CC Minutes 11-10-08
City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Councilman Litsey: I was just going to, I agree with those comments and although again it may
seem like a lengthy process, I think through this it gives everybody a comfort level and I
appreciate the council’s insight on this too. It was helpful to me because I haven’t had as many
of these before me as some other people on the council so this certainly did help and I think with
conditions set forth, so I too support this so.
Mayor Furlong: Is there any other discussion? If not we have a motion before us that’s been
modified with a condition and subject to the Findings of Fact being presented in the next
meeting, is that correct?
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Is there any other discussion?
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded that the City Council
approve Planning Case 08-19 for a 15 foot shoreland setback variance to construct a 15 by
20 foot enclosed structure on Lot 12, Block 1, Sunrise Hills Addition and adopt Findings of
Fact to be supplied by staff at the next City Council meeting, with the following condition:
1. Design the roof such that drainage off the roof is not concentrated to create hazards to the
bluff below.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
ARBORETUM SHOPPING CENTER, 7755 CENTURY BOULEVARD, KLMS GROUP,
LLC: REQUEST FOR A MINOR PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT (PUD)
AMENDMENT TO ALLOW A DRIVE-THRU AND SITE PLAN REVIEW WITH
VARIANCES: LOT 2, BLOCK 1, ARBORETUM SHOPPING CENTER.
Public Present:
Name Address
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Bryan Monahan 7500 West 78 Street, Edina
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Andrew Ronningen 2669 West 78 Street
Lynne Etling 7681 Century Boulevard
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. I’m going to pass around,
there’s two letters of support that came with this project. This item appeared before the Planning
nd
Commission on October 22. The applicant is requesting to amend the PUD to allow for a drive
thru window. The subject site is located at a neighborhood commercial zoning district, as I
mentioned done as a PUD that’s located down on the northeast corner of Highway 5 and Century
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Boulevard, bordered by West 78. This is one of those pocket neighborhoods that we put in
place with the upgrade, or when we did the Highway 5 corridor study, to provide some
convenience commercial for that neighborhood in this area. So again the applicant did appear
before the Planning Commission and before I go through the slides I’ll just summarize what the
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Planning Commission’s discussion points were. And that was that the layout proposed, the
applicant would block people on both sides of the stacking lanes, and it appeared that the parking
spaces after you stack cars would not be able to back out. The Planning Commission also
requested that the drive aisles…drive thru be counted. The applicant requested that the drive
aisles be counted as parking space, and the Planning Commission disagreed with that
interpretation. Pedestrians must cut through the travel lane to get to the building, and I’ll show a
little bit more on that in a minute. And the Planning Commission also asked the applicant, the
intended use to go in there, if they could go in without the drive thru window, and I think that
was a concern when we look at neighborhood zoning districts as a whole. We have some other
neighborhood zoning districts that we haven’t allowed that so they did spend some time on that.
And also the layout that the staff had recommended. The applicant disagreed with that, although
I think we could move towards some of that. There’s still some underlying concerns with that.
Again in 2003, when this project did come to the Planning Commission we, the staff remained
neutral in presenting a drive thru at that time and the Planning Commission had recommended no
on that, so I’ll spend a little bit more time on that in a minute. And then they also, the final thing
that the Planning Commission talked about when they recommended against was the one way
traffic through the gas station during rush hour and Nick and Willy’s may present a problem. So
with that I’ll just kind of go through the proposed project itself. This is the original site plan that
came through in 2003. The applicant at that time, and I’m not sure if anybody remembers but at
that time they were looking at a drive thru coffee shop and it was integrated into the back of the
design. At that time, again the staff, because it was a neighborhood zoning district, took a
neutral position. We actually had Findings of Fact for and against, and the Planning
Commission in looking at that drive thru, even though you could see that there were 6 stacking
stalls separated from the access to the gas station and the other uses itself, completely separated,
they still were concerned about the precedent at that time. And actually by the time it got to the
City Council, this council actually deferred on it for a couple meetings too. Spent a lot of time
studying it. Asked staff to go look at some other applications so in that time, at that time it was
determined that that probably was not a good use, and the use itself went even a little bit further.
If you look at the architectural compatibility, and this is the use itself is that we actually put on
the back side of the building, so when you’re looking from Highway 5 you wouldn’t see it. It
was actually integrated into the building itself. You can see the enter, so it was architecturally
compatible so you wouldn’t see it from the other side either, so it really had the least amount of
visual impact. And so even at that, the Planning Commission and the council ultimately decided
that they did not want to support. So here we are, a number of years later and the applicant is
requesting the drive thru. And you can see on this application the drive thru again is on the north
side. Again, it’s further away from the residents but it’s, as far as visual impact, it’s not the
preferred choice but based on now the current layout of the business itself, how it’s function, the
kitchen, the bathrooms and the like, this is what they thought was the best location for that drive
thru. So we did go look at the use that wanted to go in there, how it operates in Eden Prairie.
Went through the operation and this is the larger view. I’ll go to a closer view where you
actually, you have segmented uses so you actually have more stacking that you’re not crossing
through the traffic at the main entrance. And a close up of that would be, there’s a car wash, if
you can follow the arrow here to the car wash that goes one way. I believe it goes the other way,
and then to go through Milio’s, you’re coming back through the opposite way so there is, they’re
not, you don’t have pedestrians crossing to get into the business on this so it’s a little bit
different, and they had the segment in stacking space which this one didn’t. So right away again
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
in looking at doing a PUD amendment for a drive thru, we’re not limiting what type of use can
go there. Obviously depending upon how much volume somebody else, marketing would look at
that sort of thing but we’re not limiting it to any particular user. It just says drive thru window.
So in looking at kind of worst case/best case scenario. This was the staff’s best attempt at
making this work. Again the preferred alternative would have been on the back side, but trying
to make this work. In replacing the additional parking stalls that were eliminated. Trying to
reduce the area of conflict which would be, trying to get into the door here on this side. Where
the restaurant would be. You’re crossing through the travel lane of the drive thru, and that’s
where the Planning Commission struggled the most problematic portion of that. And this was
the applicant’s drawing for that. Again the staff’s concern is that we had conflicting, the way
this would back in here, you could actually block the traffic coming through the business itself.
