PC Minutes 01-15-2013
CHANHASSEN PLANNING COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
JANUARY 15, 2013
Chairman Aller called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Andrew Aller, Lisa Hokkanen, Kim Tennyson and Bill Colopoulos
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Mark Undestad, and Kathleen Thomas
STAFF PRESENT:
Kate Aanenson, Community Development Director; Sharmeen Al-Jaff, Senior
Planner; Terry Jeffery, Water Resources Coordinator; Krista Spreiter, Natural Resources Technician; and
Alyson Fauske, Assistant City Engineer
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Arturo Urrutia 408 Monk Court
John Knoblauch 6450 Knob Hill Avenue, Excelsior
LuAnn Markgraf 401 Rice Court
Mary Muirhead 424 Monk Court
Steve Lehto 8591 Tigua Lane
PUBLIC HEARING:
TH 101 IMPROVEMENT PROJECT: REQUEST FOR A WETLAND ALTERATION PERMIT
FOR PROPOSED ROADWAY RECONSTRUCTION AND IMPROVEMENT PROJECT FOR
THE SEGMENT OF TH 101 BETWEEN CSAH 18 (LYMAN BOULEVARD) AND CSAH 14
(PIONEER TRAIL). APPLICANT: CITY OF CHANHASSEN, PLANNING CASE 2013-01.
Spreiter: Good evening Chairman Aller and members of the Planning Commission. As stated an
application has been submitted by the City of Chanhassen for a wetland alteration permit as part of the
Trunk Highway 101 roadway improvement project. As a result of the project the City is proposing
impacts to 4 wetlands totaling 1.84 acres of permanent impact. The proposed project is to be located
within the TH 101 corridor between Lyman Boulevard and Pioneer Trail. To give some background on
the project, in 2007 the City of Chanhassen and the Minnesota Department of Transportation completed a
corridor scoping study for TH 101 from Lyman Boulevard to the Scott County line. The study identified
the segment of 101 from Lyman to Pioneer Trail as the highest priority for improvements. There
currently are several safety concerns with the corridor, including steep grades, sharp curves, and
inadequate sight distances. If completed the roadway improvements project will address these safety
concerns and also provide increased capacity by constructing the current 2 lane undivided highway to a 4
lane divided highway with curb and gutter, a median separation, turn lanes and bicycle and pedestrian
facilities. The project includes a proposed 10 foot multi-use recreational trail along the west side of 101
from Lyman Boulevard to Pioneer Trail connecting existing trails on the east side of 101 and Bandimere
Park via an underpass at the entrance to the park. The project and it’s improvements are consistent with
the City’s Comprehensive Plan, City Code, city and regional trail plans and are also presented in the
Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Jurisdictional Turnback Project List. The construction phase
of the proposed project is scheduled to begin the summer of 2013 with final construction completion in
July of 2014. As part of the project a wetland delineation report was completed and approved in February
of 2012 identifying 5 wetlands in the area. As a result of the proposed project the City of Chanhassen is
requesting a wetland alteration permit for permanent impacts to 4 of the identified wetlands totaling 1.84
acres. The impacted wetlands are Wetlands 2, 3, 4, and 5. Wetland 2 is located just north of Bandimere
Park on the east side of 101. The impact proposed is .04 of an acre. It’s classified as a Type 3 or shallow
Chanhassen Planning Commission – January 15, 2013
marsh wetland. Wetland 3 is located on the west side of 101, across from Bandimere Park. It outlets to
Wetland 4 via a channel that flows between the two. Wetland 3 is identified as a Type 2 fresh, wet
meadow. The proposed impact to Wetland 3 is .04 of an acre. Wetland 4 located on the west side of 101
just south of Wetland 3 consists of four wetland types. Type 1, floodplain forest. Type 2, fresh, wet
meadow. Type 3, shallow marsh and Type 6, Shrub-Carr. It is also identified as a Minnesota DNR
public water. However in this case the DNR has chosen to waive it’s permitting authority to the City of
Chanhassen. The proposed impact to Wetland 4 would be .83 acres. Wetland 5 lies in the northwest
corner of the intersection of 101 and Pioneer Trail and is classified as a Type 2, fresh, wet meadow. The
proposed impact to Wetland 5 is .93 acres. The majority of the impact resulting from creation of
stormwater ponding. Chapter 20, Article VI of City Code requires that the applicant must comply with
the Wetland Conservation Act. The Wetland Conservation Act requires that the applicant must adhere to
the following sequencing. First the applicant must avoid impacts wherever possible. Second, if
