in this
portion and the back side of the discus itself so, that was kind of I think a real huge savings to us.
We really minimized the amount of retaining walls over that.
Spizale: How deep is the gas line?
Jay Pomeroy: 2 1/2 feet I believe covered.
Hoffman: What's the diameter?
Jay Pomeroy: How deep is it?
Jonathan Duesman: It's between 3, 2 1/2 and 3 1/2. We actually. ..the gas main and it's.
Hoffman: Is it 9 inch, 10 inch culvert?
Jonathan Duesman: It's a 10 inch steel high pressure for gasoline.
Hoffman: But approximately how much cover are you going to be able to add there? 10 feet? 6
feet?
Jay Pomeroy: No. I think it's 6 foot max.
Jonathan Duesman: 8.
Jay Pomeroy: 8 foot max over the pipe itself.
Spizale: Okay. That's all I got.
Scharfenberg: Tom.
Kelly: What kind of surface is a running track going to be? I mean more a hard surface or more
of a soft, rubbery surface around the running track?
Jonathan Duesman: It's a soft, it's a resilient half inch thick. It's called polyurethane. Much like
Chaska's track, although it's a newer generation...
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
Kelly: Are basketball hoops common in high schools? Outdoor basketball hoops. And so is
there a plan to have any at this high school?
Jay Pomeroy: It did not come...
Kelly: Okay. I mean what size are the basketball courts in size? Do you have a concern that it's
close to what Eden Prairie has in terms of the number of basketball courts?
Jonathan Duesman: 6 basketball courts inside. 6 full regulation basketball courts...
Steve Pumper: It's exactly the same as the other Chaska High.
Kelly: Okay.
Spizale: I guess I got one other question too. In the parking, is that the normal amount of
parking for a high school? You say that you have like a Chaska or something, is that.
Steve Pumper: 1,003 at Chaska High right now so. I think Johnson's saying we have 1,000
spaces within those 3 lots I think and then also where the bus slot goes around. If you're doing
Pioneer Ridge, the school, you know the bus lot goes there. That's used as parking as well. The
same we'd have in here, so you could certainly park in the bus parking...
Spizale: So parking is adequate? Not too small, not too big?
Steve Pumper: Right. The only time we have an issue with parking at Chaska High now is, you
know the Eden Prairie football game is an issue. When we used to have graduation there it was
an issue but that's pretty much it.
Daniel: In case of a rivalry between Chaska and Chanhassen at this point now, what type of
concerns in terms of overflow? Are there any contingency plans in that or are you on your own?
Because knowing the site, there's not a whole lot of parking options with the exception of
Hazeltine Business District across there I assume.
Jay Pomeroy: And actually that's a, I haven't, I don't have... but that almost lends itself better
than you know Chaska, well certainly for cars.. . Pioneer Trail so it'd be the same here on Lyman.
I'm not sure that's ideal either. It's not like we're... Hazeltine actually helps provide...It happens
so infrequently right now, I don't know. And especially when Chanhassen opens, our goal is,
we're expecting to be at roughly 75% capacity for students so, the number of people at first, but
who knows what it's going to look like at a football game. I don't know. We'll find out but I
think it's something we can. . .
Spizale: I've got another question too. The land to the I would imagine it would be to the south
where the electrical thing is.
Jay Pomeroy: Yes.
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
Spizale: Is any more of that useable in the future or is that just, is that strictly for the electrical?
Jay Pomeroy: We've already worked that out with the City of Chaska. We're getting easements
so the road can go over part of that property but it's not, there's not much land there anyways but
it's not developable for anything else.
Spizale: Okay.
Scharfenberg: Steve, what fields are going to be lighted at the new facility? Just the football
field?
Steve Pumper: Just the football field, yes.
Scharfenberg: Okay. So tennis courts, none of that other stuff. At least is there plans for
lighting that in the future?
Steve Pumper: No, there's not. We're not, what do you call it, roughing it in for anything in the
future. Not to say it couldn't happen, but we're not planning anything.
Daniel: As well as it looks like the baseball field then, there's going to be.
Steve Pumper: No plans for that.
Daniel: Is there going to be a concern about, I mean I remember playing at Chaska when your
games even though they start at 4:30, this time of the year, it starts to get dark pretty quick. Any
idea as far as how that might be addressed or just try to get them in quickly?
Steve Pumper: Yeah, there's a lot of fields that don't have lights you know in the conference
that, which we've played in so.
Daniel: Okay.