There wasn’t additional parking provided with this application. Again that area of concern. And
then these seemed to be also difficult because you’re coming through the drive thru so you’re
losing these and these may be difficult to back out of too when you’ve got accelerating traffic
coming out of the drive thru itself. So here’s a little close up again kind of again highlighting
exclusive stacking space for vehicles waiting to place your orders is not provided so you’re, the
vehicles waiting to stack at the menu or the order place could also be blocking the traffic and
then the potential for the vehicle conflict coming the other way, or people coming out because
it’s narrow right through there. So again the Planning Commission did recommend denial of the
application for reasons that I stated in the staff report and so with that I’d be happy to answer any
questions that you do have. The motion that we had for you is placed on the front page of the
application.
Mayor Furlong: Questions for staff.
Councilman McDonald: Did you actually propose to the applicant your design?
Kate Aanenson: Yes we did.
Councilman McDonald: What kind of feedback did you get?
Kate Aanenson: Well I think at the Planning Commission there was a lot of resistance but I
think between now and then trying to meet all that before it went to City Council, I think they’re
willing to meet some of those designs. The concern that we had is that, I think the biggest issue
here is if you’re willing to go forward with the PUD amendment. We didn’t want to expend
additional money that if you weren’t going in that direction. I think if you’re leaning that way
and then you wanted to make some conditions, I think at this point we didn’t want to spend, have
the applicant spending additional dollars on that.
Councilman McDonald: And then the other question I have, with the traffic flow the way it is
towards the back, isn’t that also the way you would go to get into the car wash?
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. There is a couple ways to get through there but it does get a
little congested. I think at the lunch hour time too when Nick and Willy’s is a little bit busier.
Councilman McDonald: Okay. That’s all I have.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Kate Aanenson: And Jimmy John's too.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Kate, did I read that there are additional parking spots that are going
to be created?
Kate Aanenson: That’s what we had requested. The applicant at the Planning Commission
didn’t want to do that. I think they’re willing to show that for you tonight and so I think that
they’ll talk to that but at this point I think we wanted to get just kind of a read before we spend
money and go further into that, if they’re willing to meet those, I think we can work through the
design issues but I think what we wanted to get for the read is, what you’re receptiveness to the
drive thru was.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: But the real issue is really is the traffic flow and the stacking.
Kate Aanenson: Well, there’s a couple issues. One, it’s not the preferred design because we
actually, the stacking is one but you’re also taking pedestrian traffic, pedestrian movement
through a travel lane for ordering food. And then it is, while it is a PUD and you could make
conditions unique to this, but we’ve told other neighborhood commercial zoning that, it could be
a precedent.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions for staff at this point? And I guess clarifying at the Planning
Commission they made a motion to deny the request. The applicant’s.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And I see in the staff report what some of the concerns were laid out
there and one of them was, this was talked about 5 years ago in 2003 when this came through
and are there any other, while it’s a PUD.
Kate Aanenson: Right.
Mayor Furlong: It’s a neighborhood business level of zoning effectively, correct?
Kate Aanenson: Correct. Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And so what else do we have in neighborhood, do we have any other
restaurants drive thru in neighborhood business? Is at Galpin and 5 we have CVS and Kwik
Trip.
Kate Aanenson: There’s no drive thru. The only thing that we’ve offered drive thru would be
the banks, drug stores, dry cleaners would be the only ones to date that we’ve allowed the drive
thru. So the other two uses up there that are food related are non-drive thru’s either. That are
contiguous to this.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Mayor Furlong: Well and didn’t we have a request for a drive thru at Chanhassen Crossings at
101 and Lyman just recently?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: And we put significant limitations on it.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: What did we end up doing there? Wasn’t it, I mean that’s a coffee shop.
Kate Aanenson: Right.
Mayor Furlong: It’s not necessarily a restaurant so there were expectations of.
Kate Aanenson: Yes, right. Yes, correct. Correct.
Mayor Furlong: You keep saying correct.
Kate Aanenson: It was for a coffee shop and the circulation was different and that I think.
Mayor Furlong: But there were, it wasn’t designed to be a food, or a restaurant there.
Kate Aanenson: Correct. It was a very small area for what they wanted to look at was a coffee
shop. But we’ve had other requests. We had requests for fast food down there and we
recommended no on all that. We’ve also, there was the Subway across the street too that was
looking at some of that but we had said no. That was also a PUD so.
Councilman Litsey: Is it kind of, I mean I get the impression, and from reviewing this myself,
that you’re kind of trying to force something into an area that really isn’t conducive to it or?
Kate Aanenson: Right, well one of the staff struggle is, you know we’d like to see something
successful in this building. That’s critical.
Councilman Litsey: Absolutely.
Kate Aanenson: You know everybody would. And other uses have struggled there. We want
this business to be successful so we tried to find a way to make it work and I’m just not sure
we’re there. In the design.
Todd Gerhardt: And I think both the Planning Commission and staff are looking for a little
direction from the council on this. You know this center has kind of struggled here for the last 5
years I think it’s been there, and they’re going on their third tenant in this building and we want
to be successful. The strip retail has had multiple uses in there and you know we need something
to really anchor this corner and the applicant feels as if a drive thru would help that. And one of
the things, you know I haven’t had a chance to talk to Roger on this but we could give it a shot
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
for the one tenant and then, with the PUD amendment for Milio’s, but if for some reason Milio’s
can’t make it there, that that drive thru would only exist while that tenant was there.
Councilman McDonald: Well that was the question I was kind of asking you on that because if.
Todd Gerhardt: I know it’s a challenge for Roger.
Councilman McDonald: …if this is a PUD, if we issue it for the PUD, does that mean if this
fails then a Starbuck’s can come in. They’ve got a drive thru?
Roger Knutson: Without going into detail, I think we can get there but we would, due respect to
the manager, we want to word it a little bit differently.
Todd Gerhardt: You don’t want to take that wording huh.
Roger Knutson: You can’t do a PUD amendment that’s only applicable to Milio’s.
Todd Gerhardt: Right.
Kate Aanenson: It would be sandwiched related.
Todd Gerhardt: So can it be time related or use related.
Roger Knutson: If you tried to make it an interim use within the PUD that is possible but then
you’d have to start over. There are other things I think we could fruitfully discuss and how we
could limit that.
Kate Aanenson: Such as trip generation, those sort of things. Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Variety of factors. What I’m hearing is there may be some flexibility if that’s
something we wanted to look at.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, and I think still we’re still trying to struggle with the design.
Mayor Furlong: But I hear, if Mr. Knutson is saying that there may be an opportunity to be a
little more specific here without necessarily creating a city wide precedent, is that correct? There
may be some opportunities. We might not get it done tonight but there may be some things we
could do.
