CC Minutes 01-27-2014Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: But what are some of the other things that people at home too? Hydrants? Clearing
hydrants.
Chief John Wolff: Yeah clearing hydrants. Couple things. I would say yes. Clearing the hydrants and
right now the snow is really hard packed. When you get the warm up and then the cool down like we
have, it’s really ice so we would appreciate it if the neighbors would clear the hydrants out. That will
save us time when we’re trying to secure water. You know with the talk of this gas shortage, at least
CenterPoint’s talking about it. I don’t think it’s impacted our immediate service area but people are
looking at other alternatives to heating and I would say that you know space heaters and fireplaces, just
you don’t want to leave those unattended and so there is a, some of the activity that we do see are, it’s
related to candles and fire and heating and so forth. And I’d say the final item that winter impacts is
driving and the roads are obviously dangerous when we get the precipitation. I think our public works
and in general the County and Hennepin County and so forth do a great job of clearing the streets but it’s
challenging when the weather is up and down to keep it really clear and dry, especially the secondary and
side streets. So we do see an increase in car accidents during this time of year.
Mayor Furlong: Smoke detectors obviously are required as part of our current building codes. Are the
carbon monoxide detectors, are those useful? Are those recommended?
Chief John Wolff: Very useful. In fact when they started, when they hit you know 12-15 years ago we
got tons of calls on them because people didn’t understand them. Right now that’s, you know that’s,
we’ve gone from like 80-90 CO calls a year to like 25-30 and I think what people need to do is to
remember to change the batteries in their smoke detectors. Even the hard wired smoke detectors have a
battery in them so if you hear that chirping sound, that means that they need the battery to be changed,
and we occasionally get called out to help people to do that so. Happy to do that.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, very good. Thank you. Appreciate the update.
Chief John Wolff: You bet.
Mayor Furlong: Move now to our first item under business.
HUMMINGBIRD HEIGHTS, 6221 HUMMINGBIRD ROAD, APPLICANT: HOMESTEAD
PARTNERS:
A. PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER METES AND BOUNDS SUBDIVISION.
B. CONSIDER APPROVAL OF DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT.
Mayor Furlong: Let’s start with a staff report please and then we’ll invite the public or interested parties
to come up with any comments. Ms. Aanenson, good evening.
Kate Aanenson: Good evening Mayor. Thank you. Members of the City Council. This is a metes and
bounds subdivision. Metes and bounds is a way to subdivide a piece of property. The public hearing is
held before the City Council as opposed to the Planning Commission. The City Council can approve
them when it’s splitting one lot into two, that has urban services or sewer and water is available, and both
lots meet the minimum requirements so this metes and bounds subdivision meets that criteria. The
location is Hummingbird Road which is just immediately to the west of Galpin Boulevard.
7
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Yeah, Nann can you check the volume in the council chambers. I’m not sure if we’re
getting the speakers in the council chambers are working. I’m sorry, Laurie. I’m not sure if the sounds
coming over the speakers or not.
Kate Aanenson: It doesn’t sound like it.
Mayor Furlong: Why don’t you just try to speak a little louder and we’ll see if we can’t keep up.
Kate Aanenson: Again I’m talking about where the location of it is right off of Galpin Boulevard.
Excuse me, just east, west of Galpin Boulevard off of Hummingbird. This property is, abuts the city of
Shorewood. Thank you. I think we’ve got the.
Mayor Furlong: I think it’s working now.
Kate Aanenson: It’s working. This subdivision actually dates back to the, the Melody Hill subdivision
actually dates back to 1884. Again this includes the Shorewood portion and the Chanhassen portion so it
was originally 23 lots that were included with the plat and I wanted to give a little bit of history of this
area. So I wanted to show within this area, again the limits would be, this is the city limits right here so
within this area there’s been 3 other subdivisions over time and I won’t go into any order necessarily.
Just kind of going around and the Evelyn Lohr subdivision created 2 lots into 3 lots and that would be in
this area here. And then there was one done in 1978, Murray Hill that actually platted 2 lots into 5. And
then in 1979 the Gallagher subdivision. When this originally was platted this was actually kind of an
exception but then these got platted into the backs of the lots and so those 5 lots got converted into 6 lots
so the subject lot that we’re talking about is this property right here. So the existing conditions on the
property itself, the lot is wooded as it goes down towards Galpin and is steep towards the back. The
City’s bluff ordinance does come into play here and so the setbacks from these houses would then be
closer to the street then the existing development pattern which is in place right now. Some of the lots
would be actually in today’s rules in the bluff ordinance. The other existing condition is the 30 foot wide
street. Actually when this was platted, it’s a 80 foot wide right-of-way which is non-typical for
residential street but it’s a 30 foot, 31 foot wide existing without curb and gutter. We do have other
situations in the city where this exists without the curb and gutter on some of the older streets.
Engineering department did look on, look at the condition of the street but considering the condition of
the road, the developing nature of the area and anticipated traffic volume, they felt that the portion of this
road could remain in the condition it is so I guess you know there’s situations like this in the Carver
Beach area where we have narrower roads without curb and gutter also. So again the metes and bounds
then would create the two lots. Again they meet the minimum frontage per the city ordinance. Just over
90 feet of frontage and then in addition they meet the area required, just under an acre. The sewer would
come from, there’s an existing sewer in the street right now. One connection. Another connection would
have to be made and they would have to pay the fees for that. Stormwater management. We’re looking
at putting in a couple of rain gardens towards the front of the homes to accommodate the runoff that way
and then in the back, because of the heavily wooded area and in order to accommodate that, the
preservation of the trees helping stabilize the eroding to Galpin Boulevard. We’re recommending a
preservation area so those trees would stay. Again that helps with the extraction, absorption of some of
that runoff so the house would be in the front, again closer to the street as I had mentioned earlier.
Stormwater fees are shown in the staff report. That would include that requirement. In parks and open
space, again they’re required when you subdivide to pay an additional park fee so that would be required
with the project. Because this does meet all the standards then as proposed here, it does meet all the
standards of the City’s zoning ordinance and standards, we are recommending approval with the
conditions in the staff report. The tree preservation area shown here so the houses again would be closer
than the existing houses that are in the subdivision. Again staying outside of that bluff area. So with that
we are recommending approval. Also in your packet is a development contract so we are recommending
8
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
approval of the metes and bounds subdivision subject to all the conditions and approving the Findings of
Fact and also approving the Development Contract and I’d be happy to answer any questions that you
have.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for staff. Mr. Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Kate, thank you for the presentation. Just to clarify.
This request for metes and bounds subdivision requires no variances, is that correct?
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay, so what they’re asking to do is fully within the ordinances that are
currently in place within the city of Chanhassen?
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: Alright, thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions? Ms. Aanenson, you’ve commented a couple times
that the new homes on these two parcels if it’s approved would be closer to the street than the current
homes.
Kate Aanenson: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: What’s the distance between the edge of the right-of-way on these parcels to the bluff?
Do you know? And if it’s in the staff report maybe.
Kate Aanenson: Not the top. Typically you require a minimum of 20 feet but they’ve got more,
significantly more than that.
Mayor Furlong: And I guess my question is, how much space is there between the right-of-way and the
bluff or the bluff setback? What is the bluff setback? Setback from the bluff.
Kate Aanenson: Kind of the buildable area?
Mayor Furlong: Right. Usually we put a square on the map.
Kate Aanenson: Yep. It’s going to be in excess of probably, like 125 feet.
Mayor Furlong: From the right-of-way back to the bluff setback?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, so that’s almost the distance of a normal lot in a low density residential?
Kate Aanenson: Correct. Yes, yes.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: That would be a standard lot size.
9
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: And the party building the homes would be able to choose anywhere within the setbacks
where they place it.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct so.
