CC Minutes 09-13-2010Chanhassen City Council - September 13, 2010
Councilwoman Ernst: I make a motion that we adopt the assessment roll for the City project 10-
05 Medical Arts and Colonial Square Parking Lot Rehabilitation.
Paul Oehme: And can I add to that, and include.
Councilwoman Ernst: And approve the attached Public Improvement and Special Assessment
Agreement. Is that what you wanted to add Paul?
Paul Oehme: That’s correct. Thank you very much.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Is there a second?
Councilman Litsey: I’ll second that.
Resolution #2010-79A: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Litsey seconded that the
City Council adopts the assessment roll for City Project 10-05, Medical Arts and Colonial
Square Parking Lot Rehabilitation and approves the attached Public Improvement and
Special Assessment Agreement. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously
with a vote of 3 to 0.
Resolution #2010-79B: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Litsey seconded that the
City Council accepts the bids and awards the contract for the Medical Arts and Colonial
Square Parking Lot Rehabilitation Project 10-05 to Bituminous Roadways in the amount
of $236,820.50. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 3 to 0.
COMMON CENTS AUTO: REQUEST TO AMEND CONDITTIONAL USE PERMIT
97-04 TO INCLUDE THE CONTIGUOUS PROPERTY TO THE WEST OF 615 FLYING
CLOUD DRIVE TO PERMIT PARKING OF USED VEHICLES; APPLICANT: CARL
“DUFF” HANSON.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. This item is located at 615
Flying Cloud Drive so it’s down kind of the bottom of the Y there. This property is zoned
Business Fringe. The Business Fringe district is put in place to allow reasonable use of the
property while we don’t have urban services. Some of the other uses down there, we have the
dog kennels. We have the miniature golf, driving range down there so these, the intent of the
Business Fringe district is to allow services that don’t need necessarily sewer and water but gives
reasonable use of the property so having stated that there are some permitted use. The
agricultural uses but there are conditional uses and then some interim uses. Again the
conditional use would be at a time, such time that sewer and water becomes available we
anticipate that a higher and better use will come on the property. So this property has some
history to it. There’s two properties that are involved. There is a conditional use on Parcel A
and this application is requesting to extend it over to Parcel B. Parcel A was a gas station and
Parcel B was actually a drive thru restaurant. So currently Parcel A has the conditional use for
auto sales and the request then is to actually move some of those auto sales onto Parcel B. So
this would allow for individuals to bring their cars there to this parcel and have the owner, the
applicant to kind of supervise what’s happening on that site so he would allow people to go to
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Chanhassen City Council - September 13, 2010
that site. Lease a space. Pay him a fee and then they could advertise their vehicles for sale. So
in discussing this with the Planning Commission and putting together the application, again the
bottom of the Y, we wanted to make sure that it’s a clean site. That it’s not an eyesore.
Currently the car lot itself is being, is organized in the fact that it’s striped and there’s some
semblance of order. How you come in and how you go out of the site so we just wanted to make
sure there wasn’t haphazard locations. There’s currently two access off of Flying Cloud Drive,
County Road 61. You can see Access 2, 3 and 4 so one of the applications you can see in white
there it says block the access, so that would be closed off so you’re trying to control the turning
movements in there. People going in to look at cars. Driving by and seeing something they’re
interested and pulling in. Again the control that we felt comfortable with is that there’s an owner
on Parcel A so people aren’t just leaving vehicles there. He has the right to tow something or
remove something that wouldn’t necessarily be allowed there so a couple concerns that we had is
we wanted to see how the parking lot was going to be laid out so it just wasn’t haphazard and an
eyesore and that there was some control. Access to the site and it’s an ongoing kind of
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inspection. The Planning Commission heard this item on their August 17 meeting and they had
some of the same concerns about you know just making sure it’s being operated properly as
stated. We don’t typically allow people just to throw cars on a lot. Because there was a control
point with somebody next door we felt comfortable with that. It does provide a service. They
also wanted to see that the parking lot be striped in such a way that it appears more, a semblance
of order. Not just something to drive in and leave your vehicle and so we asked the applicant to
stripe the parking lot. This shows, I think he had requested over 100 so the Planning
Commission felt like that may be too many. Kind of wanted to monitor that and asked the staff
to go down and make annual inspections of that, and just so people can get around in there
because not only is the parking lot being full. You also have people come to look at vehicles and
they need a place to park to get in and out and they’re going to probably want to test drive it or
pull or it’s kind of look at that sort of thing so they wanted to make sure that kind of take it in
piecemeal basis. Bring a percentage on there. See how that’s working. How it’s operating and
then certainly you know follow up with staff inspecting it. But having said that, making those
changes, the applicant did supply this striped parking lot. We did go by today. It’s not striped
yet. We want to make sure that happens yet this fall. There are some things coming on there.