Roger Knutson: I don’t think we could word smith it tonight but I think if the council wants to
go in that direction, we could come back with something that will pin it down pretty good.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright.
Kate Aanenson: And again just to be clear, I think there’s some struggles of how much to spend
on this and so we want to get some direction on that because we think we can make it better just
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
design wise, not even just with the window. The location. Moving some things but obviously
there’s some, I think some of the things that we are struggling with is the applicant’s ability to
invest in some of those. So we kind of want to find, get a read from you and to see where to go
with that.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: How’s the gas station feel about the drive thru and all the traffic that
will be coming through there?
Todd Gerhardt: The owner of the gas station is the applicant.
Kate Aanenson: It’s the same.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: It’s the same, I’m sorry.
Kate Aanenson: That’s alright.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I didn’t realize that.
Mayor Furlong: Any other questions of staff at this time? If not, we will invite the applicant to
come forward and address the council. Is there anything you’d like to say? Good evening.
Mark Leutem: Hi. My name is Mark Leutem. I am the, I’m going to say one of the owners of
the gas station, which includes the car wash and the tenant space that we’re looking to fill. Just a
little quick, a quick background. Family owned and operated business. It started in the fall of
2004. My family, I actually married into this thing. My wife was starting this investment at the
time we were engaged and becoming married and so I’m the fix up guy anyway. But the point is
that the business in that location has under performed. We’re doing about, somewhere between
28%. About 30% of what the business was originally projected to do. We are the owners of the
real estate and the operator that was supposed to be in there lasted 18 months and he went
bankrupt. In the restaurant space in the front there, that’s had 2 other operators. First one went
bankrupt after about a year. Second one, I’m not sure where he is. I think he’s back in Mexico
or something. Anyway, but the point is that we, the word struggle was used earlier and that’s a
very, very solid word and I don’t mind saying we’ve probably put in about $15,000 a month on
average to keep this thing going. Part of the strategy to get this business to just start to take care
of itself includes putting a solid tenant into that space. Being in the real estate world we went out
to find potential tenants. We talked to brokers and agents and we talked to Caribou. We talked
to Starbucks. We talked to Dunn Brothers. None of those are options. They want to be on the
other side of the street for their particular reasons in what they do, so unless I can bring it across
the street, they’re not a consideration. We went to McDonald’s. We went to the Noodles and
Company. You pick the franchise. We’ve talked to all of them, and they’re not all hard to talk
to because a lot, a few brokers represent a lot of these folks. Those franchises require a square
footage of at least 25,000 square feet. You may be able to squeeze them in there. Closer to 25.
28 to 30. I’m sorry, 2,800 to 3,000 square feet.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Kate Aanenson: I was going to say.
Mark Leutem: Yeah. We are way too small to be a McDonald’s. And so those aren’t options.
We really need, and in fact as I’ve been interviewing potential tenants there, we really need to
put a tenant in there that’s going to stay, and a tenant business that’s going to succeed. I’ve
literally had some tenants come and look around and say, well yeah but a couple other businesses
failed here and why did they. And when I explained, I don’t think thing they had real good
business plans. They did, for a number of different reasons. They couldn’t get the traffic flow
they needed or what not, and so the intent as the space is getting hexed. Okay so, I spoke with
Mr. Moravec. Vic Moravec who has a franchise of Milio’s franchise in Eden Prairie here. He’s
very excited. His company has done due diligence on it. Milio’s is a franchise name. There’s
50 stores in the Midwest. They have some name recognition in the area. Growing quickly.
Very solid business. Well capitalized. Just the thing we’re looking for. Requirement is he needs
a drive up in order for the business model to work and succeed. So here we are today dealing
with that particular issue. In the City Council meeting, as was brought up earlier, there was some
resistance. I come today with no resistance to the staff at all. In fact I’m coming today to
suggest that we look to try to get approval to this concept and then I would be more than happy
to work with staff and staff’s recommendations to follow a design that’s developed that they’re
comfortable with. That meets the needs of our requirements of getting this accomplished and
that staff could be perfectly comfortable in recommending. As was stated earlier, we can be
close. I don’t think we’re quite there either. I had some disagreements before on how many cars
are going to be stacked and what not. We’re not going to do any of that tonight. But like I said I
would like to work with the staff. Come up with something that makes sense. Since that city
planning meeting, talked to some of the architects. Other developers and some other folks and
some other ideas have been tossed out that haven’t even been addressed together with myself and
the staff so I think there’s a number of different options that can be developed so this thing
makes sense and is consistent. There was a question earlier about the possible congestion around
my pumps. We would really love to have some congestion around my pumps. As I said before,
we are less than third of the capacity that this business was originally projected to do. And so
you know we’d like to do that. The other part of it too is you have to keep in mind that we are a
continuous building so the traffic flow and sharing of parking space and entering and exiting is
not uncommon. If you look in a number of different layouts in certain businesses, they can
essentially be contiguous in each other. I think I’ve addressed all relevant points.
Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Any questions for Mr., is it Leutem?
Mark Leutem: Leutem, yep.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Mr. Leutem.
Councilman McDonald: I guess at this point then what you’re telling us is, you’re willing to
work with staff as far as addressing some of these issues they have about traffic flow and the way
traffic would be handled around the center.
Mark Leutem: Correct. Yeah I envision that the design is what staff and I would put together
and again that the staff would end up being comfortable with recommending it.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Councilman McDonald: Are we close as far as what staff’s proposed design was? Is that a good
starting point?
Mark Leutem: If you could go to the picture that. That one there. We can be close. I just
thought, actually did think about something as I was sitting in the chair here, and I have to talk
with Mr. Moravec but from a space standpoint, I mean we could move that window even further
down, which would shorten the access points. Still get the 6 cars in there that they want, and so
then that would get away with some of the cross traffic or the stuff walking across. And then
they also with working with Westwood, they had a number of different recommendations about
how that parking and that handicap could be redone so the flow is a little smoother and
everything lays out a little bit easier. There’s less construction. There’s less changing of the
berm and stuff like that, so I think there’s a few other options again that haven’t even gotten to
the table discussing how the design would go.
Councilman McDonald: Okay.
Mark Leutem: But generally speaking we’re you know generally going this direction.
Todd Gerhardt: Is there the possibility of moving that front door over to the north side of the
building? Because then it’d keep people away from that drive thru.
Mark Leutem: Yeah, everything’s possible. I think.