Mayor Furlong: Okay so it has to be.
Kate Aanenson: As long as they meet the requirements, the 30 in the front. The setback from the bluff
and 10 on each side they would have that flexibility.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. So they might be further back than what this picture is showing or they
might be where this picture is.
Kate Aanenson: Correct. We do ask for a representation and that’s all this is, is illustrative
representation.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. Thank you. Mr. Oehme, with regard to the traffic on Hummingbird.
It’s a narrow road. What’s available there, and I’m asking this not so much for new construction on these
parcels but also knowing that there’s a subdivision or PUD going forward on the city of Shorewood side
as well where there’ll be a few more homes. What’s the traffic along that road currently and what do we
expect it might be if both go forward?
Paul Oehme: Sure, thank you Mayor, city council members. Staff was not able to take traffic counts this
time of year.
Mayor Furlong: Sure, okay.
Paul Oehme: It’s next to impossible so, and typically in the winter months you don’t get an accurate
traffic count readings anyway. Sure, okay so we estimated using traffic generated numbers. The standard
typical numbers so right now we’re estimating in the Chanhassen side about 115 trips per day based upon
existing houses that are currently out there today so with the addition of two houses we’re inbetween you
know 14 and maybe 20 trips per day on average.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Paul Oehme: In addition.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, and then I guess the question too is with the, with the construction of the new
homes that will take place at some point in the future, if all these are approved, what, how do we handle
compliance and making sure, especially during the road restriction period that the vehicles aren’t too
heavy for the roads regardless of whether the construction’s being done in the Chanhassen or the
Shorewood side, and how is that handled?
Paul Oehme: So in every neighborhood that has local road, typical strengths where the roadway is about
5 tons or less, the City’s public works department puts out flags and there are signs out notifying the
public and construction haulers that these roads are, are less than, you know the minimum axle
requirement for construction vehicles or delivery trucks or those type of things so there is enforcement
available through Carver County and our CSO’s department where we can have the ability to ticket
vehicles that are overweight. We do work with the building department and make sure that and during
road restriction timeframes you know certain activities during construction are limited to certain sized
vehicles too so that’s another component that we also work with as well.
10
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright, thank you. Any other questions for staff? If not then I would like to
open up the public hearing and invite all interested parties to come forward and address the council on
this matter. If you could state your name and address for the record I’d appreciate that.
Charles Liedtke: And I had a presentation I’d like to have queued up.
Mayor Furlong: And your name and address sir?
Charles Liedtke: My name is Charles Liedtke and I live at 6231 Hummingbird Road. My property as
you say abuts Hummingbird Heights.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Charles Liedtke: If you can start slide one that’d be great. Thank you Mayor, council members and staff
for giving me the opportunity to present. I am proud to call Chanhassen my home. Now I’d like to
introduce you to Murray Hill. Now there’s a larger story then is being told here tonight and I’d like to
paint a bigger picture. Welcome to Murray Hill. This is, if you’re in Shorewood coming up Summit
you’re going to see this view in the fall. It’s very beautiful and I’m going to discuss Hummingbird
Heights which is the topic of discussion but also Summit Woods. They are two developments. Same
builder/developer and my opinion is you cannot disentangle the two so in order to make one decision you
have to really take into consideration both developments. To not do so I believe would be irresponsible
and so I’d like to put that on the public record. Here we’re approaching the summit. Currently there is a
wonderful old farmhouse on, at the top of Summit Hill. Part of the property we are developing tonight
with Hummingbird Heights is part of the Rix’s property. There are 3 pieces which you should know
about. There’s what I’ll call the north section and that’s kind of the upper left in the red, and I’d use the
laser pointer but I definitely do not want to blind the City Attorney or the City Manager. That would not
help my cause so I’m going to refrain. I will just describe it if I could. So we have a north section. We
also have Summit Woods which is a PUD considered by Shorewood and we have Hummingbird Heights
which is the lower red rectangle there and that resides in Chanhassen.
Councilman Laufenburger: Excuse me, Mr. Liedtke for reference can you just direct us to your property
please?
Charles Liedtke: My property is just south, which is again I don’t want to blind anyone but if you can see
it.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay.
Charles Liedtke: It’s right there. 6231 Hummingbird Road.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay, thank you.
Charles Liedtke: So I live right next door to the proposed Hummingbird Heights. And I’ll say it’s a tale
of two cities. The Rix’s property is complex. It spans two cities and it spans two counties. Why that is
problematic from a development standpoint is that details can fall through the cracks. You can make
decisions regarding the Chanhassen side. Of course we’ve met repeatedly with Shorewood officials.
They can make decisions regarding the Shorewood side but I’m hoping at some point the mayors and
council members of the two cities meet to discuss this because truly you simply cannot disentangle the
two properties when making decisions. Our group, I belong to the Murray Hill neighborhood group and
our homes are identified with the yellow rectangles, although I will state I am not speaking on behalf of
11
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
the entire group tonight. I am speaking on behalf of myself and my family tonight solely because our
entire group did not have time to meet and approve the presentation, although some of the other members
are here today and I know that they agree with my sentiments. But when the Summit Woods PUD came
before the Shorewood City Council all of the homes in rectangles opposed that PUD. That contains 4
homes with the option of a fifth, and that’s not Hummingbird Heights but I’m just telling you it is
adjacent to the Hummingbird Heights proposal. I want to say loudly and clearly, and I’ll probably repeat
it twice because it has not seem to have been heard before by city officials in Shorewood. We are not
opposed to development. Pause. Again we are not opposed to development. But we are hoping that it is
intelligent development. That’s all we ask for. Hummingbird Heights is shown in yellow here and we
also show the other properties with acreages in the Chanhassen segment. We enjoy large acreages but
also large distances between the homes. That’s part of the current state. We have very narrow roads. I
think, I forget what it is on Hummingbird but I’ll show you pictures. Extremely narrow on Hummingbird
and Hummingbird runs kind of from bottom to top. It then turns into, when you hit Shorewood Summit
Avenue which is a blind curve which goes down a very steep hill so we have very narrow roads
throughout the entire neighborhood. We also have historically drainage problems and that ends up, water
runs downhill as you know. Follow the blue arrows, flooding down on these homes right here. More
pavement up top will result in more flooding problems down below. We also, I’m showing with the
yellow arrows very steep bluffs and I applaud the City of Chanhassen. I’m very proud of this. You have
a bluff ordinance that’s shown by the green line. You protect your bluff. Notice that green line stops
once you hit Shorewood. They have no such bluff ordinance and that’s where we’ve run into problems.
We’ve run into the problem of inconsistency along that ridge so it’s a very complex neighborhood. We
also have down below on the other side of Galpin, again hard to see but the blue indicates we have
wetlands. Now Summit Woods, which is the middle red area plus that north section, that’s 4 to 5 homes.
There has been a conditional use permit or PUD approved in the concept stage by the same developer and
builder. That’s in addition to what you’re considering tonight which is 2 additional homes. So the entire
package, if it were in one jurisdiction, we’d be looking at 6 to 7 additional homes. I would like to expand
your thinking. It’s more than 2. The decision involves more than just the 2. So 6 to 7 homes total.
That’s what we’re encountering and we live there. This is a view from my property across the horse
pasture currently, and I know I don’t own the view and I’ve expected development for a long time. The
future with Hummingbird Heights and Summit Woods, it’s going to be 6 to 7 new homes. Now these are
not drawn to scale but in that space will be 6 to 7 new homes. This is Hummingbird Road facing south
roughly from the property that you’re considering. We have a beautiful road, which we love. It’s simply
very narrow and you can see here when the UPS truck drops off parcels, you can simply not get through.