We want to make sure that they are again put in an area that would in a way on the property in
such a way that it doesn’t detract from that area. That it’s an asset. Again that doesn’t just look
haphazard and I think that certainly can be accomplished by the applicant. So having said that
the Planning Commission did recommend approval of the application so this, what this is doing
is reinstating the conditional use permit and amending it to the other piece. Moving it on Parcel
A moving it over to Parcel B. So they did recommend approval of that with the changes in the
staff report with the conditions of approval and the recommendations, excuse me. The Findings
of Fact and the recommendations. So with that I’d be happy to answer any questions that you
have.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for staff.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I have just one question regarding signage. Was that an issue at the
Planning Commission?
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Chanhassen City Council - September 13, 2010
Kate Aanenson: Yeah. There are some additional signs down there right now too so it does
need to comply to the sign ordinance and I think that was one of the issues. Some of those
control points that they want to make sure there was inspections on so it didn’t become, that kind
of an eyesore so I noticed there was a few additional ones down there now so we’ll work with
the applicant on that.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions. Ms. Aanenson with regard to, this is amending a pre-existing
conditional use correct?
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: So they already have the right to conduct this activity on Parcel A.
Kate Aanenson: Correct. Correct.
Mayor Furlong: And they’re looking to extend it over to B. Is there any limit in terms of the
number of vehicles that could be included?
Kate Aanenson: Yes. Yes. Yes.
Mayor Furlong: I thought I saw it but I don’t see it right now.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, it’s 75. Currently he has 20-30 striped. You can see some of them are in
the drive aisles. That’s an older picture so I don’t want you to go by that. So what we had the
applicant do is lay out a striping plan. Now there’s things bigger than cars down there. It could
be a boat. It could be an RV. It could be a, so it’s all predicated on how that works. There are
some stalls in there that don’t work because you can’t back out so the main goal, and I think the
Planning Commission felt too that they wanted it to be, to look like a true sales lot. If you go
back to the other slide, this property, the property across the street are both being operated as a
used car lot. This is a little bit different. He’s allowing people to bring their own vehicle and
lease the space to sell it for their own so there’s a control point with the owner but there’s a little
bit more freedom there so it’s just controlling to make sure that people are putting the vehicles
back or parking in such a way that there’s a semblance of. We have a contact person if there’s a
problem which is a good thing too.
Mayor Furlong: And the 75 vehicles, is that in the earlier conditional use?
Kate Aanenson: It was the amended part. I think it should be underlined in the staff report. Oh
excuse me, it was 75% of the stalls are impacted and I think that what we did is we counted.
Mayor Furlong: That’s when you open up that curb.
Kate Aanenson: Yep. Yep and so we originally had tried to put some numbers in there so we
think on the Parcel A it was 25 cars and so instead of putting the 50 in there we said let’s see
what works on the site and so we tried to say once it gets to 75% we wanted an access point
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Chanhassen City Council - September 13, 2010
between the existing parking lot and then, so the people can go between the two for better
circulation, and for control mechanism.