Todd Gerhardt: We’ll design it right here. Sorry.
Mayor Furlong: No we won’t.
Mark Leutem: One of the things, one of the things when I was with my concrete folks is that,
you can see that takes away part of the sidewalk that’s like right in front. And actually when you
take that out and you get on the scene and you put a tape measurer to that, there’s enough room
to leave that sidewalk going all the way and still get the lane in there.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, it’s the issue we had, just to be clear, you know as you’re crossing.
People aren’t going to walk all the way, yeah. We can work on it.
Todd Gerhardt: We won’t design it here.
Mayor Furlong: Any other questions this evening for Mr. Leutem? We may have some others
as you…
Mark Leutem: Well yeah.
Mayor Furlong: If you watched the earlier one.
Mark Leutem: Yeah, I don’t have any other plans.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Mayor Furlong: We never close out our right to ask questions so.
Councilwoman Ernst: Well I just have a comment that when you were talking about moving the
window to make the traffic flow a little easier, I see Kate shaking her head and, yes. So I’m
encouraged to hear that the two of you will work something out and bring it back.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. I know there was a public hearing at the Planning Commission. I
don’t know if there are other members of the public here present that want to comment on this.
With Mr. Herbst standing, I’m guessing the answer to my question is yes there are so we’ll take
some public comment here as well. Good evening.
Dan Herbst: Good evening. Honorable Mayor, members of the City Council. Professional staff.
My name is Dan Herbst. 7640 Crimson Bay Road in Chanhassen and also co-owner with Ron
Clark of Century Wine and Spirits. We are, before I give you points that point out, talk to you
about. We are running low of wine club memberships before the holiday season so if you want
to sign up tonight.
Mayor Furlong: I don’t think this is an opportunity for advertisements. We’ll let this one go.
Dan Herbst: First of all I apologize for not being here at the Planning Commission meeting. We
would have liked to state our case as well as other people at the Planning Commission but we
didn’t see it as a real issue and I think when you assume something like that, you always make
mistakes so I apologize for not being here. But you know from the obvious point of view you
already know there’s a road already that loops the south side of that building. From a precedent
setting point of view you already have a drive thru on that PUD with the car wash. I’ve been in
this business about 40 years and I, in both the commercial and the residential end and you know
looking at your Findings of Fact you know this drive thru window is very, very consistent in my
opinion with all of the other uses that are part of the Arboretum Center there. I see no
inconsistency whatsoever. There’s also some mention in your Findings of Fact about lowering
property values. I think that’s invalid also. So I think it’s consistent with your PUD. It’s going
to boost all the businesses in that area. That place has been open and closed, as Mark mentioned
to you, about 3 different times. I think it’s compatible with all your performance standards of
your planned unit development. You know and just on a personal issue, having 8 grandchildren
a drive thru is a real, real plus. When you’ve got to bail kids in and out of those seats and watch
them run across the street to go into a restaurant, a drive thru is a real great thing, and all of you
that have had children, and more so if you’re handicap. And so I think there’s a real advantage
to a drive in window so I strongly recommend that you would approve this and I like the theory
that Kate has put up, that if you approve the drive thru concept on this site, which is, and the
drive up window, I think the details can be worked out with Mark and Kate and Paul as far as the
parking and the traffic and everything else but I strongly would recommend that you would
approve this tonight from the concept of allowing the drive and drive thru window and let the
details be worked out with staff so. Are there questions?
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Herbst? No?
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Dan Herbst: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Lynne Etling: I would like to speak as well.
Mayor Furlong: Please come forward.
Lynne Etling: My name is Lynne Etling and I actually live at 7681 Century Boulevard, and I
just broke your thing. I think I got it. I can’t give as eloquent a speech as he did but I would like
to talk about the proposed change here.
Mayor Furlong: If you could, your address again ma’am.
Lynne Etling: 7681 Century Boulevard.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Lynne Etling: I live within 500 feet of the development.
Mayor Furlong: Great, thank you.
Lynne Etling: And I also spoke as well at the Planning Commission and I’m not going to take
up your time going through everything that they have already discussed here. However, you
know I do want to strongly stress that they are asking for a variance. There is a lot of if, and’s or
but’s. Nothing out here is laid in factual, what they’re planning to do now and as far as what I
can see, was not copied on the letter of approval from whoever supporting it. But when you talk
about you have a business. Obviously it didn’t have a great business plan to begin with. The
people that have been in there have been in and out. The last company that was in there actually
had their children in there all the time so obviously when you have little children running around,
you’re not going to do a great deal of business with your restaurant. It’s not conducive. So as
far as the people that live in that area, I don’t feel that you know I’m sorry but I do feel our
property values are going to go down because of this because everyone is going to go in there.
There’s going to be a lot more traffic. You’re trying to pull traffic from the commuters instead
of the people that live there. There’s a lot of differences to this with what they’re proposing. I
mean a lot of changes to it and frankly they’re trying to put a square peg in a round hole. It just
doesn’t fit. This is not made for a drive thru and the people that are going to go in there are
going to come back out. Go onto the road. Do a U’y. Creating a traffic problem which is the
primary concern for me and then go back out onto Highway 5. So there’s a lot of things here. I
don’t think hardship is proven. My property value has gone down tremendously since when I
purchased my home not even 2 years ago, but you know that’s not taken into account. There’s a
lot of things here that you know I just don’t support it. I don’t want to see your business fail.
However I don’t want my property value to go down even more. I don’t want to have a wreck
when I’m trying to get out of the neighborhood. You’ve got one business compared to I don’t
know how many homes that are there. 500 personal units? You know I don’t want to waste your
time. I think you know that he’s trying to do his best that he can. However I just don’t, I still
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feel that it’s a square peg in a round hole, and unless they take the drive thru out, you know I just
don’t think that it’s feasible.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And if I may question. You talk about U turns. Is that traffic that exits
the entrance on Century Boulevard is right-in/right-out, is that correct?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah.
Lynne Etling: Right. And they’ll come out. It’s not a one way.
Mayor Furlong: There it is. That’s good. So they.
Kate Aanenson: Correct. So you could come back out this way and then try to go up and
around.
Lynne Etling: And that’s what everyone does.
Kate Aanenson: Right.
Lynne Etling: That’s what they do now.
Kate Aanenson: Certainly that would be one of the issues that we’d look at too is controlling
some of that. If you were to consider.
Councilman Litsey: Another thing you could do is like a No U Turn sign there or something.