This is in Chanhassen. We love that road. It’s simply not passable if you have big trucks on it. Now
imagine construction trucks on that road. Not just from the 2 homes that you’re considering, but the
additional 4 to 5 homes from Summit Woods. Now they’ll unlikely take Summit Avenue, which is a very
steep, substandard road on a blind curve. Those construction trucks will most likely come down your
street, which is our street in Chanhassen and notice if there is any kind of construction trucks it is simple
impassable. So some of my major concerns. Surprisingly neither the property owner nor the developer
/builder has contacted me to discuss either Hummingbird Heights or Summit Woods. I live next door to
Hummingbird Heights. I would expect some consideration or respect. I have not heard from them.
Traffic. It will be busier. Your analysis surprised me. I did not take into consideration the additional 4 to
5 homes so you can take your numbers and take them times 2 or 3 with respect. These roads will be more
dangerous. In terms of road degradation, 6 to 7 homes, those construction trucks will most likely not go
up and down Summit Avenue, which is very steep and substandard. It will come down your road, which
is my road which is Hummingbird Road. This will degrade the road and who will pay for that I’d like to
know. I’ve mentioned the drainage issue. We’ve had a history of flooding. More pavement. More
drainage. More flooding. And then if it matters, the aesthetics. These homes will be 6 to 7 side by side.
Very narrow distances between the homes. That is clearly out of character with our charming
neighborhood so the aesthetics just do not support this type of development. My request, I respectfully
12
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
request and I am, again I am proud to be a citizen of Chanhassen. I respectfully request that you address
my concerns and work closely with the Shorewood mayor and city council. Thank you so much.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you Mr. Liedtke. Can you pull back up the list of concerns there. With regard to
the road degradation issue there. What is the, what’s the condition of the road currently? What’s the
weight capacity for that road? Is it a normal weight capacity road or?
Paul Oehme: It’s an older road. It’s, we checked the pavement condition and it’s fairly good condition
right now. I think it’s a 70 pci so that rates out fairly well. We did reconstruct a lot of roadways in that
neighborhood just last summer and based upon our analysis that Hummingbird Road did not need
reconstruction at that time so. In terms of, the road condition. Moving forward with the construction,
staff does have in the development contract a letter of credit that the developer will need to provide for
the City if there is any street damage associated with the street so either the developer would have to fix
that or the City would charge him for that and we would fix it ourselves so there is some flexibility there
or some contingencies in the project for that.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. Anyone else who would like to address the council on this?
Jason Mills: Can I speak?
Mayor Furlong: Please come to the podium. State your name and address.
Jason Mills: Hi council, mayor. My name is Jason Mills. I live at 6281 Hummingbird Road. I live just
to the south of Charles by I think 3 homes.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Jason Mills: To the south of him and I’m going to be very brief and I have to apologize because I think
there’s going to, well the reason why I want to apologize to you is because you’re in for a long night.
Unfortunately I’m sorry because there’s a few others from my neighborhood that want to speak.
Mayor Furlong: That’s fine. We’re here to listen.
Jason Mills: Okay. And I’m going to make myself brief. Mine’s going to be short.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Jason Mills: I just want to make it aware that it’s obvious, and I think to all of you here tonight that our
neighborhood project is a little bit challenging. There’s the neighbors that don’t agree with what’s going
on. It’s a very historic site up there so there’s a lot of people that are emotional about it.
Mayor Furlong: Understand.
Jason Mills: We went through the whole thing with the City of Shorewood. The Planning Commission
and the City Council and asked them to not approve this PUD concept that the developer, JMS Builders
and Homestead have put together and it went through, which is okay. Alright?
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Jason Mills: I understand that you know progress is progress and money is money and so forth. I’ve met
with the, I had a meeting with Alex over here who’s probably going to speak tonight as well and JMS
13
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Builders and Homestead and Steve Bona who’s a very nice guy. I like him. He’s reasonable. Okay?
And I read the document earlier today. Is it Kathy I think that maybe you put that together and I got the
feeling that it was nice to see and refreshing to see that I felt like, that they’re watching out for us, and
that’s all I want to ask of you as everybody here is just to be careful. Look out for us. There’s some
details obviously that there’s some issues, okay?
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Jason Mills: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you.
Jason Mills: That’s basically it.
Mayor Furlong: Appreciate it Mr. Mills.
Jason Mills: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: And we’ll continue to listen to other comments. Mr. Knutson, City Attorney. For us,
for other people here, the issue before us tonight is the metes and bounds subdivision, is that correct?
Roger Knutson: That is correct.
Mayor Furlong: And so we understand there’s a development going on in Shorewood. What’s our role in
that development or that process?
Roger Knutson: We have no legal role in their development in their city.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Roger Knutson: Expand a bit. Tonight what you have is what we call a quasi judicial decision for the
council to make. That means we have standards in our ordinance and if those standards in our ordinance
are met, then by law we are required to approve the metes and bounds subdivision. So the question is, are
the standards in our ordinance, the requirements in our ordinance met? That’s the issue.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And with that direction, and maybe I should have started at the beginning.
Usually I don’t let people come back up but that would be a question or the issue that we’d ask the public
to address tonight is whether or not they’re aware of violations of the proposed subdivision, the metes and
bounds subdivision in the Chanhassen city, if there are violations of our city code or things that we’re not
aware of. Ms. Aanenson, her presentation said that in her opinion the planning staff commission, they are
in compliance with our code so it’s important that if somebody believes that there is a violation, that that
be addressed tonight. But with that the public hearing is still open. I would certainly invite anyone else
to come forward, or if you want to come back and address that one question Mr. Liedtke.
Charles Liedtke: So I assume you have a Comprehensive Plan?
Mayor Furlong: Yes we do.
Charles Liedtke: Are you obligated or is the spirit of your efforts to take into consideration what’s
happening in surrounding communities? Are you obligated to take that into legal consideration?
Whether it’s the legality of the law or the spirit of the law.
14
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Knutson or Ms. Aanenson?
Roger Knutson: What we are required to do is approve something if it complies with our subdivision and
zoning ordinance and deny it if it does not.
Charles Liedtke: I guess I’m not sure that’s an answer to my question.
Kate Aanenson: Maybe I can take a shot at it.
Charles Liedtke: Are you obligated to consider what’s happening in the surrounding areas?
Roger Knutson: Unless, we’re obligated not to consider it unless it impacts on our ordinance
requirements. You would have to sit, we’d have to find an ordinance, a provision in one of our
ordinances that says because of that we can’t approve it.
Charles Liedtke: Would that include health, safety and welfare?
Roger Knutson: We’d have to be more specific than that.
Charles Liedtke: Safety meaning safety on the streets by Hummingbird Heights and planned other
developments.
Roger Knutson: You’d have to find something in our ordinance they’re violating.
Charles Liedtke: Okay, thank you so much.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: I was just going to add one other thing.
Mayor Furlong: Ms. Aanenson, please.
Kate Aanenson: The only time, we do talk between the cities of what’s going on and that’s when we do
our Comprehensive Plan process so this is guided low density. As long as there’s a lot of different
iterations of the subdivision just as in the city ordinance if it’s low density. We also do PUD’s in low
density. We have a number of them in town. There’s several different zoning districts so as long as
they’re consistent with their zoning they wouldn’t, we wouldn’t have a say. If they were to rezone it or
to, or not rezone it but change the guiding to a higher density or something like that, then they would ask
us for comments on that but otherwise we wouldn’t comment on that.
Charles Liedtke: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: And Ms. Aanenson, what is the zoning on the Shorewood side of this property?
Kate Aanenson: Low density. Similar to our’s.
Mayor Furlong: So it’s the same on both sides.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah. Yeah, I don’t know what their low density is but their plan going forward uses
the low density residential.
15
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Others that would like to comment as part of the public hearing. Sir,
please come forward.