Mayor Furlong: And I saw that but that only works with the access and opening that up.
Kate Aanenson: Right. Right.
Mayor Furlong: In terms of total number of cars.
Kate Aanenson: No.
Mayor Furlong: There’s no limitation on that?
Kate Aanenson: No, it’s based on this site plan, and I’m not sure I’ve got the exact count on
there but.
Mayor Furlong: And does this cover both A and B? Parcels A and B?
Kate Aanenson: No that would just be B.
Mayor Furlong: That’s just B.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: And that’s how many adding? .
Councilman McDonald: On page 6 of 7 you say that it’s 72 were submitted.
Kate Aanenson: Okay, 72. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: 72 being added to what’s already on A?
Kate Aanenson: Correct. Correct.
Mayor Furlong: And that striping on A has about 25 cars?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, 23. 25. Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Just over 100 total.
Kate Aanenson: Right, yeah. So again if you go back, there’s 5 stalls that are kind of in such a
way that you can’t really back out of them so it may be less than that, again if depending on the
size of the vehicle. Again the goal is that originally the applicant didn’t want to have a parking
plan and wanted to have as many as he could on the site and the staff felt that would really be a
negative visual impact, and also trying to control what happens with the other car place across
the street that doesn’t take on that same look so as people are driving by it looks orderly. And
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Chanhassen City Council - September 13, 2010
then people can get in there to look at a vehicle without causing a traffic circulation or traffic
problems when you get in the site.
Mayor Furlong: Is the property on the north side, is that also operated under a conditional use
permit?
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: And those have been in place for a number of years.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. And I guess the question here is, is there anything that precludes the
paved surface needing to be expanded and to add more onto…
Kate Aanenson: No we looked at that. He’s using what’s on there right now. There’s a flood
plain behind. I think the other issue too, just to control what’s on the property, we asked that all
vehicles on the property, whether it’s a boat or, that they be currently licensed so it doesn’t end
up just kind of being a storing place. It’s not intended for that so those are some of the things
that we’re going to have to follow up on to make sure that it’s not a storage yard and it’s
intended to be a place that things come and they go so.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. And I guess I’m wondering if there should be, maybe we can ask the
applicant in a minute.
Kate Aanenson: A timeframe or?
Mayor Furlong: Timeframe or just total number of vehicles that he’s expecting…
Kate Aanenson: Yes. You can ask him that. I think we just felt his original response to that was
overly optimistic to get on the site and still be able to move it over.
Mayor Furlong: Right but looking, if he’s going to back out Parcel B is quite a large parcel
relative to A.
Kate Aanenson: Right. Yep, so that’s where we came up with the 75.
Mayor Furlong: We can talk about that, okay. And then there’s nothing here that’s changing the
size of the building or the.
Kate Aanenson: No.
Mayor Furlong: Activities within the building or service.
Kate Aanenson: No. No, that does have a septic and we ask to get pumping reports and those
have all been submitted and are.
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Chanhassen City Council - September 13, 2010
Mayor Furlong: Current.
Kate Aanenson: So it’s current, correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for staff at this time? Is the applicant
here? Mr. Hanson.
Carl Hanson: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: I invite you to come up to the podium. Anything you’d like to address to the
council this evening? Good evening.
Carl Hanson: Yeah, my name’s Carl Hanson. I’m the one that’s throwing the dice at this. You
know I don’t know, I might only need 5 spaces. I don’t know if this is going to work. You
know it’s an owner to owner thing is real big in St. Paul. I had a lot of people you know that
drive by there stop and ask, you know if I park my car here for the weekend, I don’t care. You
know if you want to, go ahead. So a friend of mine said you know they charge people to do this
in St. Paul. I guess throw you know 3, 4, 5 grand at this and see what happens. That’s all I’m
doing. You know if it works it works. Create some activity down there. Maybe some of the
other guys can get, make some money off of it too. The mechanics up on the hill. You know the
garden place down the street. You know if we can create some activity. I mean we’re out there
in never never land. We don’t even have sewer and water you know so it’s just a gamble. That’s
all I can do nowadays. Throw the dice and hope you pull them out. But it’ll be you know, it’ll
be kept up nice and clean. I mean I’ve thrown a lot of money into that building, other building
already. I mean I think I’m the first one to ever pull a sign permit on that building. Thank you.