Kate Aanenson: I think there is one.
Lynne Etling: There is one there now and they just don’t do it.
Kate Aanenson: They still do it.
Councilman Litsey: Is there one there now?
Kate Aanenson: Yes there is. People ignore it.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ve never seen it either.
Mayor Furlong: If I could.
Lynne Etling: Maybe there isn’t, I don’t know. But there should be.
Mayor Furlong: And I think, Ms. Etling, that’s a valid point in terms of traffic flow. Not just
within the development but on the streets surrounding it. If we’re already having problems,
that’s an issue that we should probably be looking at, and I know Mr. Herbst is here and others
and maybe I mean regardless of where we go on this, if this goes forward, at least from tonight
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we’re talking about it and we haven’t even talked about it yet. There have been suggestions that
we look at it from a concept and then get into the details and then bring something back. But to
your point, we could all look at and evaluate.
Lynne Etling: Right.
Mayor Furlong: Because there really isn’t anything here but a concept at this point.
Lynne Etling: Right, and I don’t see a win/win for everyone here yet.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And understand that but I’m wondering if we already are having some
problems with traffic flows, and maybe we are, maybe we aren’t in terms of the U turns there.
People coming out. Going up. Turning back around to get out to Highway 5.
Lynne Etling: In the summer when they do the re-paving, the main thing that you see is the path
for the U turn.
Mayor Furlong: And as I recall this was, we were looking at pedestrian traffic as well as car
traffic and when this development originally went through.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: There were some, there were concerns at that time so.
Lynne Etling: Right, and this would change the platform that you have there. The footprint of
that whole development.
Mayor Furlong: Perhaps from a volume standpoint.
Lynne Etling: Right. Well and you’re attracting metro traffic instead of urban.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah. Okay.
Kate Aanenson: Mayor if I may just make one point, just to be clear on the process here.
They’re asking for a PUD amendment, and the variance was because they didn’t want to provide
the additional parking. I heard Mr. Leutem say that he was willing to meet the standards for that
so the variance would go away. Not to dismiss the other concerns, but then it would just be the
PUD amendment which is a little bit different standard.
Lynne Etling: Right, which would be setting precedent for the.
Kate Aanenson: I don’t disagree with that but I just want to make sure if, he had agreed to put
the parking in. That was what the variance for.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Lynne Etling: May I ask one question that I didn’t think to ask earlier at the Planning
Commission? When you say that you did a study of the drive thru stack lane at the Eden Prairie
location, was that a qualified, certified traffic inspector or was it just an employee?
Kate Aanenson: Yep. Well City Engineer. Assistant City Engineer, correct. Who I believe is
qualified to make…
Lynne Etling: But not a traffic engineer through right?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Lynne Etling: Okay.
Councilman McDonald: Can I ask just one question?
Mayor Furlong: Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Do you feel, if we could solve the traffic problem, does that make this a
little bit more attractive to coming in to the community?
Lynne Etling: Well I would love to have a coffee shop to be honest with you. But I mean 3 sub
shops within you know, what 500-600 feet of each other. I just don’t think that’s a good
business plan.
Councilman McDonald: Well that’s probably up to the individual businesses but my point is,
what I’m hearing is traffic seems to be the biggest problem and if that’s something we were to
concentrate on and improve, whether the business succeeds or not is up to the business. Would
that make it make it more attractive as far as you know coming into the neighborhood itself?
Lynne Etling: As long as it was enforced.
Councilman McDonald: I beg your pardon?
Lynne Etling: As long as it’s enforced. I mean that’s the biggest issue is they’re, you know it’s
out there. It’s mainly for that Arboretum Village and you know I’m sorry if, I’ve been a frequent
visitor of both of them. I have a membership at the Wine Club and I used to go to the restaurants
since I’ve been there too. However I didn’t like the children running around while I was trying
to have a quiet dinner. You know it just wasn’t good business. But to have something like that
going around the whole building and blocking all the individual parking spaces, even if he does
create more, you’ve still got the hazard of trying to have the cars backing in and out while
someone is stacking there. I mean that’s what I’m meaning when I’m saying you’re trying to put
a square peg in a round hole. It’s just you know, no matter how you design it, unless you would,
you know you’d have to totally redo the whole thing. Put the driveway on the other side or
something so you have more stacking lane. I don’t know.
Councilman McDonald: Okay.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Mayor Furlong: Well thank you. I appreciate your comments.
Lynne Etling: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: It’s been helpful. Thank you for your involvement. Is there anyone else who’d
like to come up. Good evening sir.
Brian Monahan: Hi there. My name is Brian Monahan. I’m with Ron Clark Construction. We
are the owners of Lot 1, Block 1. It’s the center north of the gas station.
Mayor Furlong: So I’m sorry. The one you’re highlighting now?
Kate Aanenson: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Just straight north. Okay, thank you.
Brian Monahan: We actually favor this action. We would like to see increased traffic to our
center. Currently we’re at 67% occupied in our center. We’ve been that way for about 2 years.
Naturally if more folks are coming in to the center, then that’s a bigger possibility for not only
our tenants to succeed better as far as our center is concerned, but also the gas station and
whatever tenant they might have. We’ve found that, I’ve been with Ron Clark for 2 years and
for the last 2 years we haven’t had a tenant on the end cap, which we would love to have a coffee
shop as well. But unfortunately everyone wants a drive thru. That’s what we found is that
everyone and a drive thru. While we might be jealous of them being able to get their drive thru,
because then we won’t get our coffee shop, we would also welcome the added traffic that it
would bring to the center. And I know I can speak for several of our tenants. One of them is
here. That they also welcome the possibility of additional traffic to the center. Obviously traffic,
whether it’s pedestrian or just regular folks getting a sub or whatever, attracts more business to
their businesses. A Karate studio for instance. A Pilates class. Edward Jones is in there. It’s a
financial planning company, and then of course the liquor store. I know I can speak for at least
all of them that more traffic is better for us. We feel that it’s possible to work this out, being in
the real estate business ourselves, and also the development and construction business. We can
actually see that there’s a couple of possibilities that might be able to work out if we’re given the
chance to move forward with that. And that’s pretty much our stance. As far as the real estate
values. I think we can all agree that most real estate has kind of gone down from the last
probably 2-3 years. I don’t live anywhere near any of this, which I would actually welcome, but
my house value has gone down as well so. I mean it’s, I think that’s kind of a moot point to be
honest. And the last thing I’ll say is, is that there is actually two entrances. There’s an entrance
and an exit out. Whether folks move out through the entrance or in through the out-trance, or the
out or what have you, you know it’s, I think it’s kind of neither here or there to be honest.