avoidance is not an option the applicant must minimize impacts to the greatest extent practical. And
finally the applicant must replace the impacts that could not be avoided or minimized. The City of
Chanhassen as the applicant has presented two alternatives to the proposed project that would avoid or
minimize impacts to wetlands as required. These alternative options are described in the Joint
Notification Application prepared by Kimley-Horn and Associates and are also presented in the staff
report. The preferred design was chosen for various reasons including cost efficiency, reduction in
maintenance and further wetland impact avoidance. Minimization efforts were then presented to
minimize the proposed unavoidable impacts through a variety of measures which included reducing
roadway slope near wetlands, achieving minimum distance between trail and roadway, reducing median
and modifying the design of the stormwater ponds adjacent to wetlands. Finally the City is proposing to
mitigate for the impacts using wetland banking credits from two different sources. Because the roadway
improvements are safety driven the wetland impacts associated with the roadway and stormwater
treatment is eligible for Board of Water and Soil Resources roadway replacement credits. The impacts
that would result from the trail construction are not eligible. Therefore these impacts will be mitigated for
through credits from the City’s wetland bank #127. Both are required to be mitigated for at a 2 to 1 ratio
according to Chapter 8420 of the Wetland Conservation Act. In conclusion the City of Chanhassen, as
the applicant, has completed the requirements set forth by City Code and the Wetland Conservation Act.
Therefore staff is recommending approval with conditions outlined in the staff report. The motion can be
found on page 14. This concludes my presentation. If there are questions on the roadway project in
general, those can be directed towards the City Engineer or the City’s consultant and I’ve included the
contact information for the project which is also available on the City’s website. Thank you and I’d be
happy to take any questions at this time.
Aller: Anyone have any questions? It was a great report. Very thorough. For those of you at home, the
reports can be found on the website. Could you just, this isn’t just a process that started last week. This
is about a 5 year project, isn’t it?
Spreiter: I’m not sure when the planning portion of the project itself started. The delineation again I
think was done in 2011 did it start? So yeah, I mean it’s quite a process starting with the delineation
itself.
Aanenson: If I may Commissioner Aller. I think going back to the process, the corridor study was done a
number of years ago. I think we shared that information with you and then you know try to get the plan
put in place so when there’s funding availability then the project can move forward so they kind of
picked, identified some issues with that section of corridor. Whether it’s the geometrics to widen the
road. Safety improvements and that sort of thing so that was put in place and then once the funding was
secured then these are the steps that needed to go through and this is one of the steps that needs to happen
for the road project to go forward. And maybe Alyson you can talk about the timing of the rest of the
improvements for that section of the road.
2
Chanhassen Planning Commission – January 15, 2013
Fauske: MnDOT would certainly have to go and get the final approvals so I think they were, if I
remember correctly, I think they were looking at a 2015 start date to get going on some of these
improvements but we would, as always we update the project website on the City’s webpage so folks can
keep checking back to that for updated information.
Aller: And I just wanted to point out for those present and for those at home that this item’s been before
us several times. There have been many public hearings on this and visitations with the contractors and
developers. And then this process with regard to the wetlands had to go through BWSR and other State
departments. DNR and they’ve all looked at this as well. The report appears to indicate that it fits the
requirements of the code. Am I understanding that correctly? You would agree with that?
Spreiter: Yeah. Basically our code defers back to the Wetland Conservation Act process. It says that
through that process approval has to be gained in order for the City to approve a wetland alteration permit
so there was a TEP, Technical Evaluation Panel meeting that was held in November. After some kinks
were worked out they approved the replacement plan and the impacts as well.