Scharfenberg: Steve, what are the, we talked about the need for additional space within the city
of Chanhassen, because obviously this site doesn't address all of the needs of the school district.
What other needs does the school district have? Now I see, you know soccer fields, fall sports
with soccer and football, where's the football team going to practice in addition to soccer and
what are the other needs that the district has besides just on this site?
Steve Pumper: Yeah. Let's not talk about hockey yet because... but when we, it's a little bit of a
wild card. If we are able to afford to obtain the artificial surface, a lot of our needs will be
mitigated because not only will football probably be using the stadium field but soccer will also.
You know the good thing is we have fields throughout our district as well, and while this is
Chanhassen High School it doesn't mean that we still won't be using fields all over and so our
currently there's a soccer facility at the middle school east and west and the campuses there can
handle more varsity games so, and that's a lit field as well so we can put them there. But for, as
far as practice goes, we'll probably need some more practice space for soccer. One of our
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
biggest needs I think will be more practice needs for baseball and softball. Baseball more than
softball but we're short on those. Although again talking with Todd, that actually where you
probably have most of your available space right now. I mean there's certainly some fields that
we can use there. One of the things, and I don't know where this is at either but we talked about
the lighting for the baseball field. If it ever comes to fruition that Chanhassen develops a, you
know more of a sports town type baseball field that you know was talked about, that's certainly
something that the district would certainly be willing to talk about having it's varsity team play
there. This is going to be a varsity sized field and our plans right now is to play varsity games
there, but it certainly, you know it wouldn't preclude us from participating in a more of a stadium
complex for baseball as well. But until that happens we're going to need some practice spaces
for those, so I think our two biggest ones are going to be soccer/Lacrosse and baseball.
"
Daniel: Is there any interest at all, I know you, and obviously Steve you've had these discussions
with Todd it looks like. We have gone down the path of looking at a facility similar to, not
exactly like the athletic field, athletic park in Chaska in this town. In Lake Susan in particular.
Where you could possibly take a look at the cost of what it would, of what incurred for building
this particular site and possibly partnering with the City of Chanhassen to move that type of
facility along quicker? Because really from our perspective it will be dependent upon either
capital funding, or a voter referendum and if there's X amount of dollars into that particular site
preparation which fencing, dugouts, outside of just trying to do a soccer field, that we could
possibly partner and use that funding if the district is interested in doing that, or having those
discussions.
Steve Pumper: Yeah we, well let me just say we're always interested for sure.. . discussion. I
don't want to mislead you though. This baseball field, and Jay can correct me if I'm wrong but
by no means...state of the art basically. Dugout's pretty minimal. It's not a high level. I mean
other than the field itself, which will be fine, and we're going to want that field I think no matter
what happens, whether it's for JV or not. But it still doesn't mean that we wouldn't be interested
in contributing practical dollars to build up you know a bigger complex. I can't promise that but
you know certainly we'd be willing to have a dialogue. In fact I'd be willing to have dialogue
with Chanhassen if you really wanted to have artificial turf on the stadium... That would help
both of us the most. If we could have artificial turf on this field, it would help both the city
programs and the district programs by far.
Scharfenberg: Steve, what is the cost of just grass versus, now when you're talking turf right, I
know some schools buy used turf but this would be brand new. Is it kind of the stuff with the
ground up rubber?
Steve Pumper: Yep.
Scharfenberg: Type of Astroturf.
Jay Pomeroy: Field turf.
Scharfenberg: Field turf? What is the cost?
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
Jay Pomeroy: The stadium field, just so we make sure we're on track. The stadium field is going
to be a sand based field. It's going to be a little harder performance field so it does rebound fast.
To make the upcharge or the upgrade to a synthetic turf is about a half million dollars. The
softer fields are going to be built with the existing clay soils that are out there now. To bump
those up to artificial is probably about $650,000 or $700,000 per field. Give or take. So we're
looking at over a million and a half if you want to get all 3 fields done. Again, our first priority
would be the stadium, which is you know half a million dollars.
Scharfenberg: Jonathan could you, I had one question about the trail. Can you kind of show us
where the trail is on this site and then are there any issues with respect to the grading and that
regarding the trail?