Frankly if the direction of travel, which has been proposed by staff, those folks are more likely to
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drive past the pumps and out the other entrance over there on whatever, West 78 Street. That to
me just seems like a natural. As I’m looking at it, that’s probably the way I would go out.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. One question for you, since you brought up the subject that you
would have been interested in a drive thru.
Brian Monahan: Sure.
Mayor Furlong: If the council were to go forward with the concept this evening, would you be
requesting a drive thru then at some future date for your building as well?
Brian Monahan: Frankly we’ve kind of examined the possibility of a drive thru and we don’t see
a possibility for adding a drive thru, unless you were to build a lane on the back side of the
building. We’re not willing to do that. So the answer would be.
Mayor Furlong: No. Or is the answer no?
Brian Monahan: More than likely no.
Todd Gerhardt: You got an engineering answer.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Monahan? Anyone else
wishing to come up this evening?
Andrew Ronningen: Good evening. My name is Andrew Ronningen. I am the owner of one of
the business, the Fantastic Sams. It’s right in the middle essentially of the Ron Clark building,
and I just wanted to, I wrote a letter but I wanted to really just highlight a couple of points that
are very important. When somebody is driving up towards this center, they see that vacant
building that we’re talking about for the drive thru, and obviously that’s not appealing at all, and
I think that prevents people from coming into the Arboretum Center. And so having a space
there for that reason alone is important. And of course we all know that a lot of businesses like
that, more than half their business comes through the drive thru. It’s just the way we are with
our cars and everything. We’re a convenience, walk-in business and we’re a proven business
model. There are over 1,300 around the country that we’ve grown from 0 to about 80 Fantastic
Sams just in Minnesota in the last 5-6 years. So they very rarely close and our salon is definitely
under performing and we can see, and I can give you examples. I have other salons that I own
and where there is more frequent and relevant traffic, like people coming through and being
there, the salons perform much, much better so we would certainly benefit tremendously from
increased traffic there. And as an owner I’m there you know 7:30 in the morning, noon, 10:30 at
night. Saturday. Sunday’s. All different times and I’ve walked around. I buy my gas at the gas
station and once in a while go down to the wine store. Jimmy John's and so and as a pedestrian
walking around, I’ve never had an issue with traffic. There just isn’t that much traffic there now
so my thought too is, even if there 50 more cars a day, you know I don’t know that anybody
would really notice. Because there is quite a bit of space and I rarely see anybody driving down
in that lower loop anyway. I mean rarely. So I think that the impact is low but we’re, you know
we have 7 people. They’re employed and have a lot of their livelihood based on that business,
and we’d like to hire more and continue that, we’d also like to keep the jobs we have so from our
perspective there too it’s about keeping those jobs and filling up the center that we’re in so that
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
we can be viable and offer great services for the surrounding neighbors because we’re sensitive
to what they need. So I appreciate being able to talk about that.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you sir. Any questions? Very good, thank you. Anyone else this
evening that would like to provide public comment to the council. Yes.
Mark Leutem: Just on the issue of U turns. If people are up there doing U turns, I mean that’s
something I would certainly agree needs to change as well. I don’t want people doing that. I
wouldn’t have any problem with facilitating the direction out of the facility for them to go and
use the other entrance going out to the other road, and it could be quite simple as putting a sign
out there that says you know please exit this direction so I think we could channel traffic that
direction. So that would certainly be an option. I mean another idea could be just re-direct all of
County Road 5 right between the strip mall and my gas station and out there.
Mayor Furlong: Just run the state highway right through.
Mark Leutem: Just run it right through there. Plus put a stop light right in the middle of the
building.
Mayor Furlong: Right by your pumps.
Mark Leutem: Alright, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else?
Lynne Etling: May I have one quick question?
Mayor Furlong: Sure. Absolutely. If you could wait til you get to the microphone please.
Lynne Etling: Sure. In order to make this more feasible to us that live right there on the corner,
if you’re wanting to get increased traffic from the highway, from the commuters, is it possible
for the City to plant more shrubbery, you know evergreens, whatever to buffer the noise that that
would bring?
Mayor Furlong: I think the answer, that was one of the things that was being discussed or laid
out by staff too. If the landscaping plan might change. If this went forward, and I’ll defer to Ms.
Aanenson.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, I think those are all the things that we want to work on. I think just to,
certainly to make sure that there’s less impact.
Lynne Etling: Yeah, because there’s the big track right there that’s directly across that is pretty
barren that alleves all the noise then.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Mayor Furlong: Just so I understand Ms. Etling the, when you talk about doing some additional
landscaping, where on the property would you? Is it along Highway 5? Is it along Century
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Boulevard? It is along West 78?
Lynne Etling: No. Actually along your wetland area there across the street so it would buffer
the people that live there.
Mayor Furlong: Where she’s pointing to right now with the arrow?
Lynne Etling: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. So you’re saying between the business and the homes to the north?
Lynne Etling: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. I think we can take a look at the landscaping plan if we went forward,
and I know that would be a part of it and I appreciate your.
Lynne Etling: Because that’s a wetland area behind me and what trees are there are pretty much
dying and falling down. It’s kind of a big eyesore because they haven’t been taken care of, and
that one area is all barren where trees probably were and they were taken down and nothing was
replanted.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Lynne Etling: So that would help buffer the noise for us that live right there.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Lynne Etling: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you for the additional comments. Anyone else from a public comment
standpoint? No? Thank you for everybody’s thoughts and ideas and suggestions as well. Any
follow-up questions at this point with staff? Maybe they’ll come up as we discuss what’s before
us this evening. If not, is there any thoughts or comments?
Councilman McDonald: The question I’ve got, do we really have something to vote on if
everybody’s willing to go back and talk to staff?
Kate Aanenson: I guess we’d recommend probably tabling it. Right now the 60 days ends
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November 18 so I’d probably ask for an additional 60 days.
Mayor Furlong: Is that a request or is that an automatic? It doesn’t sound it like’s going to be a
problem.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Kate Aanenson: It’s automatic. Just to put them on notice that we’d be taking the extra 60 days
and that we try to work through a design but again, in good faith with the applicant, if the council
didn’t even want to go there, we didn’t want to pursue a lot of that interest.
