CC Minutes 5-12-08
City Council Meeting - May 12, 2008
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council
approves Conditional Use Permit 08-05, to allow two buildings on a single lot, and
including the attached Findings of Fact and Recommendation, with the following condition:
1. Approval of the conditional use permit is contingent upon approval of the vacation, site
plan and administrative subdivision.”
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
CARVER COUNTY SERVICE CENTER, LOCATED AT 7808 KERBER BOULEVARD,
APPLICANT, CARVER COUNTY: REQUEST FOR SITE PLAN APPROVAL FOR A
13,260 SQUARE FOOT, TWO STORY OFFICE BUILDING.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you. The Carver County service center is located 7808 Kerber
Boulevard. It’s kind of kitty corner to where we are now. Just south of the bank and north of,
actually east of Target and then north of office industrial park. Access will be off of Kerber
Boulevard and then also there’s a drive that’s currently being used by Target that’s for their
unloading, so this is an active street on Pica. The Planning Commission did hear this project and
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hold a public hearing on April 15 and they did recommend approval of it. The site is well
situated in the fact that it’s in the core of downtown. Easy access for people that want to connect
to other services so we’re excited about the location and the way the architecture lays out and the
views between City Hall and this building itself, and the views that they’ve created match up I
think really well. The building itself as it’s laid out, the site plan has access from Kerber
circulating around through. They will have a drive thru window and then coming back out onto
Pica, and again the circulation works well on that. We don’t believe there will be conflict. This
is people mostly exiting the bank on that site. The layout of the site again. A plaza out front
which is just north of the building. In this area right here. Landscaping is really a nice feature
for those people that are waiting to do business or just want to enjoy kind of the, what we have
out here in front of city hall. It’s very, very nice. It meets all the conditions of the city ordinance
itself. The orientation. It does provide for two complete stories of offices and then all the
HVAC will actually be in the downstairs of this building, so it’s a little bit different. Then some
of the other buildings that we see that put it on the roof. The material itself, let’s switch to that.
You saw it a second ago, the colors. The brick, and I’m not sure if I’ve got that on. Here. There
we go. So we’ve got the brick and then the yellow and the green stucco with the metal clad
windows and the metal framing around that and then the retaining wall’s a little bit different
color, and I’ll switch to that in this building elevation. So again we think the architecture itself is
very, very nice. Highly articulated. A lot of windows kind of reflecting the office look with the
two stories. The massing in the three colors. Again as I mentioned, it has two complete stories.
The first story will comprise of the Carver County services and then right now there’s a potential
for the lease space. And then on the lower level would be all the HVAC equipment on the lower
level. Providing for an elevation so again, it’s a very nice building. Especially the way it’s laid
out and the orientation we thought made a lot of sense for the view perspective too. And the
overall site circulation works very well too. So with that we are recommending approval of the
site plan with the conditions in the, I think Bob did an excellent job in working with the architect
and the Carver County to work through the issues there. The Planning Commission didn’t have
a lot of concerns on the project either. So with that we are recommending approval of the
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City Council Meeting - May 12, 2008
project with the conditions in the staff report and I’d be happy to answer any questions that you
have.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for staff?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: One of my questions, and I can’t tell on the map so excuse me if
they’re already there but are there trails or are there paths to get to the service center?
Kate Aanenson: There is sidewalk.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: Let’s see if it shows up on the, there’s sidewalk right here.
Todd Gerhardt: Sidewalk on the library side.
Mayor Furlong: But how about southwest of the site, to your question?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Right.
Councilman Litsey: At the bank? Is that on the bank side? No?
Kate Aanenson: Isn’t there a sidewalk here? Yes. This is a sidewalk here. Right between the
park strip and the boulevard.
Mayor Furlong: Is there a sidewalk up along the bank too along Kerber as well?
Kate Aanenson: Yes. Yes. It goes all the way up, yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay. So there’s a clear path then.
Kate Aanenson: Yes. Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for staff at this point?
Kate Aanenson: And then I don’t know if I, the trash enclosures. We talked about that before. I
just wanted to mention that that, there is that same discussion of how you make that fit in with
the building. There’s always a balance when you get a highly articulated building and then
you’ve got a different use to the back, you know. For the Walgreen’s they were able to push it to
the side and kind of make it an appendix but this one has visibility all the way around so it was a
little bit of a challenge but we worked hard and they challenged and struggled with it but I think
we’ve got it in a great spot where it provides some potential to do some additional parking to
work around that so we think it’s in the right spot. Again you can back up the trucks to get into
that spot right there to make that work.
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Councilwoman Tjornhom: And Kate, can you show me again where the drive thru is?
Kate Aanenson: Yep. You would come through here and then you would pull over. There’s an
additional kind of cut away lane right here so you would, so then it provides for circulation past
the drive thru. So this is your drive thru window right here.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: So is it set up for, like how many stacking for cars?
Kate Aanenson: Probably 3-4. Yeah, yeah.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: And what’s the estimated, is there an estimated time?