Jonathan Duesman: Right now, sure. Again the connection point is going to be right up here, as
stated in the existing... Grading lines, there are no real constraints. Everything is through here
that we've got graded is going to be handicap accessible. We're maxing out at 5% up in through
here and up and around. For after hours though access to the site will probably, this can be
closed off the way it's looking so you know the access from a pedestrian would be you come
across here and just work their way down along here, adjacent to the school and then run along
this fire lane that's on the east side of the school itself. And then from there, we do have this path
out connecting down here by Audubon so there'd be this north/south connection there. Lyman
itself you know originally I think when we were looking at a path adjacent to both drives coming
in. Right now the design discussion, we're focusing on one just central connection point coming
off of Lyman. Aligning itself with a walk that runs inbetween the parent drop off here and the
parking lot that is just to the south right there. So we can have a walk that goes along Lyman and
then we'd have an access coming off of that, directly leading right to the front entry of the school
itself.
Daniel: It looks like off of our main path, kind of a loop towards the top right hand corner.
Yeah, right there. Is there a connection point at that right there? I just want sure I read that
correctly. Two drops down. Yeah, this is right towards the 20 is the reference point on the city
path.
Hoffman: I think you're looking at the creek.
Daniel: Oh! Gotch ya.
Jay Pomeroy: Yeah, that's Bluff Creek.
Daniel: Okay, so that's for the runoff. That's not an actual path that connects up, okay. Okay, I
see where the path connects now.
Hoffman: Especially the new design or the re-meandered creek, that's a whole other topic but
the MnDot is in there doing a wetland restoration project as a part of their work on Highway
212/312 so, that's some of the work you see but that design there is the new design of the creek.
It's being taken out of this channel and re-meandered back to it's old form.
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27,2007
Daniel: Okay.
Kelly: Is there room for a pool, if that comes to fruition in the future or not at the school?
Jay Pomeroy: No.
Kelly: No? Okay.
Hoffman: And you said he wasn't ready to talk pool either.
Daniel: What is the actual, from the point of the stadium to the north parking lot, what's the
elevation drop?
Jay Pomeroy: We're at a 922 elevation here and at this comer of the parking lot I believe it's
about a 952. So pretty much 30 feet.
Daniel: And you said there's going to be along the, is that the southeast corner here, a retaining
wall along the track, correct?
Jay Pomeroy: Correct. Basically it's going to start here. Kind of gradually increase in height.
The maximum height that would be adjacent to the track itself would be 6 feet when we get over
about here. Just off of the south side and then we just start tapering back down...
Daniel: Okay. And it's going to be grass to help along? Kind of like a stadium type of
approach. No pun attended but alright.
Scharfenberg: Seating capacity for the stadium?
Jay Pomeroy: We're matching Chaska High School so it's 1,500, give or take on the home side.
About 800 on the visitor side with, we've already counted for perhaps some expansion on the
home side to 2,000.
Hoffman: When you say matching, that's the, not the temporary bleacher there? Matching the
permanent bleachers there?
Jay Pomeroy: You can reinforce...a really neat piece of the stadium is that it's a top loaded
football stadium so you're kind of going into a bowl which is going to be really neat.
Hoffman: Jonathan can you, I understand in talking with Paul Schlueter that there are two
different kinds of walls and materials. Can you describe the two different materials and then
point out some of the locations for those walls.
Jonathan Duesman: Sure. What we're looking at right now is what's called a big block...
standard block. Standard block I think most people are probably familiar with Keystone, the
anchor type block with the smaller 8 inch height. The big block is really what it is. I mean these
things are about 41 inches in depth. About 2 feet high. 4 feet wide roughly.
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
Hoffman: The Home Depot walls down in Chaska?
Jonathan Duesman: Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Chaska Target. Originally we were
really looking, we were kind of keying on some of the big blocks around the site. We just
thought it probably provided, with the taller walls that we've got, that was a concern of our's, and
also just kind of a uniformity throughout the site. We were kind of really at the start of things
looking for the big block. Now we're seeing a lot so, the one we're looking at right now is kind
of an 80-20 split. 80% of the walls would be the standard block and then the 20 would be the big
block. I think what we're focusing on right now as far as the big block goes would be down the
bus drive itself. There's an existing, this large wetland just to the east that we're preserving. As
it works it's way right now, existing, it comes through the site just south of the school here and
wraps up into this parking area... but we are preserving this portion of the wetland here. And
we're going to basically have to bridge the wetland itself with a culvert situation. So we kind of
focused our efforts on really using the big block on these walls back in here and then everywhere
else would just be the standard block.
Daniel: Todd what are we going to be able, from our perspective, at least the City of Chan, how
are we, will this be part of our park system that we're going to include in our brochure with all
the amenities? Similar to what we do with Chanhassen, we list the city.
Hoffman: We haven't.
Daniel: Or are we going to go down that path?