Mayor Furlong: I guess what I’m hearing is that if it’s something from a concept standpoint that
we’re willing to support, and therefore would require time and effort on the part of staff as well
as the property owners, the applicants, stuff like that, we could give them that direction this
evening. Along with what sort of parameters we would like to see in that so they’re not just
working blind but as much direction as we could give them. If it’s the council’s desire not to go
forward here this evening, then I think that’s also direction that we’d want to give this evening.
So that everybody knows and so it’s, you know it doesn’t drag on. Those would be my thoughts
from what I’m hearing tonight and obviously I’m always open to listening what the rest of you
think and I don’t have all the answers. Most of them but not all of them. And I’ll let you know
which ones I have the answers to by the way so. So Councilman McDonald I think that to clarify
I think what’s before us tonight, I don’t think we have enough tonight to approve something
specifically. I think that was adequately raised, but more in front of us tonight is, is it a concept
that we think makes sense for people to spend time on, that we’d be supportive of if certain
parameters were met.
Councilman McDonald: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: In regards to setting a precedent. I know that was one of the
concerns the Planning Commission had for other planned unit developments or developments.
What are we setting ourself up for, or not setting ourself up for?
Kate Aanenson: Well I think the applicant, I’ll just point out one thing. The applicant did point
out the size. This is a smaller square footage area so we can quantify some of that. Because it
wouldn’t fit for a lot of the other fast food users, like McDonalds and some of that because we
limit, we’d cap the square footage of that, that could absorb this type of use and I’ll let the City
Attorney address some other.
Roger Knutson: Mayor, members of the council. I think with careful drafting, that shouldn’t be
a real concern. I think we can limit it to this, what we have here.
Mayor Furlong: Other thoughts or comments?
Councilman McDonald: Well I had a couple other thoughts and everything to me. I’m in favor
of going forward. Anytime someone will come up and say they’re willing to work with staff,
I’m willing to listen. The other thing about the traffic though, I know down at Galpin this has
come up before. It’s a similar situation where you’re coming out a Snyder Drug down there and
people are making U turns, and I know that it’s been addressed before and I’m not sure there’s a
lot we can do about it. I don’t know what you can do about the U turns, and I guess at this point
I would maybe want to consider that as something outside of the application here. It’s something
I would definitely encourage staff to look at, but I don’t think we found a solution for Galpin yet,
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
and I’m not sure we’re going to find a solution for this one, and I wouldn’t necessarily want to
tie that in to whether or not this project goes forward.
Councilman Litsey: Yeah, I think any time you have a layout like this coming off a main
thoroughway, and then you’re going to come in and then the tendency is to want to cut corners to
get back out again. I was glad you didn’t say aggressive enforcement because I don’t think, well
they have the staffing to promise that but.
Kate Aanenson: Well I think some of that can be addressed if we look at the traffic being
generated. The directional. I think one of the issues that you have is just traffic as a whole so I
think one of, the resident raised the issue regarding doing a better traffic study. What direction is
that traffic coming and going. What are the peak hours of the use of the business and how that
relates too so I think we can try to manage it from there, and then get some recommendations
from the City Engineer.
Councilman Litsey: Yeah, I think if you could do it from an engineering standpoint, but the one
that comes to mind for me is the Cub Foods in Shorewood, right across from Chan but you know
there’s a no right turn there but I’ll tell you, everybody makes. I mean so signs are pretty. I
mean if you can do it through engineering it’s a whole lot better.
Kate Aanenson: Right. Yep.
Mayor Furlong: And I guess to comment, in that particular development, the Cub Foods
development, originally they didn’t allow any egress out of the parking lot by the hardware store
but everybody did it anyway so they ended up building the road to accommodate what people
were doing. I’m not arguing that in this case. I think you know people will find, if you don’t
have a right turn lane on a busy road, they’ll drive on the shoulder to get around cars and go. I
think from a traffic standpoint the two issues here are, one, what’s the traffic internal to this
development if we were to go forward with this. What would be the traffic flow there, and how
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could we try to direct flow up to West 78 Street to exit as opposed to coming out on Century
Boulevard. You raise a good point Councilman McDonald about the Galpin and 5 where the
Kwik Trip and the CVS is. As I recall that CVS drive thru empties out going back to Galpin.
Councilman McDonald: Right.
Mayor Furlong: Here at least we’ve got traffic going the other way so there may be some
accommodations there, but I think the key is, what can we do within the development and still
make it something that people are going to follow because even if you create all sorts of things,
you know you can only do so much. But I think traffic flow is clearly an issue that we want to
look at here. Any other thoughts or comments on this at this point? No? Councilwoman
Tjornhom, your thoughts.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: No. Oh I’m sorry.
Councilwoman Ernst: No, go ahead.
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I think it’s something very worthy to be looking at. If it’s, you know
my only concern was the pedestrian traffic crossing over into the drive thru traffic and it sounds
like you and the applicant can work together with that and I’m all in favor of any business being
successful and having patrons come to it in Chanhassen, especially at that front space that does
seem to so far not found a niche yet or something and so I wish you the best of luck and I look
forward to working with you. With this project.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: I too would be in favor of the concept and obviously we’ve had some
tenants here tonight that have expressed being in favor of the business, of the drive thru and we
also had a resident come in and express some concerns and it sounds like we have some possible
solutions for the landscaping piece. And the fact that staff and the applicant can work together to
come to a solution hopefully on the traffic flow and so I would be in favor of the concept. And
moving forward.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Councilman Litsey. Thoughts.
Councilman Litsey: No. I think they’ve been well stated. I think looking for some ways to
direct traffic flow, other than, I mean signage helps but you know people are going to go the way
they want regardless of that so you’re going to have come up with something a little better than
that. And respecting the residents, I think putting up some additional buffers there is reasonable
and I think the rest is pretty well in hand. If we don’t, you know if we’re not setting precedent. I
think I said that right. I never say that word right but you know then we can do that legally, then
I think we’re probably kind of getting there.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. I think one of the other roles that the 5 of us have is that of
the Economic Development Authority, and while often that’s an entity that’s created for separate
legal entity from the City for financing purposes. I always look at it as really one of our goals as
a council is to promote and enhance our local economy. That’s good for our businesses. It’s
good for our residents as well, and clearly I think in this development it has not achieved the
potential and what many people hoped for and expected in terms of economic success. And here
we have an opportunity perhaps to enhance that and do it in a way without setting precedent but
at the same time do it in a way that makes some sense. So I would support the concept of going
forward. I think from thoughts and comments I would tend to side towards staff’s proposed
design as opposed to what was presented before and I guess some examples I’ll use is trying to
separate, and here you may not be able to separate the pedestrians walking across the parking lot
and through there, but perhaps with some median or something like that and a controlled
crossing, or some signage you can do that. I think of the McDonald’s in Excelsior where the
drive thru comes right through the middle of the parking lot, and that is, it’s a mess. It’s a mess.