Aller: And then the replacements here, BWSR’s going to be a 2 for 1?
Spreiter: Yep. Both are 2 to 1 and the BWSR Roadway Replacement Bank is for roadway projects that
are accepted under their criteria. From my understanding they have to be safety driven and then the
stormwater impacts, because they’re required as part of that, are also covered. The only thing that’s not
covered is the trail impacts so that’s what is covered under our wetland bank.
Aller: I just want everybody to be comfortable with the fact that the reason for some of the, and the need
for the alteration is that it’s a safety concern and the structure of the roadway we’ve looked at meets the
bill now for those safety concerns regarding the steep grades, the curves and the sight alignments and
that’s why we need to do this in the first place. So it’s for safety number one. And then number two,
we’ve looked at several different alternatives and come up with what we believe is the best one and as a
result of that, then we get the 2 for 1.
Spreiter: Right.
Aanenson: If I can Commissioner Aller, if you recall in the work session that we had maybe a year or so
ago, we actually had the layout and then I know the City Council has been working through, we showed
you kind of the preliminary design but the City Council then approved the final design, as we talked about
the safety improvements. Giving better access to some of the people that had direct access onto. The
City acquired a couple properties along the corridor. I think when we were on our tour this fall we
actually went out and parked at Bandimere and looked across at some of those so this is kind of what
needs to take place for those improvements to move forward.
Aller: Great. Anything else? Okay, with that I’ll open the public hearing portion of the meeting.
Anyone wishing to come forward and speak either for or against or comment on the item before us can do
so at this time. Please step forward and state your name and address for the record. Seeing no one
coming forward on this matter, we’ll go ahead and close the public hearing. Comments from the
commissioners?
Tennyson: No.
Aller: Okay. Well I have no further comments or questions so I’ll entertain a motion if there is one.
3
Chanhassen Planning Commission – January 15, 2013
Hokkanen: I’ll propose a motion. The Chanhassen Planning Commission recommends that the City
Council approve Wetland Alteration Permit #2013-01 to impact 1.84 acres of wetland for the purpose of
the construction of the proposed TH 101 Roadway Improvement Project and authorize the Water
Resources Coordinator to sign the Joint Notification Application for approval of wetland replacement as
shown in plans dated November 27, 2012, and based upon the included Findings of Fact and subject to
the following conditions. Conditions 1 through 6, or do I need?
Aller: Conditions within the staff report. And do you want to adopt the attached Findings of Fact.
Hokkanen: And adopt the attached Findings of Fact.
Colopoulos: I’ll second that motion.
Aller: Having a motion and a second, any discussion?
Hokkanen moved, Colopoulos seconded that the Chanhassen Planning Commission recommends
that the City Council approve Wetland Alteration Permit #2013-01 to impact 1.84 acres of wetland
for the purpose of the construction of the proposed TH 101 Roadway Improvement Project and
authorize the Water Resources Coordinator to sign the Joint Notification Application for approval
of wetland replacement as shown in plans dated November 27, 2012, and based upon the included
Findings of Fact and subject to the following conditions:
1. Wetland replacement shall occur in a manner consistent with the Minnesota Wetland
Conservation Act (MR 8420). The applicant shall receive the City’s approval of a wetland
replacement plan prior to any wetland impact occurring.
2. Wetland buffer areas shall be preserved, maintained, and/or created around all existing wetlands
in compliance with Sections 20-401 – 20-421 of Chanhassen City Code.
3. The applicant shall apply for and obtain permits from the appropriate regulatory agencies, e.g.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Minnesota
Department of Transportation, Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources and Army Corps of
Engineers and comply with their conditions of approval.
4. The applicant must submit a Bill of Sale for Wetland Banking Credits to the Minnesota Board of
Water and Soil Resources signed by both the buyer and seller of designated wetland credits.
5. The applicant must obtain, and the City must have received copy of, an Application for
Withdrawal of Wetland Credits from the Minnesota Wetland Bank signed and approved by the
Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources prior to any wetland impacts.
6. A signed Landowner Statement and Contractor Responsibility form shall be provided to the City
prior to commencement of activity.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
4