Alex Petrosian: Mayor, City Council members. My name is Alex Petrosian and I own two properties on
this proposed, around this proposed subdivision. One property I have it’s, it’s in Shorewood right next to
the subdivision.
Mayor Furlong: Is that your address of record? Or is that your residential address or what is your address
please?
Alex Petrosian: My address it’s 6300 Hummingbird Road.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Alex Petrosian: I have two properties in that particular.
Mayor Furlong: That’s fine, thank you.
Alex Petrosian: Okay. And tonight I would like to, there’s a lot of good things have already been said
and I’ll try not to repeat what already have been said.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Alex Petrosian: And I fully agree that if it meets the low then that’s what you need to do.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Alex Petrosian: With that I’m going to read some of my letter and I’m sorry I didn’t give you one. I will
give you after. After that. I’m a long time resident of our city and I’m writing to express my support for
the proposed development and submit some additional thoughts for consideration. Based on my review
of the document I have following comments and recommendations that I would like City Council
members to consider before their final approval. Number one. I applaud the hard work of staff who have
prepared such a detailed and comprehensive overview of the details associated with this proposal. It’s
superb. I would also like to encourage staff to continue working with the neighboring City of Shorewood
in regard to the development as one big area, especially with regards to road usage, traffic issues, density,
water runoff, erosion control, setbacks, etc. Number 2. I would like to concentrate on Hummingbird
Road itself. The current conditions and size of Hummingbird Road is sufficient to support current
neighborhood traffic and needs. I have concern that construction traffic that is required to build 7 houses,
2 in Chanhassen and 5 in Shorewood, will cause premature road deterioration that will impose financial
burden in form of assessments to entire neighborhood along Hummingbird Road. And since premature
deterioration will be triggered by developer, builder activities I feel that it would be reasonable to ask for
the developer and builder to be responsible for and to, one. Pay for resurface of entire Hummingbird
Road after construction of 6 houses just to bring road to current state. No improvements. Two, pay to
restore vegetations 3 feet from each side of the road disturbed by construction traffic since there is no two
trucks can pass each other without getting on the side of the road. Pay for damages to fence, mailboxes
and any other personal property caused by construction traffic. And last, for the remaining future possible
one house on the Shorewood side I would suggest you have funds in escrow account to pay for the repairs
if they occur in the future. B. The construction traffic that requires to build 7 houses in my opinion will
elevate safety concerns due to increased traffic by contractors and subcontractor employees. For current
proposal, construction hours are between 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays. On weekends. On
16
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
weekdays. Apologies. From 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday with no such activity allowed on
Sundays or on a legal holidays, end of quote. …narrow road and with number of children, 25 plus, living
on this road school patterns when children leave for school buses and traffic associated with parents that
need to drive children to school. I have a concern for safety of the children and general population during
early allowed construction hours. Please also note that Minnetonka middle school children in the
neighborhood do not ride the bus and are walking on Hummingbird and Melody Hill to reach Minnetonka
Middle School. I would like to propose amendment to what Bob sent us to read. Quote, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00
p.m. on weekends. From 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays and no such activities allowed on Sundays
or legal holidays. All construction related traffic shall be restricted between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and
3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. End of quote. Third thing I would like to make. It’s around
grading and erosion control. As indicated in memorandum to City Manager by City Senior Planner, the
proposed rain gardens it reads that currently quote, proposed concentrated flow…discharge points, end of
quote are not allowed. And that…there are known erosion issues along Galpin Avenue. End of quote.
Furthermore it is indicated that developer did not provide any design or specifications for rain gardens to
mitigate erosion problems. I’m questioning if approval of subdivision process is premature and should be
put on hold until A. All necessary required and additional information is collected from developer and
evaluated by the staff of City of Chanhassen. B. Developer provide grading and erosion control plan
which satisfies minimum threshold rules and complies with the requirement under National Pollution
Discharge Elimination System. C. Since rain gardens require periodic maintenance of native plantings
this cannot be guaranteed under private home ownership. Future owners must be notified about rain
gardens on the property prior to purchase and agree to perform all required maintenance, otherwise it
might become a burden to our city. And last point is about, I have a question about stormwater
management. It’s about the preservation easement. Is this easement, is in addition to the current bluff
ordinances or does it supersede or replace it?
Kate Aanenson: It’s on top of so there’s a bluff protection. In addition to we’re taking a preservation
easement across the back.
Alex Petrosian: Okay, so it is a bluff.
Kate Aanenson: And an addition.
Alex Petrosian: In addition to the bluff. Thank you very much. I urge you to move forward but with
slight delay on approval until subsequent council meetings provided that A. Road provision are put in
place. B. Safety issues addressed. C. Erosion and stormwater management issues are addressed and D.
All recommendation of staff be followed by the developer. Please let me know if you have any questions
that I can answer for you. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Alex Petrosian: And Mr. Mayor, if I may give you.
Mayor Furlong: Oh that’d be great, thank you. Mr. Oehme, with regard to the road, and if just wait a
minute. I want to try to get his questions while they’re fresh. With regard to the width of the road,
construction traffic, in addition to trucks delivering materials. There’ll be construction workers that are
there. What provisions are in place to, is it possible to do?
Paul Oehme: This project, sure. Yeah I think it is just based upon the roadway right-of-way in this area.
It’s about 80 feet wide so the road is about 16 feet wide. The houses, you know we try to work with the
builder and the developer to try to have as much of the construction traffic on site as much as we can and
the building department I think does a great job of you know trying to help out with traffic control in
17
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
these situations. Carver Beach area I think is a good example of an area that we deal with this on a yearly
basis so I feel fairly confident that you know the staff can manage and work with the developer on
necessary traffic control measures to make sure the road’s open during construction. I don’t know that
the timing of when all these houses are going to be built. Typically they build one right after another so
there’s, I don’t think they’re all going to go up at the same time so there’s some sequencing there that we
may have to talk to the developer about as well too just to make sure we understand how things are going
to be developed if this project were to move forward.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, alright. Thank you. Ms. Aanenson with regard to grading and erosion control
plans. Are those required as part of our ordinances?
Kate Aanenson: Yes and there are conditions of approval on those so they are addressed as conditions.
Mayor Furlong: They are addressed in the proposed resolution?
Kate Aanenson: Yes. Yes. Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Paul Oehme: And Mayor that’s part of the final plan set too. The erosion control documentation.
Making sure that the developer pulls their NPDES permit. We always have a letter of credit and we have
on site inspectors inspecting to make sure the silt fence goes in properly and is maintained over the length
of the construction period.
Kate Aanenson: Yes. So typically no construction starts until that’s been inspected to make sure that the
preservation fencing is up. Erosion control’s in place before a permit’s issued.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. And with regard to hours of operation it was suggested that there be some
changes to that. What has been the experience?
Kate Aanenson: The only place we restrict as far as really restricting a development, in the development
contract and that’s typically for the utilities but once it’s a homeowner, similarly it would be for anybody
in that neighborhood. We have hours of construction but those are pretty, a deviation from those. But
anybody in that neighborhood if they were working on their own deck or working on their own house
would follow those same rules and we stay consistent to that. Often times we found working in other
neighborhoods, get it up. Get it done seems to work. We do have limited Sunday hours. I don’t have
those hours in front of me. They’re online and the sheriff’s office is great if there’s calls on that but if
somebody has a concern that they’re working outside of those hours but I think that’d be pretty difficult to
try to work through that. Again it would be anybody else in the same neighborhood working under those
conditions.
Mayor Furlong: Would have the same limitations.
Kate Aanenson: Would have the same restrictions, exactly.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Alright, thank you. Question Mr. Laufenburger? Clarification.
Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah just a clarification. Mr. Oehme you talked about letter of credit from
the developer regarding road improvement. Are you comfortable that the amount of the letter of credit
would cover the situations that Mr. Petrosian is referring to, including future development? Like a year or
two years or something like that.
18
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Paul Oehme: The letter of credit that we have for this project is our typical request for improvements. I
think it will cover a majority of the situation that potentially can occur with developments of this type so
you know we could have asked for more but I think under this situation I think it should cover us.
Councilman Laufenburger: Is it reasonable to assume that the developer, I like Mr. Petrosian’s words,
return the roadway to it’s pre-construction or pre-development condition. Is that a reasonable request?
Let me ask it differently. Is that something that the city staff can manage to?
Paul Oehme: It’s very difficult to I think you know document that unless there’s some big alligators or
alligatored areas or.
Councilman Laufenburger: You’re referring to a road terminology, not reptiles right?
Paul Oehme: Exactly.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay.
Paul Oehme: So if there’s definite areas that have sustained damage that you can see on the surface, you
know that’s the things that we’ll work with the developer on addressing after the development or the
houses are to be built so you know we’ll do the final inspection and make sure that the roads as near
existing conditions as they were prior to the development.
Councilman Laufenburger: This wasn’t asked by Mr. Petrosian but does the City of Chanhassen have
experience with this developer? This builder. Do you know Kate?
Kate Aanenson: Yes they’ve done other small developments in town.
Councilman Laufenburger: And have we had any cooperative, cooperation problems with them in the
past to the best of your recollection?
Kate Aanenson: Not to the best of my knowledge.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Alrighty. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Yes.
Councilwoman Ernst: Paul, can you tell me how the drainage issue, the runoff issue is being addressed?
Paul Oehme: Yeah. The plan right now with, in terms of the stormwater management for the
development is going to change a little bit based upon water resources staff’s review of the preliminary
plan that’s submitted. The plan needs to meet our infiltration rate and MS4 permit and then also
Minnehaha Creek Watershed District’s requirements as well so we’re working on that design. It’s not
completed at this time but it’s one of the requirements in the development contract that they have to meet
our stormwater runoff requirements. Basically infiltrating or retaining that first one inch rain event on
site.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Yes?
19
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Alex Petrosian: I would like to address that question about…
Mayor Furlong: If you could come up to the microphone. We’re having some trouble with our speakers
and microphones tonight so if everybody, staff included, can speak really loud when they’re talking that
would be helpful. Real quickly.
Alex Petrosian: Sure. I would like to provide clarifications to the hours of operation that I asked for. I’m
not asking to stop the construction in those hours by no means. I’m asking to stop the traffic at that time
because the children walking around the street. Thank you. And there is hours of working on Sunday for
your contract. Yeah, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. Anyone else who would like to, ma’am. Please. Thank you for
waiting.
Marilyn Zupnik: My name is Marilyn Zupnik. I live at 6200 Hummingbird Road and thank you for
letting me speak.
Mayor Furlong: You’re welcome.
Marilyn Zupnik: I’m speaking because we live directly across the two lots in Chanhassen. We’ve lived
there since 1990 when we built our house and I would like to say that I’m in agreement with my
neighbors that have spoken already. I agree with their points and I just want to say that I’m not opposed
to houses being built across the street from us. We’ve expected this for a long time as has already been
expressed. I’m concerned about the housing density and I understand it’s an unusual situation crossing
the county line there and that we’re only talking about the Chanhassen portion right now tonight. I’m
concerned about the increase in traffic which will come from the Shorewood homes. It probably will be 5
houses. It’s 4 now in the PUD and it probably, there was a fifth house for the future proposed so
concerned about the traffic and my thought is that, about the setbacks of the houses and you’ve addressed
that already tonight and I’m just concerned about, with houses being built too close to the road and after
the lots are sold and could a builder, could an owner put something really close to the road and would it
be possible for there to be communication between the two cities regarding the setbacks and how they’re
going to fit next to each other and I think that just one last comment is that the, there’s over 4 point, 4
acres. I think it’s 4.3 or something that is the, I think that’s maybe the Shorewood portion and more here.
I’m not sure of the exact amount. We have over 1 acre per house average and there’s a lot of space
between the houses and the acreage I believe is similar in the new proposal but the area where the houses
are proposed is just a small portion of that area so that’s 7 houses crowded into a small area and to me at 2
houses, is 1 house too much across the street.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Marilyn Zupnik: I think this is one proposal and that there are other options that could be very beautiful
with fewer houses and my hope is that we get a win win situation for everybody in the end. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Appreciate those comments. With regard to the setbacks Mr. Zupnik
mentioned. The setback, explain what the setbacks are and especially from the.
Kate Aanenson: Sure. May I go back to the preservation. Again there has been subdivisions up in this
area and future subdivisions could occur so while we look at what’s happening today, you know we
always have to think in the future so this area has not been given the purview of the bluff ordinance
because we’ve adopted it since then so really what we’re trying to do, there’s a lot of erosion in this area
so this developer is being held to that restriction.
20
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: I’m sorry, clarify that for me. You’re saying the existing homes were built prior to.
Kate Aanenson: Our bluff ordinance.
Mayor Furlong: The bluff ordinance and the bluff ordinance includes setbacks.
Kate Aanenson: So there’s a lot of erosion, right. Setbacks so we don’t have the erosion.
Mayor Furlong: To avoid erosion.
Kate Aanenson: So these 2 lots are being held to a higher development standard of staying out of the
bluff. And on top of that we’re trying to, we’re preserving that so all the trees stay because the trees on
the preservation area help with the extraction. Paul talked about, the City Engineer talked about reducing
the volume of water so the trees would absorb that so there’s less velocity as it’s going down. We don’t
have preservations on those other areas and control so, then the rain gardens on the front and those other
issues that will be to reduce so this developer’s being held to a standard that the other homes that went in
in that area aren’t being held to. So within that, I’m sorry.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, go ahead.
Kate Aanenson: Then within that building envelope they have the right to build within that. The 30 foot
setback. Again as we indicated there, while the pavement is the 16 feet, there’s a significant setback
before you get to the property line.
Mayor Furlong: Well and that was one of my questions.
Kate Aanenson: So it’s a little deceptive.
Mayor Furlong: I heard, I read in the report there’s an 80 foot right-of-way here.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: Do we know, is the existing blacktop, is that about in the middle of the right-of-way?
Kate Aanenson: If you can see on this, it’s pretty much centered.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. So quick math, that means that the right-of-way includes, and never do math in
an open council meeting. Rule number one. 64 feet of right-of-way that doesn’t include the actual hard
surface so if the road’s in the middle, we’ve got 32 feet.
Kate Aanenson: From the property.
Mayor Furlong: So if I’m understanding correctly, from the edge of the curve of the road, 32 feet gets
you to end of the right-of-way and then the setback is from that right-of-way another 30 feet before.
Kate Aanenson: Minimum of 30. It could go back further.
Mayor Furlong: Minimum of 30. It could go back further.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
21
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: As long as it doesn’t go too far back into the bluff setback.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Okay. Alright. Thank you. Mr. Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Kate what about the comment of Ms. Zupnik regarding future buildings after
the homes are in? Would those future buildings like a shed or a lawn mower or, could they be built
within that 30 foot setback from the house to the right-of-way?
Kate Aanenson: No. Our city ordinance doesn’t allow accessory structures in the front yard setback.
Councilman Laufenburger: Perfect. Alright, thank you. So the same setbacks that govern the building of
the home would govern the building of accessory structures?
Kate Aanenson: Correct. It has to be behind the principle structure so it could be aligned with that front
yard setback if that ends up at 30 or 35, 40. It could be aligned with that but it couldn’t be in front of it.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else who would like to speak at the public hearing. Please.