Kate Aanenson: No, I think you might want to ask someone from the county what they
anticipate for you know, there’s going to be services that I’m assuming that you’re going to post
those that would be more convenient to go through a window to get and some that you may have
to come in. I don’t know. Someone, Steve if you want to address that. What you’re
anticipating.
Steve Taylor: Good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Steve Taylor with Carver
County. Really it’s Mark Lundgren is the expert, and Laura Engelen but what we’re looking at
here are tabs. Really tabs only. They only take a couple of minutes to get so the intent of the
drive thru is for quick transactions taking place. Otherwise you’re going to start wrapping
around the building here so the goal is to have essentially just tabs, and there’ll be some signage
to that effect.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I was just going to ask that question.
Steve Taylor: We’ll get the PR campaign going here as well to help educate people.
Mayor Furlong: Good. As long as you’re there, why don’t you go ahead, unless there are any
other questions at this point for staff. Do we have a presentation from the applicant?
Steve Taylor: Yeah, that’d be great. Could I ask Commissioner Degler maybe to speak.
Mayor Furlong: Sure. Absolutely.
Gayle Degler: Yeah, council members, mayor and staff. I am Gayle Degler and I am the county
commissioner. The reason I’m here, I represent this district for one thing and, but besides that
I’m really excited that this project is taking place. Not only because I’m the county
commissioners, but because I live in the city of Chanhassen. We’ve needed this service for a
long time. The county has worked hard to find a project that we wanted to move forward with to
provide the service for the people of Chanhassen, and that’s why I’d like to thank you as a
council for working hard and supporting this project, and especially thanking Todd and Kate
working hard with Steve Taylor and Mark Lundgren on this project. This is a project, like I said,
that we’ve needed for quite a while. When it gets down to the nuts and bolts I’m not even going
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to try to comment on that but what I would like to do is invite you to the ground breaking next
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Tuesday. 2:00. That’ll be May 20, 2:00. Next Tuesday. I can’t guarantee you what the
weather is going to be like on Tuesday, but if you know anything about me, I’ve been itching to
get my hands in the dirt for quite a while and I guarantee one way or another I’m going to be
working in dirt next Tuesday so with that I’ll turn it back to Steve.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Councilman Litsey: Thanks.
Steve Taylor: This has been a project that since I started working for the county in June of 2005
that has been somewhat of a struggle in part because we’ve looked at so many different sites.
We’ve looked at so many building configurations, which is all good. Which is all part of a
process here because we wanted to make sure that we had the right size building. Providing the
right services at the right location so we were fortunate to find this piece of ground. The staff
has been great to work with. That’s for sure. I mean there’s been a lot of give and take here in
the process and I think the drawings indicate to you that we really have a great facility for the
residents of Chanhassen and Carver County. There are quite a few unique customer service
elements to this building. We mentioned the drive thru. We also have a children’s area for those
people waiting to transact business. We have a software application called Cuematic and that
software will allow more efficient customer service to take place. And we’re also going to have
in place here, and you kind of showed it a little bit with the floor plan, but we’re going to have a
greeter actually greet people when they first come in and ask them what is, what is the business
that they’re looking at transacting here and pointing them in the right direction. Giving them the
right forms to fill out. So all of this ties into customer service that we’re expecting to achieve
here so. We are looking at leasing the second level to the school district. We don’t have a
formal agreement. We have a verbal agreement at this point but I don’t see there being any
issues there so.
Mayor Furlong: Good. Very good. Thank you. Any questions for the applicant at this point?
Comments? Okay, very good. Bring it back to council for thoughts and comments. Mr.
McDonald?
Councilman McDonald: Well you know I think this is something that’s long overdue for this
area and I really welcome it and thank the county for putting things together to bring it to our
community. It will be well used and I think greatly appreciated so thank you very much.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I guess I should have asked one of the questions. Is the county
guaranteeing friendly service workers?
Mayor Furlong: Are there any other kind?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I don’t know.
Todd Gerhardt: They have a greeter.
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City Council Meeting - May 12, 2008
Councilwoman Tjornhom: They have a greeter. That’s a good thing. Happy one hopefully.
No, you know we as a council, the time we’re addressing is how to always feed our downtown
and give our merchants you know, people to come in and feed their businesses and keep our
downtown strong and I think this is just one more tool we will have. We have a library. We
have a post office, and now a service center which obviously is something that we’ve all needed
and has been lacking for a while so it’s exciting for our town and I look forward to doing my
transactions there with friendly workers.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: I like the looks of the building and I agree, it’s a service that I’m certainly
looking forward to having in this city as an added benefit and good job.
