CC Minutes 02-08-10
Chanhassen City Council – February 8, 2010
lot of work ahead of us but I think from a safety standpoint for the 8 people in the area, as well as
for those that use the road, I think it makes sense to move forward at this time. Any other
thoughts or comments at this point? If not, is there a motion from the council. Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll do the motion. I’ll make a motion that the City Council authorize
the preparation of plans and specifications for the Audubon Road reconstruction Project #10-02.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Sufficient? Is there a second?
Councilman Litsey: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion?
Resolution #2010-12: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Litsey seconded that the
Chanhassen City Council authorize the preparation of plans and specifications for the
Audubon Road Reconstruction Project No. 10-02. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: That motion does prevail. Again thank you everyone. We appreciate it and we
certainly encourage you to stay involved because this process will continue forward. Let’s just,
now seeing the hour, we have one item left on our agenda. Let’s take a very short recess…so 3
minutes? 2 minutes? 3 minutes if that’s okay. Subject to the call of the Chair. Thank you.
The City Council took a short recess at this point in the meeting, subject to the call of the
Chair.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER 20 OF CITY CODE:
REZONING CERTAIN DOWNTOWN PROPERTIES.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. Earlier tonight you acted on
a, kind of a secondary part of the rezonings and that was the three PUD amendments, and I’m
going to put some context to how those relate to the rest of the rezonings that we’ll be visiting
tonight. As you recall as part of the comprehensive plan, one of the steps that we took was doing
the market analysis prepared by the McCombs Group. We took that information and we looked
at additional commercial retail opportunities in the city so as we updated the comprehensive plan
and we got feedback from those, for the community meetings, we recognized that we wanted to
dual guide the area south of Lyman along the Powers Boulevard, 212 interchange. In addition to
that we most recently changed and provided for another new zoning district, the Community
Commercial district so since the comprehensive plan we’ve, as required by the process, we have
created two new zoning districts. The Community Commercial zoning district and the regional
commercial zoning district. As a part of that we also wanted to increase the commercial
component downtown to make sure that that still becomes a vibrant area if we do the regional
commercial zoning district. So with that these are the commercial zoning districts we have
downtown. As I stated earlier the IOP, which is the Industrial Office Park, or the Community
Commercial is shown in that light green. And these are the, this is kind of the current fabric that
we have right now in the downtown. The Central Business District, red is the highest zoning
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district that we have in the city and provides the most flexibility. The PUD we’ve applied where
we wanted to limit some of the uses. The PUD’s that we adopted earlier tonight would be kind
of in the mark, I’ll show you in a little more detail but kind of the Target and Market Square
pieces have, would just change that to be a Central Business District. But the hierarchy that we
have right now would be the BN district which is the lowest type of commercial. The Business
Highway which provides for auto related. The Central Business District and then the BG and
there’s really only one active BG and that’s the IRET property which is actually Byerly’s, Office
Max all under one ownership and that’s the only parcel that we had in BG. The other piece that
we have in BG is actually a storm water pond. So the application for usability there is really
non-existent so what the goal there was is to take all of this core area, so some of the PUD’s that
you looked at tonight, what we did is made them the underlying zoning district consistent within
those PUD’s. Now we left the PUD on there because in some circumstances we’ve limited the
types of uses that go in there but the flexibility that we provide is to allow for greater intensity.
For example if you were to look at the Target parking lot, there is some space in that parking lot,
maybe on, just in the drive that comes in opposite of where the Taco Bell and that, there is an
opportunity, as there is on the front of the Byerly’s property, opportunities for some other free
standing, and both of those parcels would be interested in doing it when the market becomes
available so providing that intensity creates that more opportunities in downtown. Again that’s
whether we want to, where we’ve already made the investment for infrastructure to capitalize on
that. So the ones that you changed earlier today, besides the Target area and Market Square
would be also the West One property, which you just recently changed the zoning so those all
have the underlying zoning district. Now again the West One, that PUD does allow what’s going
on there is some light manufacturing but the PUD limits how that can be used so it’s, it fits very
well in the rest of the neighborhood.
Mayor Furlong: Ms. Aanenson if I could interrupt. On this picture that we’re looking at right
here. The Central Business District is generally zoning that way. There are no PUD’s there?