Kate Aanenson: Let the record show you’re not the first.
Carl Hanson: I’m not the first? I think her comment was, well you do want to be in compliance
don’t you? But you know I’ve repainted everything in there. I put wood floors in the office and,
I mean at least now you don’t mind walking in the place. You’re not going to catch something.
So it’s, you know and the other place will be just as nice. I mean I’ve already contracted with a
striping company to come over there and lay it our professionally so everything’s you know what
we need to be and you know if it ends up to be you know 40 parking spots, fine. If it ends up to
be 72, that’s fine too but it’ll meet all the specs. I mean that’s why I’m paying somebody else to
do it so.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Carl Hanson: And it’ll be nice. And if it works, great. If it doesn’t, hell I’ve lost more in a
poker game.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. And I guess following up on my question to staff in terms of total
number, you’re comfortable at basically the 105? The 72 above that.
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Chanhassen City Council - September 13, 2010
Carl Hanson: You know if it starts to get too crowded, well you know at 75, I mean that’s fine.
I mean if that’s all, if the guys that come out and lay out the lines find that they can only put you
know 60 in there comfortably, then I’ll have 60 because I don’t know what’s going to be in there.
I mean I’ve got one guy ask me if he can put a 30 foot antique wood boat in there. I said hell for
money I’ll do you know put anything over there you know so I don’t know what I’m going to
get. No idea.
Mayor Furlong: Alright.
Carl Hanson: I just know I’ve got some traffic. You know what comes of it comes of it.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Carl Hanson: Now what can you guys do to help me out with business down there? There’s got
to be some ordinance you can pass, must go buy a car a Duff or something.
Mayor Furlong: That would be a challenge. We’ll consider it. Any questions for Mr. Hanson?
Okay. Very good. Any follow up questions for staff? Otherwise comments. Discussion.
Councilwoman Ernst: I think it’s great. I like risk takers and I think it’s a great idea.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Councilman Litsey: Roll the dice and see what happens.
Mayor Furlong: Sounds good. Is the, and just from a side standpoint Ms. Aanenson, by
adopting the staff’s report that includes this 72 so that would be, if it started going significantly
over that then there’d be another discussion about where is this going…
Kate Aanenson: Right and we feel comfortable. Yeah we feel comfortable working it out, give
him a call and going down there and checking. We’ve got a good relationship and again I think
the positive thing is you’ve got a presence down there that you know that there’s somebody that
we know that we can call if there’s a problem so.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah, no I think it’s.
Carl Hanson: I’m always there.
Todd Gerhardt: We know where you are.
Mayor Furlong: It’s a nice addition and in that area there’s still traffic along that road, even with
the new 212. There’s still a lot of traffic and you know I agree with Mr. Hanson. If we can get
people to think about stopping down there it might help some of the other businesses as well and
create a little energy down there so that sounds great. Any other discussion? If not,
Councilwoman Ernst would you like to make a motion?
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Chanhassen City Council - September 13, 2010
Councilwoman Ernst: Sure. I make a motion that we approve the amended and restated
conditional use permit 97-04 for a used car lot in the Fringe Business (BF) district, Planning
Case 10-10 subject to conditions and adoption of the Planning Commission’s Findings of Fact
and Recommendation as outlined in the staff report.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: I’ll second.
Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we’ll
proceed with the vote.
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council
approve the amended and restated Conditional Use Permit 97-04 for a used car dealership to
included the contiguous property to the west (PID 25-0362700) of 615 Flying Cloud Drive,
for parking and display of used vehicles, Planning Case #10-10, subject to the following
conditions and adoption of the Planning Commission’s Findings of Fact and
Recommendation:
1.No vehicles which are unlicensed or inoperative shall be stored on the premises.