Councilman Litsey: Well pretty much everything’s been said other than I appreciate the
opportunity to vote on this but a lot of work went into this prior to my getting on the council and
I think that’s where the recognition really deserving of but I appreciate it coming forward now
and staff’s work and the county’s work on this. This looks wonderful and this is just going to be
a great asset for our community. Ties in like we said with the other services that we provide in
the community. It kind of tops it off so thanks for coming forward with a quality project.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. I think that was a lot of good comments and there has been a lot of
work. At the county level. At the city level over the years and Steve, you’ll be able to check this
one off your list. There’s a few more items on that list, as I’ve been told but we’ll get this one
off and I think to Mark and Laurie and others at the county, I know that they’ve spent a lot of
time and they’ve been looking at finding a way to expand the county’s customer service out to
residents and there’s been a desire for a while to have this here. Commissioner Degler
mentioned that. There’s been a need. This is going to be a great addition to Chanhassen. It’s
going to be a great addition to our downtown area. Bring more trips downtown from within the
city and without and it’s at a great location. I mean this is going to be a great project. It’s been a
long time coming but the wait will be worth it because I think this will be something everybody
will be proud of so thank you for everybody that put in all their time and effort. That goes here
at the city as well as the county level. A lot of people will benefit from your efforts so for them,
thank you very much. We might get this motion passed. Did you want to?
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, I just wanted to make one point. You know I’ll give you a little behind
the scenes action here. Mark, Laurie, Steve, Kate and I all jumped in a van and I don’t know
how many sites we looked at and then on the phone, I don’t know how many times we had
conversations, how about this site or how about that site. There definitely, they know every site
that’s available in Chanhassen and probably could open up their own real estate office and
explain each so they definitely did their due diligence and I think this is just a great project that
you got a partnership with the county and the school district potentially leasing the space and the
school district I know is very excited about the location. They wanted to be downtown. It really
helps them with their needs so it’s great to see another joint partnership between the school
district and the county so good job.
Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Anything else? If not, is there a motion?
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City Council Meeting - May 12, 2008
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Last one. I’ll make a motion.
Councilman Litsey: Are you? Okay, I was going to.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: That the City Council approve Planning Case 08-09 for site plan
approval for a 13,260 square-foot, two-story office building, dated March 14, 2008 subject to the
following conditions 1 through 14.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll second.
Roger Knutson: And adoption of the findings.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: And adoption of the findings.
Todd Gerhardt: I thought we’d get through the whole year without saying that.
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Litsey would have remembered that part.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I know…
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion?
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council
approve Planning Case #08-09 for Site Plan Approval for a 13,260 square-foot, two-story
office building, plans prepared by Bentz/Thompson/Rietow, Inc., dated March 14, 2008
(stamped received March 31, 2008), subject to the following conditions:
1.Wood chip mulch area will be extended in the northwest corner of the site. The proposed
turf area under the tree in the corner peninsula will be removed. If desired, a single strip of
sod may be placed along the curb line of the peninsula.
2.The building is required to have automatic fire extinguishing systems.
3.Building plans must be prepared and signed by design professionals licensed in the State of
Minnesota.
4.Retaining walls over four feet high must be designed by a professional engineer and a permit
must be obtained prior to construction.
5.One (1) “van-accessible” parking space is required.
6.Additional window area shall be installed in the break room in the southeast corner of the
building.
7.Signage shall be permitted on two building elevations only.
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8.Staff recommends that the curb line north of the drive-thru be shifted to the east to provide
for additional vehicle stacking.
9.Staff recommends that manhole 4A be shifted into the curb line and replaced with a catch
basin to capture additional runoff from the parking lot.
10.The developer’s contractor must contact the Engineering Department a minimum of two
business days prior to connecting to the public storm sewer.
11.An encroachment agreement is required for the retaining walls.
12.The developer must ensure that the “no build easements” noted on the Certificate of Survey
will allow for the construction of parking lots and retaining walls.
13.City trunk sanitary sewer and water hook-up fees and the MCES SAC fee are due with the
building permit. The 2008 rates are $4,799/unit for City water, $1,769/unit for City sanitary
sewer and $1,900/unit for the MCES SAC. These fees are based on the number of SAC units
as determined by Met Council.
14.The Certificate of Survey must be signed.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS:
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Litsey you had a council presentation.
Councilman Litsey: I did. I mean I had communicated this last week I know with City Manager
Gerhardt about my concern over what’s going on in the legislature in terms of their negotiations
right now over the budget and time is of the essence so I guess I assumed this was going to be on
the agenda but I guess I shouldn’t make assumptions. I should have verified it.
Todd Gerhardt: I’m sorry.
Councilman Litsey: I just wanted to have some dialogue on this I guess to see if it was
appropriate at least or how people on the council felt about going on the record against the
proposal right now by the Governor and some of the members of the legislature that would put a
state imposed cap on local property taxes. I guess my basis for saying that, and this is what went
out in my email to some of our representatives. City councils are elected to make decisions
about local budgets and meeting community needs. It is inappropriate for the State to undermine
local decision making and accountability through the imposition of, or by imposing levy limits or
proposals such as the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. The State should not obstruct the principle of
representative democracy that allows city councils to formulate local budgets. I think as a matter
of principle it’s not a political issue. It’s just a matter of principle we should strongly oppose
state restrictions on local budgets. That was my prepared email that I sent out. Just a couple
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