That’s just an ordinance level of zoning?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, so the current Central Business District that’s not the light, that’s the dark
red. That would be currently where the Dinner Theater and all that is so, yeah.
th
Mayor Furlong: Right. And the PUD areas at least south of West 78, or they’re PUD’s and
have some specific rights associated with them for a PUD. The underlying zoning there now has
been changed also to the Central Business District.
Kate Aanenson: That is stated very correctly. Yep, good way to put it. And the thing that we
did also change in there, we have made some ordinance amendments so by doing this now we’re
going back and working with the City Attorney’s office. Kind of saying what do we do to make
sure that they’re consistent. We have a number of these we’re meeting throughout the
community. We share with the Planning Commission. The ones that we have, we have about 13
of them so for example we allow LED lights so these were locked in that they wouldn’t allow the
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PUD lights so by changing that we’re saying anything that we change underneath that zoning
district, it’s consistent with the Central Business District and that was where it made on parking
standards. For example we now let electronic messages, message centers which these PUD’s
wouldn’t allow. We want them also to be able to enjoy those opportunities. So you can see the
one pond there, that is also guided General Business. That pond, I can’t point to it but it’s right
below the, right coming off of Highway 5 and Market Boulevard. That pond. So by taking that
out of General Business we’re recommending an Agricultural District because that also takes it
out of the opportunity and that kind of shows up when you have that BG. It will take out of
when we look at how much land area do we have in that zoning district. It’s not usable so we
don’t want to calculate it as potential developable. Also I think sometimes when people are
looking at available property they see that and interestingly enough we have had requests
sometimes to try to fill those ponds because… Unfortunately we can’t always relocate our storm
water ponds to handle that, manage that capacity but the City Manager can attest that we have
had requests to that fact. So really what we’re looking at the specific changes to the PUD then to
be consistent, I mean the General Business. We’re eliminating that as a zoning district so we’ll
just have the Business Highway, again which is important. That’s more the auto related. Central
Business District and then we created the new Community Commercial so that will be going
away so again just clarifying how those work out. At the Planning Commission meeting, when
they met, the significant property owners were at that meeting and did speak in favor of the
rezoning. That they had met with us. We did have a year ago, last fall. Last summer, excuse
me. Last summer we did meet with all the property owners. Business community. We had an
open house at the library and then we contacted them again before this meeting and they came
and testified that they were in support of this. So again the intent of the General Business was
for downtown. It was kind of, it really wasn’t applied very well so I think taking that away and
allowing for more intensity in the downtown development, and more flexibility in types of uses
is a great opportunity to capitalize on our downtown. And than again as I said the Central
Business District is the most robust. It does allow for residential too. We don’t see that
opportunity based on the values that are downtown. If somebody wanted to do that on the
second floor, we do allow that. That may be something in the kind of, if you look over maybe on
the Dinner Theater site as a potential for something like that. That that does allow a residential
in there but I think some of the other ones, the Planning Commission had some of those
questions would that happen. I don’t see that on a large scale. I think there’s enough value in
there so with that, this is just a quick comparison of the two just to see. And included in your
packet we did a more detail so what it really allows for is there’s no green requirement. You can
maximize the hard cover and that really gives you the most opportunity to maximize that
property. In looking at some of the shared parking, we talked to the Planning Commission about
this too at the Target, even at the Byerly’s center they did put the Bachman’s out this summer so
they’re kind of testing that market too and trying to again capitalize on the trade that’s already
going there and just kind of take it into the next and finding a use that would fit in there and do
those shared parking and making that work, because that was their concern. Do we have enough
parking? Well obviously both those uses have peak times which typically are around the
holidays but we certainly believe depending on the mix of uses that we would look at that, that
there’s an opportunity to share parking. So again and we’re going to take those ponds and make
them agricultural as I stated there’s no sense in including them as available land when people are
looking so we’ll go back and make those agricultural because they’re really unbuildable so.
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With that we’re recommending. It’s a lengthy motion but there’s actually three different. Three
different motions.
Mayor Furlong: Oh absolutely. We’ll probably consider the recommended motion as our
motion.
Kate Aanenson: I just want to say our residents really had positive feedback. The business
community had really positive feedback from it too so we hope when we, with the uptick in the
economy that we’ll see some activity in the downtown.