Krisan Osterby: Good evening. My name is Krisan Osterby. I live at 6271 Hummingbird Road. I live in
the property that is just south of the Liedtke’s, so one house away from the development between the
Liedtke’s and Jason who you already heard speak. I agree with everything that’s been stated today. I
wanted to confirm and actually clarify a few points. First of all for your consideration, when we were
presenting information to the City of Shorewood the Planning Commission did not vote to approve the
PUD because of the concerns that we have been bringing to you so there was if you will a serious concern
and split decision within the City of Shorewood.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Krisan Osterby: Second of all I wanted to point out within that 16 foot pavement because if you think
about the official or what is a legal width for a car or truck which is 8 foot 6, that means almost always
any vehicle traffic is in the middle which causes additional wear and tear. Cars do not drive on their side,
especially in the winter time to pass with snow removal. It does actually require either driving into a
neighbor’s driveway to let somebody pass or to drive off the road. Neighbors frequently place boulders in
their yard or place stakes to help control that damage to their yard and so that’s why Alex was requesting
the repair to damage that would be fully expected in this kind of situation so it is very likely, almost
unavoidable because of that. That is also part of the reason we are so concerned about the additional
traffic in the neighborhood. I don’t think what has been clearly stated is Hummingbird Road actually acts
as the cul-de-sac, the main point of access to the Shorewood property. You saw in the slide show that
Charles, the slope. The slope is actually more than 12% which is again supersedes or precedes civil
engineering standards and so even when the road is plowed in the winter, we’ve been having for example
it is not possible for cars to drive up Summit Road so it is again the brunt of Chanhassen that particularly
in winter weather, in any freezing conditions, even in rain conditions the entire neighborhood knows now
you choose and go to Hummingbird. We’ll even see this in the pattern of service vehicles now. With
garbage trucks in particular. The other issue that I want to point out why this is also I want your careful
consideration is an incident that my family suffered. I also want to clarify the preceding the bluff
ordinance. My house was rebuilt after a catastrophic loss of fire because it was inaccessible to fire
fighting equipment because of the conditions of the road. And also my neighbors house, which was
recently built in the late, or early 2000’s also, we both meet the bluff ordinance and so the neighborhood
22
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
as Charles said assumes large front lawns and in a sense no back yards. That’s kind of the culture to deal
with those considerations but again the issue that happened in the loss of my home to fire was that calls
were given to Victoria, Excelsior and Chanhassen. Only one of those crews could actually make it to my
yard because of the condition of the road. They could not come up Hummingbird. Excuse me they could
come up Summit and they could not get past the other emergency equipment because of the width of the
road and the conditions along the road itself so this is not a light matter why we bring these traffic and
safety concerns to your attention. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else that would like to address the council under the public hearing?
Okay. Is the applicant here? Good evening.
Steve Bona: Good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Excuse me. My name is Steve Bona
th
with Homestead Partners. We’re located at 525 15 Avenue South in Hopkins. Just for familiarity sake.
We’re a residential developer in the southwest and western suburbs of the Twin Cities. We have
neighborhoods currently going in Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, Edina, Mound and St. Louis Park just to
name a few and then tonight I’m just here to give quick response to some of the comments that were
made and then to answer any questions that you may have.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Steve Bona: Excuse me. Hummingbird Heights has full staff approval, as you know. It’s a variance free
proposal. There were many more questions or complex factors on the Shorewood side of the
neighborhood. Not necessarily the case here with this subdivision. We actually going into it, knowing all
the issues and concerns that are out there with the neighbors and the residents nearby, we proposed the
conservation easement so we were already doing that in Shorewood. In that plan and we thought it’d be a
great idea to carry over into this plan as well so we proposed that to Bon Generous and kind of worked
through the details of it and he thought that would work well so that is kind of how that came about.
Homestead Partners is a developer, as I mentioned. JMS Custom Homes is planned to be the
homebuilder. A sister company of our’s. They build custom single family homes. That is what we
propose in this neighborhood. Very nice homes. We’ve shown some of them to conceptual house plans
to the City of Shorewood during that PUD process. As was mentioned also we’ve met with some of the
neighbors throughout this process and we do have an open invitation to any of the neighbors if they
would like to contact me. I’m happy to meet with them at any time and one of the things that came out of
our most recent meeting was that front setback and Pete and I, Pete Knaeble my engineer, we were just
discussing whether or not the 40 feet is viable and we’ve looked at that previously. We have the bluff
setback in the rear to deal with, which is actually very tight and then there is a number of significant trees
that would also need to be removed in order to push each of the houses back and one has a bigger issue
than the other. But we are considering doing that anyway. It’s just a matter of if we can make it fit and if
there’s anything of a usable back yard at all so we’re going to look at that. That was a good suggestion
that came out of our meeting and it came up because the next lot in on the Shorewood side to the north
actually does have a 40 foot front setback so we would like it to match. Have the houses be somewhat
even as well and that’s another reason to look at it. The Shorewood plan, we originally came in with 6
lots and after many discussions with the City we reduced it to 5. City Council has approved our concept
and it was actually, the concept was actually for 4 lots. There’s already one buildable lot in that city so a
total of 5 and we had full staff approval for the project as well. So now we’re moving forward to
preliminary plat in the City of Shorewood. Plans have already been submitted and we are just waiting for
the Planning Commission meeting which is upcoming. The only questions that I have before any
questions that you may have of me, the fees that were calculated were based all on two single family lots
and I’m wondering, I tried to reach Bob today but I wasn’t able to get ahold of him but the park
dedication fees. We already have one existing lot and so one thing I’d just like clarified moving forward
is whether or not it’s two times or one times specifically for park dedication and then some of the
23
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
connection fees. It doesn’t have to be determined tonight but if we could look into that, that would be
appreciated.
Mayor Furlong: Well we should probably get it right if we’re being asked to approve it.
Kate Aanenson: The park director, Park and Rec’s Director said it’s two. I’m not sure the first one ever
paid so if you want to ask Mr. Hoffman, he can comment on that.
Roger Knutson: We’ll review that.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Steve Bona: Yeah, that would be great. And besides that if you have any questions for me I’m happy to
answer them.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for the applicant. Mr. Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Mayor. My only, and by the way thank you for coming
forward today. Is it Bona, is that correct?
Steve Bona: Yes.
Councilman Laufenburger: Steve Bona. Steve, my only question is regarding the road and I see from the
staff report that the dollars attributed to that road is $10,000. Do you have similar letter of credit with
Shorewood for their portion of what is Hummingbird turns into Summit? Do you have similar letter of
credit with them?
Steve Bona: It hasn’t been determined yet because we don’t have a preliminary plat approval but that will
come with it but they have already discussed that it would be 125% just like the City of Chanhassen
calculates their’s.
Councilman Laufenburger: So similar calculation?
Steve Bona: Yes.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. Thank you Mr. Bona.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Point of clarification. Can we go back to that last point you brought up about
your fees?
Steve Bona: Yes.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: The dedication fees and you need the clarification on that.
Steve Bona: Yes.
24
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Can we still approve that even without clarification or do you need that before
you would?
Mayor Furlong: I guess what I would ask of our City Attorney, if we go forward. If the council wants to
move forward with approval, if we could do it with a condition that staff clarify and adjust if necessary
the fees.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay. I just want to make sure I was understanding what was going on.
Mayor Furlong: Is that?
Roger Knutson: That’s fine and the issue in the park dedication is if they already paid a park dedication
for one lot or have they not. We need to confirm that. If they have not then they pay for two.
Mayor Furlong: So that’s a fact that needs to be determined and then depending on the outcome of that.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: And would that be in the development contract or the?
Roger Knutson: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. Mr. Bona, there’s been a lot of questions raised about traffic on the road.