Compared to the McDonald’s in Chanhassen where the drive thru wraps around the perimeter
and it’s separated. Here we may not have that benefit of separation but I think through some of
the designs that staff was looking at to try to mitigate some of that conflict, I think helps. So I
think my tendency would be let’s work with some of the outlines that staff has put together. You
know from, is 6 cars, is 5 stacking and I think we can be flexible there. I think we need more
than the 2 in some of the other situations so I think we can be a little flexible there. If we’ve got
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
some constraints here, I think 6 is a good standard overall for new development. Here we’re
trying to retrofit and so there may be some other constraints that we have to work in. So perhaps
a little flexibility. I know it’s not significant but perhaps moving a window can help reduce the
amount of the drive thru lane and still get you your 6 cars and so looking for those
accommodations. The other thing I would talk about, and I know Mr. Etling brought up the idea
of landscaping. I want to make sure we don’t leave false impressions here. That we’re going to
be landscaping across or requiring landscaping outside the property. I mean there’s some
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limitations we have too. If we’re looking at landscaping on the north side of West 78, and there
are two parcels inbetween so I think that’s something we can look at, so I don’t want to leave
with false impressions that we’re going to be doing that, but I think we need to look at that. See
what can be accommodated with this to try to find some solutions, and we talked about traffic
already. And you know I think there’s some, what it sounds like, people smarter than I in terms
of traffic flow, there are some ways to try to improve the traffic flow just naturally as well as
with some other means so. But just from a standpoint of trying to assist the property owners and
the local businesses there to be more successful, I think it’s worthwhile for us moving forward,
especially with the guidance we have this evening. Mr. Knutson, who I always rely on, that it
can be done in a way so it’s relatively specific. I think we’ve got size issues. I think you know
the fact that Century Boulevard is not a major through street. It’s effectively, it drives up and
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then stops at West 78 and then is a local residential street after that, unlike a lot of other
neighborhood business areas where there’s actually a crossing of major through streets, and I’m
not going to start talking about minor and major arterials because I’ll screw that up, but the
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bottom line is, is when Century Boulevard reaches West 78 going north of there, that’s a
residential neighborhood. That’s a residential street and so there are some unique features from I
think, in terms of these properties, from a traffic road design and it’s location that’s unlike some
of the other areas as I’m thinking through business neighborhood areas. That also I think gives
us some comfort that maybe we need to do a little bit more here to enhance economic success
from that standpoint. So those are my thoughts. I think the council seems to be generally unison
in supporting the concept, and if other people have some thoughts, I don’t know if they’ve
thought of since. Otherwise would it make sense to take a motion to table with the direction to
bring it back as soon as possible but not set a specific meeting date knowing that there’s some
work to be done between now. Is that acceptable sir?
Mark Leutem: Yes sir.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any other comments or would somebody like to make such a
motion?
Councilman McDonald: I’ll make a motion that we table this issue that is before us and allow
staff and the applicant to work together and bring us back a detailed plan that we can evaluate.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Is there any discussion or is there a second?
Councilman Litsey: I’ll second that.
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Litsey seconds it. Any discussion on that? Very good. Thank
you. I will just make the comment. Thank you everybody for your comments and input and we
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City Council Meeting - November 10, 2008
will get more detail back so I know for those that are concerned about what’s coming forward,
there will be that opportunity and that will come to a future council meeting. It will stay at the
council level and come back to a future council meeting. We’ll bring it on unfinished business at
some point so that will be available. And if anybody’s interested in being notified of that, why
don’t you make sure you get your name and address and mailing information to Ms. Aanenson
so you can be sure be notified. Any other discussion? If not, motion’s been made and seconded.
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Litsey seconded that the City Council table the
request for a minor PUD amendment to allow a drive thru and site plan review with
variances for Lot 2, Block 1, Arboretum Shopping Center to allow the applicant and staff
time to prepare a more detailed plan. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: Without objection there’s, we’ll take a 5 minute recess, recess about 5 minutes
subject to the call of the Chair here noticing the time.
The City Council took a short recess at this point in the meeting.
Mayor Furlong: Let’s call the council back to order and what I’d like to do, and propose to the
council is some adjustments to our agenda this evening, given the hour of the evening. What
we’d like to do, we have a gentleman here to talk to us, along with our staff, for item 4(a). I
think we’d like to do that tonight. We’ll defer item 4(b), since that again is a presentation.
Neither of those items are action items by the council, so we’ll defer item 4(b) to a future
meeting. Go ahead with item 5 and then following our meeting this evening, our work session
items, we’ll complete items B, which relate to the budget presentations, and then defer item C
under our work to a future work session. So if the council is okay with that. If there are no
objections. Does that make sense? It’s just that it’s getting a little late and some of these items
aren’t time pressing so I’d rather take them when we’re all fresh. Is everyone okay with that?
Why don’t we go ahead and proceed with that.
WEST-CENTRAL LOTUS LAKE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT 08-02: UPDATE
COUNCIL ON FEASIBILITY STUDY.
Terry Jeffery: Mayor Furlong, council members. In 2005 I think you remember we had the
Triple Crown Estate pond, sometimes the Meadow Green Park ponds, there was a failure when
we had back to back storms in 2005. In 2007 we went out for a proposal to do a feasibility
study, to look at the larger, what we refer to as the West Central Lotus Lake Watershed. Todd
Hubmer when he shows his presentation will have, you’ll see that area as we’re talking about. In
February, upon staff’s recommendation, council did approval feasibility study with WSB and
Associates to look at the larger West Central Lotus Lake area and the specific issues we have in
there. WSB has come back with a feasibility study which we would like to present the findings
to you tonight. In essence it breaks it down. Looks at it as three separate phases over a series of
years that would address the overall issues. There are a number of different, what they’re
referring to as options. I would think of them more as components within an overall solution to
the problem, which can be done with some flexibility when they are, but again Todd Hubmer is
here from WSB and Associates. I’ll let him present to you the findings. We would like to look
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