Mayor Furlong: Very good. Questions for staff. Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Just a quick question Kate. When we talk about the businesses that exist
today and we’re talking about rezoning, are they, can they, did I hear you say that they could go
back and make some modifications?
Kate Aanenson: You brought up a point that I should have emphasized. One of the concerns at
the Planning Commission, were we making anybody non-conforming? No. Nobody’s going to
be non-conforming. That was one concern and that goes back to even to West One where
they’re doing some light manufacturing in that PUD. There’s specific language on how that was
to be worked and so that still is consistent but it does allow them because they don’t have to
maintain a green space if that, they can develop more intensely. The area behind Target where
there’s trees, the City owns those trees around that but I think other than that there’s
opportunities then to further intensify on development. If that.
Councilwoman Ernst: Yes. Thank you.
Kate Aanenson: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions right now? Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: As you’ve gone through this plan and handed it out and you know kind
of reviewed it, you mentioned that the landowners have commented on it. Has anything been
done as far as, I mean the Central Business District has been a big deal with the Chamber as to
where it’s going to be located and we’ve gone back and forth. Have you gotten a lot of input
from them as to what the impact of this could be as far as economic development within
Chanhassen?
Kate Aanenson: You know the feedback that we got from the neighbors, when we had the
downtown meeting is, and certainly the City Engineer is aware of this. It’s just some of the
turning movements coming out of some of the businesses. For example I think you’re aware
when you come out of Market Street Station, some of those turn movements are difficult which
is really important that we’re bringing with the park and ride to bring that through. And there’s
an opportunity to strengthen that. That whole area there and continue that core. I think we’ve
worked really hard to connect on the south side. You can go between even the Market Square.
Getting off of, going over to Target so we’re working really hard to connect all those and we did
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th
the same thing on the north side with Byerly’s. That you don’t have to get back on West 78 to
connect all those and that’s something we want to continue and that’s I think what they see too is
an opportunity to make it easy to move between the different uses. I think when we look at the
Community Commercial, as you’re aware, when we talked about that, if going across now kitty
corner to Powers, that we have to look at what those uses are and how the traffic can be managed
at that intersection too because that was another concern coming out onto Powers there.
Depending what that use is. When we talked about maybe a mini, what it was a lumber kind of
place or even a large sporting goods, can the traffic meet that so we’d have to, that was one of
the questions that you said if something comes in they need to demonstrate that that fits. But the
goal again is to get more trips downtown and kind of create more energy there. Does that answer
your question?
Councilman McDonald: Well yeah and I guess, I don’t know kind of what I’m looking for, I
mean I’ve been to a couple meetings and this has all been discussed as to what we’re going to do
in the Central Business District and there’s been a lot of talk about well we’re kind of limited and
right now the way it’s set up, you can’t put a lot of new businesses in and one of the things that
we’ve been talking about is to be able to do, you know the intensifying and as I understand that’s
what these ordinances do and I’m just wondering are you getting any kind of positive feedback
or support that yeah, this is the kind of stuff we need to do?
Kate Aanenson: Yes we are. Yes we are. IRET is very excited about the opportunity to do
some additional development there. Certainly we’ve talked about with the Dinner Theater site
there’s additional redevelopment opportunities there, and as we talked about earlier in the work
session kind of looking at these ordinances certainly we’ll be visiting the Central Business
District and making sure that you know, that anything in there, the uses that we may want to
encourage or just kind of revisit that so we’ll be looking at those too. But there is opportunities
even in that Community Commercial piece that some of those buildings are vacant and we’re
talking to people right now and those buildings are looking for some opportunities there but
again it’s to get those trips downtown. That’s the goal that we can all benefit from those and
spin off each other. Certainly even at the Market Street station site where we’ve got the Jimmy
John's, the Kraus Anderson building, certainly they’d like to see some more traffic down there
too and I think that will come too with the redevelopment of the Dinner Theater. Or the park and
ride, excuse me.
Mayor Furlong: Ms. Hokkanen if you wanted.
Laurie Hokkanen: We talked about these changes at our last local business council meeting and
Vernelle Clayton is the current chair of the Business Council and she talked to both Todd and
Kate and between the two of us kind of gave an update and the Council is very positive that
we’re taking this step.
Councilman McDonald: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions? We talk about intensification from impervious surface area.