Construction traffic. Delivery vehicles. Times of day and just where the vehicles are going to park.
What’s your expectation? What have you done in other areas? Are you going to be able to keep the road
clear of vehicles that are on site?
Steve Bona: Yes. The road will be clear. It will be challenging. It is narrow. We understand that.
We’re going to have to work with the building department, as was mentioned previously. Our building
company, JMS Custom Homes, I would recommend you know sits down with the building inspector up
front and formulates a plan for parking and for deliveries and whatever else is needed there. I think that’s
probably, I would look at this a little bit differently than most of the neighborhoods that we’re developing
in right now given a 16 foot wide road. And our building side is aware of that and we have discussed that
as well.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: So what are the specifications for Shorewood when it comes to traffic and
construction workers parking and deliveries being made? Are they consistent with Chanhassen standards
or are they not?
Steve Bona: I don’t know what the standards are necessarily in Chanhassen right now but what their’s are
and what the other cities are in this area that we work in, I don’t think that they necessarily have a, they
have the hours. The working hours but I don’t necessarily think that they have anything set for individual
house construction but in this case since it’s, and in Shorewood we haven’t gotten to that point yet but
I’m sure that the developer agreement will spell it out and there I would also recommend the same thing.
That we sit down prior to the first development equipment coming in and say, formulate the plan for
25
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
where the parking will be. There is a lot of property on, you know on site. There’s a lot of right-of-way.
We have areas to get off of the street to park and we’re just going to have to use that as best we can.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: But the road will be, to every extent possible passable.
Steve Bona: It has to be passable, we understand that.
Mayor Furlong: Yep. Okay. Alright. Other than the question that you raised on the park development
fees, did you have any other questions or concerns about the development contract or the conditions of
approval?
Steve Bona: I do not.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Mr. Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Just one more question Mr. Bona from me. Assume you receive the
approvals that are necessary, when do you expect that you would begin construction? Or that JMS would
begin construction. Have you put a time table together for this?
Steve Bona: We would like to start the first house as soon as possible. We would like to.
Councilman Laufenburger: I can appreciate that.
Steve Bona: I think we would like to begin, and it’s reasonable that we could start by the first of March.
th
March 15.
th
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. And does, let’s say March 15. Mr. Oehme, does our weight
th
restriction on our city roads allow something like that in the March 15 timeframe?
th
Paul Oehme: No March 15, road restrictions probably, typically aren’t on at that time. Starting right
st
around maybe April 1 I think they would go on and then third week in April maybe they would come off
so.
Councilman Laufenburger: So the restrictions really are, they’re not in place in the winter because the
road’s frozen and it can handle that.
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: It’s during the melting time when the restrictions really come into play.
Paul Oehme: Yeah, the thawing period of the frost so.
Councilman Laufenburger: And you’re accustomed to that Mr. Bona?
Steve Bona: Yes.
Councilman Laufenburger: In the past, okay. Alright. That answers my question, thank you.
Councilwoman Ernst: Mr. Mayor?
26
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Yes Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name.
Krisan Osterby: My name?
Councilwoman Ernst: Yes.
Krisan Osterby: Krisan Osterby.
Councilwoman Ernst: I really want to make sure that we’ve addressed your concern in terms of having
that road accessible to get to your house, and I’m not sure that I’ve heard whether it was the design of the
road. Whether it was traffic in the road and why was, why were the emergency vehicles not able to get to
your home?
Krisan Osterby: They couldn’t pass each other.
Councilwoman Ernst: Because of the traffic in the road.
Krisan Osterby: Well it was the width of the road and the width of the vehicles. There was trees on
either side and then there were a couple of emergency vehicles along with fire vehicles along with
sightseers essentially for lack of a better word.
Councilwoman Ernst: And do we feel that we’ve addressed that particular situation with the traffic and
the design of the road? I’m not hearing it and maybe it’s there. I’m just not hearing it.
Mayor Furlong: We’re not looking at any changes to the road.
Krisan Osterby: And part of the issue which again you don’t see in the plan…is it’s the slope of Summit
that makes Hummingbird essentially act as a cul-de-sac or conduit for this land… It’s the flat part of the
property and if there’s any kind of inclement weather, if it’s freezing or if it’s a large vehicle they cannot
come up Summit.
Councilwoman Ernst: And I’m not saying that we’re changing the design of the road. I’m just saying
with the design of the road the way it is today, have we addressed the traffic that accommodates that?
Steve Bona: From our point of view I think that we need to sit down with the building inspector prior to
that first house being built because in this case for these two lots, there’s not any development that needs
to occur here besides a service in the road so the house will start. That’s why the house will start fairly
quickly and sit down with the building I inspector and discuss how it works so there is a plan in place.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Oehme.
Councilwoman Ernst: I just want to make sure, I’m sorry.
Mayor Furlong: Nope, that’s fine.
Councilwoman Ernst: I just want to make sure we’ve addressed that situation because.
Steve Bona: We do too.
27
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Councilwoman Ernst: It’s pretty critical.
Jason Mills: Do you mind could I?
Mayor Furlong: Well Mr. Bona’s here right now so I just want to make sure that he has his opportunity.
Any other questions for the applicant? Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Yeah, I hadn’t heard an answer to one question. As far as work restriction
hours, what does Shorewood say? Are they compatible with what we have or do we have a difference of
timing?
Steve Bona: I think they’re very similar. I don’t know if they allow work on Sundays but again that is,
we’re still in the preliminary plat process so there hasn’t been anything other than what is in the ordinance
approved.
Councilman McDonald: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, anything else? Mr. Bona, thank you. Appreciate your time and comments.
Steve Bona: You’re welcome.
Mayor Furlong: Anyone else for the public hearing? Is it a follow up to what he just presented?
Jason Mills: Somewhat.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Jason Mills: And it has to do exactly with what we were just talking about, about the road and the traffic.
Mayor Furlong: Yep.
Jason Mills: Jason Mills, 6281 Hummingbird.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Jason Mills: My personal concern deeply concern that concerns me about this whole thing and this PUD
and the development going in is, at one point I counted the homes on this, in this area down
Hummingbird Road and Summit. Going down the hill. I think it was 19 homes that we have there in our
neighborhood and so this development is going to be 6 to 7. It’s going to be 6 basically with possibly 7
down the road. My concern is that our road is 16 feet wide.
Audience: 15 6.
Jason Mills: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, let’s try to keep it moving. Keep going.
Jason Mills: Okay, so bear with me. It’s very narrow road. It’s a very quaint neighborhood. Myself,
including the rest of the people that live there love the place but I have a personal concern that as far as
traffic goes, that road is about at the threshold right now of what it can handle and I might be wrong, and I
28
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
might be right. I don’t know but I think it takes deeper concern by whomever is in charge of all this to
take a look. We put in 7 more homes. Let’s say that your average 35 year old, 40 year old couple with 2
kids. You know they each got 2 cars. That’s another 14 vehicles or whatever etc. That might over
burden our road as far as convenience, safety, fire trucks, the UPS guy, garbage trucks, etc. Okay? I’m
not in charge at all but I just want to plea my case to you people to please look into it. I’ve reached out to
Steve at Homestead. We’ve had a meeting already and we’re going to do that again to try to work
together to see you know, I understand that he is empathetic to our cause but I understand too is that we
know that people are going to develop. This property was there. You know development is there. It’s
going to come. Profit. We all understand that okay.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. I’m trying to understand then if we knew that development was going to
come, but you’re also saying the road can’t handle it.
Jason Mills: Right I know, that’s the problem. It’s a conundrum. I mean it, yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you.
Jason Mills: Yeah. Yeah. Help us figure it out.
Mayor Furlong: Alright.
Jason Mills: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thanks. Ma’am.