Hoffman: Well first impression is probably not. But we haven't had those explicit discussions
yet to that level of detail. This is a site, much different than a Chanhassen Elementary or Bluff
Creek Elementary. Again at those locations the community has the majority of the access to the
site because you don't have after school sporting activities taking place. You have children on
the playground during the day and then somebody needs to manage this park at night and so you
know we mow it, we maintain it. We schedule it and then we get the community out there at
night. That works great. This location is not going to be a whole lot of opportunity to put the
community out there in the evening, other than perhaps they'll have access to tennis, right?
Steve Pumper: I would think so.
Hoffman: Yeah. They'll be able to use that so, I don't think we'll be doing a lot of maintenance
from the city level and I don't think we'll be doing scheduling and a lot of public access to this
site.
Spizale: Todd, I've got a question for you. Where, respective of that is the culvert that goes
underneath the railroad tracks.
Hoffman: Jonathan can point it out to you.
Spizale: Is it right where that trail is? So now that trail will likely Y?
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27,2007
Hoffman: Y, yep.
Spizale: So actually the kids that live in the neighborhood behind, Stone Creek, can walk to the
school. I didn't quite catch that. I thought the culvert was farther down. That's great.
Hoffman: They'll walk to school. Some of the kids... they'll be able to walk right up there.
Spizale: Yeah, it's a great path. So that's when they're talking about developing right over here
then. So that would Y right after, right at that point?
Hoffman: Right as you come out of the tunnel you'll take a right and go right up into the school
site.
Spizale: Boy that's great.
Steve Pumper: It did come up, just interesting at the open house we had for the neighborhood,
that especially after it rains, that it's a bad spot that culvert. Like a wash out comes there and the
path actually, I don't know if it's dirt and rock that gets, crosses over that so if you're biking it's a
dangerous spot.
Hoffman: That was previous to the improvement project. It's been improved, upgraded. The
culvert's been replaced and that's...
Scharfenberg: But it still does happen though occasionally.
Hoffman: Does it?
Scharfenberg: Yeah, with some heavy rains you still get some.
Hoffman: Not like it was before.
Scharfenberg: No. No.
Hoffman: Yeah, that September rain we had, Powers Boulevard was closed.
Scharfenberg: Any other questions?
Daniel: Ijust have one more. Jerry, I don't know if this will be for you as well. Recreation.
Other events. Basketball. Things that Chaska High School has right now with their after hours,
what will be some of the programs that they have. Are we going to be partnering? Or do we
need to go to Bluff Creek or are we going to look at the high school as well?
Ruegemer: As far as.
Daniel: Some of the basketball leagues.
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Park and Rec Commission - February 27, 2007
Ruegemer: ... facilities, that sort of thing.
Daniel: Yeah.
Ruegemer: That certainly is an opportunity for the future to expand existing programs that we
have. Certainly we need to go through the allocation process with the school district but it
certainly is a possibility for the future.
Hoffman: Jackie at Jonathan is the Director of Community Ed. From what I understand, they
schedule it. Right? Community Ed schedules it after hours for the most part?
Steve Pumper: Yes.
Hoffman: So we'll be talking with them but it's just like, we'll have access to it but they take it
first and then the community has a stab at it and then after that... We want to be as a community
inside and outside of the building. The theater's going to be there. There's plenty of things that
are coming to town. That's one reason you know why we're so excited is that the community of
Chanhassen will have great access to these facilities, not just during school days for children's
activities, but in the evening for the general public to have activities as well.
Spizale: Yeah, I think you guys did a great job of lining it up. You know having that wetlands
to one side of it's going to be really neat. It's going to be a great view from there I would think.
Jay Pomeroy: It's going to be a beautiful site.
Spizale: Yeah. Yeah it is.
Hoffman: Biology class will be happy.
Spizale: Is there any plans to include some education with the wetlands?
Steve Pumper: Oh no question. .. .as a matter of fact an interesting side note is, you know
certainly we're going to have 100 acres with only maybe 10 acres of wetlands.. .but there's some
schools that buy a 100 acre site and there's nothing on it and they actually put wetlands in
specifically for their science programs so that's one good thing that we can take.
Scharfenberg: Given the changes in elevation with some of the ballfields and that, is there
concerns about drainage and that around those sites?
Jay Pomeroy: I don't think so. I think we've got it actually designed. To be honest with
you...grade change out there, we use it to our advantage so...
Daniel: Excellent. Absolutely gorgeous. It's a great site.
Scharfenberg: Thank you all for coming tonight. We appreciate it.
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