Is the existing stormwater management system, maybe this is a question for the engineer. If the
current.
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Councilwoman Tjornhom: He’s exhausted.
Mayor Furlong: You were off camera so nobody saw you…Maybe now they know. The current
stormwater management system in the downtown area is going to be sufficient to handle this
intensification. If it does occur from a hard surface coverage, and perhaps there may not be any
intensification if you’re converting a parking lot to a building.
Paul Oehme: Right, exactly. For example the new parking ramp that’s going in there, that’s
very little new impervious is going in there because it’s all already paved so.
Mayor Furlong: Right.
Paul Oehme: There is, in some areas that we’re going to be looking at for stormwater
management and maybe a little intensification or some other improvements but overall I think
it’s an okay system that we have down there. We need to look at you know other opportunities
to at least slow down the water in this area but I think when developments come in, we can look
at it on a case by case basis.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good.
Kate Aanenson: I think as, to kind of go off, I think a lot of, some of those are already hard
cover. Existing parking lots that are not being over used and I think we’re looking at that shared
parking sort of situation which we’ve done over on the PUD that’s actually Villages on the Pond
which seems to work pretty well for some of that peak on St. Hubert’s. Sharing that parking off
peak so.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright, any other questions? Thoughts and comments. Councilwoman
Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: You know this has been kind of in the works for quite a while. I
think we talked about it and thoroughly done our due diligence in making sure that we’re doing
the right thing and I feel confident that we are.
Mayor Furlong: Very good. Anything else? I’m sorry…
Councilman McDonald: Well I was just going to say. I guess the thing I’m glad to hear is that
you know there has been involvement. One of the things that I would be very hesitant about
supporting this if this were being driven solely by the city staff and that’s why I was asking the
questions because I want to make sure that you know business has an opportunity to say
something about this because it’s going to directly impact them and I think you know some of
the things it takes to run a business, you know the City doesn’t always understand all these things
so that’s why I’m glad to hear that you’re getting good feedback because I feel much more
confident that the things we’re doing are going to work because you know we’re all kind of
behind this.
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Mayor Furlong: Yeah, thank you. I want to thank staff too for the time and effort that they’ve
done, not only working with the chamber but with the other businesses and business owners as
well. I mean this is, to Councilwoman Tjornhom’s point. This has been an evolving process and
as another outgrowth of the work, a lot of the good work that they did earlier with the
comprehensive plan and looking at supporting the downtown and improving the local economy
and so I think that this is just, it is an evolution. It’s another step in the right direction but I think
it’s a positive one in terms of strengthening our local economy so thank you to everyone
involved and for your good work and working with the local businesses.
Kate Aanenson: Before you make a motion I just want to point out again so there’s probably 13.
You’re seeing, we did the commercial ones first because that’s kind of where we’ve emphasized
with the comp plan and tied into the fact that we created those two new zoning districts but we
will be working with the rest of the properties that have PUD’s. We do have a meeting set up
with Eckankar and their attorneys and, so they’re kind of excited to hear what we’re doing and
work through that. And then we’ll be taking some of the other businesses or the other PUD’s.
Some of them are industrial parks and again being, so it’s an opportunity for us to meet with
them and see what issues they may have and then also we’ll be bringing those back to you.
Mayor Furlong: Great. Very good. We’ll look forward to it. Somebody like to read the motion
or just recommend the proposed motion? Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes, I’d like to make a motion the council approves the current
recommendation.
Councilwoman Ernst: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Very well put. And that second came in pretty quick too so. Made and
seconded. Any discussion on the motion?
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded that the City Council
approves the rezoning of properties from General Business District (BG) to Central Business
nd
District (CBD) on property located on Lot 4, Block 1, West Village Heights 2 Addition and
rd
Lots 1, 2 and 3, Block 1, West Village Heights 3 Addition; rezoning from General Business
District (BG) to Agricultural Estate District (A2) on property located on Outlot A, Crossroads
Plaza Addition; and rezoning from Highway and Business Services District (BH) to
Agricultural Estate District (A2) on property located on Outlot B, Crossroads Plaza Addition
and Lot 3, Block 2, Frontier Development Park; and adopts the Planning Commission’s
Findings of Fact. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to
0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS:
Councilwoman Ernst: I’d just like to make.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst.
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