Loading...
CC Minutes 2-28-05 City Council Meeting – February 28, 2005 46. The construction access off of 41 shall be maintained for as long as possible. 47. No connection of Highover and Gunflint Trail, specifics to be proposed by staff and the developer. All voted in favor, except Mayor Furlong and Councilman Peterson who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 3 to 2. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. And again, thank you everybody for your involvement. It was a long process but we do appreciate your efforts. Thank the council too for working through the amendments and such like that. Chuck Alcon: Honorable Mayor, just one question. I understand our direction is to work with the staff to come up with a preliminary plat that does not have a connection between Highover and Gunflint Trail. Councilman Lundquist: Come up with a final plat. Mayor Furlong: Move onto the next agenda on our agenda. Councilman Peterson: Can we take a break? Mayor Furlong: Oh certainly. Yep, looking at the time. Without objection we’ll recess subject to the call of the Chair. Let’s make it about 5 minutes. CONSIDER AMENDMENT TO CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT #75-2 FOR LAKE MINNEWASHTA REGIONAL PARK, PLANNING CASE 4-37. st Kate Aanenson: The Planning Commission held a public hearing on this item on February 1 and, to review that conditional use amendment and they voted 4 to 2 and the 2 no votes were based on environmental reasons and I’ll go through the rationale for that in just a moment. The subject site is the regional park. Across the street from the subject site we were just talking about. The conditional use was put in place back in 1975 and at this point when the review went through for the beachlots, or excuse me, for the boat launches, there was a lot of concern from the associations that were on the lake as far as what effect that would have as far as the number 43 City Council Meeting – February 28, 2005 of people on the lake, and that really led to the whole beachlot ordinance. So over time, as everybody’s kind of got use to the level of activity on the lake and we closed the boat launches as we permitted the non-conforming beachlots, this is the control point for most of those residents. There’s a few that do have launches, but most of them have to launch at this public access, which gives us control on what’s going on the lake. So originally there was two boat launches. This one here, which is next to the swimming beach, and then the boat launch 1, and it was restricted by horsepower. Boat launch 1 and how it’s being used today is, most people enjoy that one. It’s easier to get to. The other one does conflict with the beach, so the County would like to amend that and allow that to be the more permanent one as they work through their master plan. At the public hearing the concern was, because this is the inlet to the lake, that it may be low and at those times you couldn’t launch, but if it’s low at that time, it’s probably not the best time to probably be boating anyways. As we’ve learned the issues that we have with adjacent to shorelines when there’s the high water, and the erosion as you recall on Lotus Lake when there’s high water there, that’s when we get the most complaints based on the erosion factor. And over time the motor boats has changed as far as their, the waking and the sophistication of that has changed so we don’t believe that’s as, quite as critical. Again, as we’ve limited the access points for the lake and kind of monitored how many boats can be, it seems to be self policing pretty well for the other beachlots. So we are recommending approval to allow the boat launch 1 to allow more than the 10 horsepower launching at that, as it’s being used today. Again, it’s really cleaning up how it’s actually being used, but it does, because it is a conditional use, does take an amendment so if you go to page 7 of the staff report, we are recommending approval of the conditional use permit with the following conditions. They did also want to contact the DNR with the dredging of Little Minne Bay, which is this, if it needed to be at some point in the future. And that the conditional use be that they have 6.05. The lake access. The watercraft access to Lake Minnewashta, for their park has been provided in the area designated as boat access on the development plan in 1982. Be no wake with the signage. There’s a capacity of 25 trailer spaces to be developed and located in accordance with the plan marked official map. And Marty Walsh is here from the County if you have any questions for him but we are recommending approval. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions for staff? Councilman Labatt: Yeah Kate, just a couple questions. No opposition to all this. The signage is slow no wake at the launch site and out into Little Minne Bay. I wonder if we can also add in there, Nann can you show that map again of the lake there? Kate Aanenson: This one? Councilman Labatt: Yeah, as you go up Minne Bay towards the main outlet to the lake, all that is within the defined shore zone limit on the lake. Kate Aanenson: Correct, and the no wake zone, right. And that was the one environmental concern that the Planning Commission had. Councilman Labatt: So, granted the sign at the access is great but once they get out there, to prevent them from kicking it down a little bit. Could we have the County install buoys? 44 City Council Meeting – February 28, 2005 Kate Aanenson: I was going to say, buoys is how you control that. Marty Walsh: That’s out there now. Kate Aanenson: Is there buoys out there now? Marty Walsh: Yes. Councilman Labatt: How far do the buoys go out? I’ve used this access a couple times and haven’t seen them. Marty Walsh: Mr. Buoy. Councilman Labatt: Mr. Buoy, okay. Marty Walsh: Sorry about that. It’s been a long night for everyone, but we do have a number of buoys that are located within Little Minne Bay and I’m going to say about the last buoy is located about in this location here where my finger is. Councilman Labatt: Those are the slow, no wake buoys? Marty Walsh: Yes they are. Mayor Furlong: You’ve got to wait til the ice is off before you can see them. Marty Walsh: They are removed on a seasonal basis, that is correct. Kate Aanenson: For clarification on that, that we also say that the signage also included buoys. Mayor Furlong: That’s how you define a no wake on a navigable water. Todd Gerhardt: I know there’s one here. And coming into the bay. Mayor Furlong: Yeah, but to Councilman Labatt’s point, this you said specifically signage at the launch site. Kate Aanenson: Launch site, right. Just to further clarify. Mayor Furlong: Is that okay? Marty Walsh: That’s fine. Mayor Furlong: Any problem with that? Marty Walsh: No problem with that at all. 45 City Council Meeting – February 28, 2005 Mayor Furlong: And I know our sheriff department patrols Lake Minnewashta quite a bit so, if anybody’s going through a no wake fast, they should catch them. Okay. Any other comments or thoughts? Marty Walsh: I have no other comments. For the record I guess if you want my name, Marty Walsh. I’m the Parks Director for Carver County. Mayor Furlong: Thank you Mr. Walsh. Thank you for being here. Any other questions or comments? On this. We’ll bring it for staff. Bring it back to council for discussion. I’m sensing by lack of discussion that, I didn’t even open it up for public comment though. No, I think this seems to be straight forward and with the no wake, deals with the issue of the motor size adequately. No wake through that bay so. I’m guessing that’s the sense of the council as well. Councilman Labatt: No issues. Mayor Furlong: No issues. Very good. If there’s no other discussion or issues, anybody like to make a motion? Councilman Lundquist: Motion to approve with the amended clarification on the buoys. Councilman Labatt: Second. Mayor Furlong: We’ll leave it to staff to put that in. Okay. Made and seconded. Any discussion? Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Labatt seconded that the City Council approve the amendment to Conditional Use Permit #75-2, Section 6.04, Lake Access based on the Findings of Fact with the following condition: 1. Carver County Parks shall contact the Department of Natural Resources before proceeding with drudging of Little Minne Bay channel. 2. Carver County shall install Slow, No Wake buoys in Little Minne Bay. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: Councilman Lundquist: Mr. Mayor, not really a presentation per se but more of a formal send off. One of our former mayors and her husband, the Mancino’s packed up their truck and moved to California. Are leaving in the morning so I just wanted to formally thank Nancy for her time and service and other help that she has given me and perhaps others of us as well, so will be a resource that myself I will miss, but wish them all the luck in the world and hope they have a wonderful time in California. 46