2.All repair, assembly, disassembly or maintenance of vehicles shall occur within a closed
building except minor maintenance including, but not limited to, tire inflation, adding oil and
wiper replacement.
3.No outside storage or display is allowed, except vehicles for sale or rent.
4.No outside speaker systems shall be allowed without approval from the city council.
5.Parking setback shall be applicable for car or truck storage or waiting areas.
6.No test driving of vehicles on local residential streets is allowed.
7.A landscaped buffer 100 feet from any residential zoning district.
8.All vehicle dealers shall be licensed by the state.
9.Parcels A and B shall comply with conditions of the Amended and Restated CUP 97-04.
10.The most westerly access on Flying Cloud Drive shall be blocked.
11.The island separating the two parcels must be removed when 75% of the parking stalls are
occupied or the proposed expansion negatively impacts traffic on Flying Cloud Drive, including
but not limited to congestion, accidents, traffic related complaints, etc. A pedestrian access
between the parcels shall be provided and maintained prior to the removal of the landscape
island.
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Chanhassen City Council - September 13, 2010
12.The westerly parcel shall be striped and comply with city code. The applicant shall work with
staff to provide a parking plan that meets ordinance. Stalls located on the east side of the lot
abutting the landscape island, which is to be removed in the future, may be utilized until the
island is removed.
13.Vehicle parking and display must maintain a minimum setback of 10 feet from the front
property line abutting Flying Cloud Drive.
14.The parking lots shall be maintained in good repair. They shall be swept each spring and fall to
limit debris from entering the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge located south of the
parking lot and building.
15.Any changes to the site will require a Conditional Use Permit amendment.
16.All signs shall comply with City Code and require a separate sign permit.
17. Site inspections shall be conducted annually.”
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
2011 BUDGET: APPROVE RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING PROPOSED MAXIMUM
LEVY, CERTIFICATION TO CARVER COUNTY.
Greg Sticha: Good evening Mayor and fellow City Council members. I’m going to go through a
brief power point discussing some of the items that the City Council’s already discussed in
previous work sessions in regards to setting a preliminary levy and general fund revenue and
expenditure budget. First I’m going to have to take a quick overview of the budget calendar of
the remainder of the year. This evening we’ll be setting a preliminary levy and certifying with
the County the preliminary tax levy for budget year 2011. The form needs to be given to the
County by Wednesday actually to set the preliminary levy. The levy, the preliminary levy is
used to send out the Truth in Taxation statements that will be going out here shortly from the
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County. October 25 it’s staff’s plan to review the third quarter 2010 revenue and expenses data
and also review the CIP document at that time. In addition we’ll be reviewing the utility fund
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operations budget for 2011. On November 8 at our work session we’ll be discussing our annual
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utility rate study with our financial advisors Ehlers and Associates. On November 22 we’ll
discuss any remaining items in regards to the budget, the CIP or the utility rate discussion to
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clear up any of those last few items for any of those. On December 6 we’ll be holding a public
budget meeting. This was formerly known as the Truth in Taxation Hearing. And then on
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December 13 we will need to set a final 2011 tax levy and budget, adopt the 2011 through 2015
CIP and also set utility rates and all other fees for the upcoming 2011 year. I’m going to be
going through 3 scenarios with you this evening and I wanted to go over some of the
assumptions used in preparing the budget for all 3 scenarios. There were 5 similar assumptions
that were used for all 3 scenarios. First we included a 2% wage increase for employees in 2011.
Secondly we budgeted for a 25% increase in health care costs. We just received word back that
that’s exactly where the bids came in at so we’re very fortunate we budgeted accurately for that
line item. Thirdly all 3 scenarios include $108,000 in new construction or new growth. The City
experienced about just over 1% in new construction or new growth for the upcoming budget year
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