Marilyn Zupnik: Marilyn Zupnik, 6200 Hummingbird Road. I was going to mention that we measured
the road right in front of us which is across the street from the Chanhassen portion and it was 15 feet. I
just, that’s what we got our measurement directly in front of the area in question.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Marilyn Zupnik: And just, you just mentioned we knew that development was coming. For all these
years we knew the property would be sold. We had no idea to, that a proposal would come along that was
any different than what was built in the last, well almost 24 years that we’ve been there. There have been
5 or 6 houses built, mostly across the street since we moved in and each one was built by an individual
owner with a lot of space around them and each one was a beautiful addition because of the space and the
different character of each house so that’s what we assumed would happen with this beautiful piece of
land and we still, I still hope it will happen so that’s what we were thinking.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. That’s helpful, thank you. Anyone else that would like to address the council on
this?
Charles Liedtke: Just one more point. Charles Liedtke again, 6231 Hummingbird Road. The $10,000 is
a nice gesture. It’s grossly inadequate. We spent $1,000 to sealcoat our driveway. We don’t know what
it will be. That’s a guesstimate. We think it’s a good start but we heard from staff it might cover the
majority. That means we still might be on the hook for $9,000 of an estimate so I just encourage you to,
well going back doing more in-depth traffic analysis but also we would ask for more on the letter of credit
just to protect us. We are citizens in the community. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Mr. Oehme, you know we need to, twice is probably too many. I’ve
tried to be lenient so, thank you for understanding. Mr. Oehme with regard to the concerns raised about
29
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
the financial obligation for the letters of credit and such like that, how did you come up with that amount
and what was the basis for it?
Paul Oehme: Again that’s our typical letter of credit for these type of projects where they’re digging into
the roadway for service connections and for deliveries and degradation to the road. You know that’s our
standard that we’ve always put on other properties such in the Carver Beach area and we’ve seem that
we’ve at least always covered ourselves so you know if the, so.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright, thank you.
Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you. Paul, if for some reason $10,000 doesn’t cover the cost of
returning that road to it’s original state, what’s your out? What’s your outcome?
Paul Oehme: We can always, we just talk to the City Attorney and see if there is any other obligations
that we can ask the developer to put towards a project like that.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Knutson.
Roger Knutson: Mayor, members of the council. If the letter of credit is not adequate we can go after the
developer who signed the development contract to fulfill all the obligations under the development
contract.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you. That’s the language I was looking for. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. And then another issue Mr. Knutson that’s come up, and that is the use of
Hummingbird Lane for access to property in Shorewood has come up a few times. Help all of us
understand what limitations, restrictions can be put in place. Are typically put in place with regard to
access. Using a public road from one city to another.
Roger Knutson: My experience it’s pretty typical. I mean that’s what roads are for.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. So there really isn’t a limitation that can be placed upon the use of a public road?
In a city for, to access for property in another city.
Roger Knutson: No.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Anyone else for the public hearing? If not, is there a motion to close
the public hearing?
Councilman McDonald: So moved.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Ernst: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Any discussion on the motion?
30
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded to close the public hearing. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The public hearing was
closed.
Mayor Furlong: Let’s bring it back to council then for comments, discussion and a motion.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ll start Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom, thank you.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: As I’ve been listening to this whole discussion tonight, this is my third term
as a City Council member and I think this is probably the first discussion I’ve had or we’ve had with a
neighborhood that’s been so professional and so I really want to thank you for that. Thank you for
coming out tonight especially I think it’s probably the coldest night we’ve had in 35 years and so
obviously this is important to you and it’s important to us that you know we get this right so you continue
to have that quality of life that you so love in the town that we love, Chanhassen. So I also want to
sympathize with you because you’ve been battling two city halls, not just one so you guys have been
doing double duty on your mission to make sure that, like I said this project turns out right and I’m
impressed that you’re not saying don’t let this happen but you’re saying make sure it happens the right
way and I’m hoping that tonight you feel like we’ve made progress in that direction and that a lot of your
issues were discussed and hopefully in our council meeting minutes and also in our packet there will be
all those items that we’ve addressed, recognized and so I think we talked about the roads and hopefully
you will feel a little bit better about if there is any damage to the roads that you know there is a plan put in
place. You have the $10,000 and if that doesn’t seem to be adequate there are legal ways to go ahead and
make sure that is going to be satisfactory to you. I’m impressed that you love your road. Most people
come here and they don’t like their road. It’s not big enough and it’s you know not safe enough and so I
saw that big, beautiful tree there and I love that neighborhood. That Hummingbird neighborhood is,
Melody Hill, it’s a beautiful place and so I think some of the other addresses were traffic and I understand
that too. If the bus isn’t coming to pick your kids up at the bus stop and you’ve got to drive and then
you’ve got to maneuver around semi’s or trucks coming in unloading wood. Concrete trucks. Just
construction traffic in general. Even just dirty roads. I can see where that would be a hindrance to you
and your quality of life and so I’m hoping also that that can be worked out with the developer so you both
can kind of live with each other during that brief time when these homes are being built. I think another
question was about drainage and hopefully that was answered too and hopefully you know you can work
with our city engineer and make sure, and the developer and make sure that you know once again we all
can live in harmony with our new neighbors so like I said, I really want to thank everybody. I want to
thank the neighbors. Staff. Council and the developer for really working together tonight in trying to
make this something that’s viable and like I said, that we can all feel good about and hopefully you’re
going to like your new neighbors so thank you very much and I’m in favor of this project.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other discussion. Comments. Motions. Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll go. Yeah I’ve been pretty quiet but I’ve been listening to all this and I guess
what it comes down to is, yeah we can only vote based upon certain criteria and I think we’ve gone
through all of this tonight. It looks as though all the requirements are going to be met. Based upon that,
not being able to find anything where there’s a violation of any rules of ordinance, our hands are tied. We
have to vote yes. I can sympathize with everything that’s going on. Change is very difficult and this is
definitely going to be change to your area. Again as Councilwoman Tjornhom said, I hope that once the
new neighbors get in everybody can get along they will appreciate the uniqueness of this area so I mean I
have not heard anything tonight that would say I could vote against this so I would vote for it also.
31
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other comments? Discussion. Motions. Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Well I’ll just kind of repeat what’s been said already but you know I think that
we’ve addressed, I hope that you feel that we’ve addressed all your concerns tonight. Traffic and safety
are some of the big issues out there from what I’m hearing from all of you and the developer has
committed to working…that we’ve taken care of that issue. We’ve also addressed the runoff. The
setbacks and I really think that you know the developer working with staff and all of you that will be able
to come up with a win/win situation. But I too want to thank all you for coming tonight and some of you
a second time up at the podium. Really appreciate your comments. That’s what it’s all about is being
able to voice your opinions. You are the government so thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other comments?
Councilwoman Ernst: And I’m sorry, I support the project.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Mr. Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Accolades to those people who have done great
research and great preparation and special recognition to those people that find it difficult to speak in
public because I know when you stand in front of that microphone a big lump gets in your throat and I
thought all of you handled that very, very well. Our responsibility, as Mr. Knutson so well reminded us is
to address the legal requirements of the City of Chanhassen. It’s one of the reasons, quoting Mr. Liedtke,
we love Chanhassen. We don’t have to love Shorewood or Victoria or Eden Prairie or Chaska. All we
have to make a decision about is Chanhassen. That over which we can, we have some influence so we do
our best to do that so our responsibility, as Mr., as Councilman McDonald also stated is we have to follow
the guidelines that are in front of us. Also Mr. Knutson, you can correct me if I’m wrong but we’re
actually making two decisions tonight. The first is a metes and bounds decision on the subdivision and
then the second decision we’re making is regarding the development contract, is that correct?
Roger Knutson: They’re really tied together, yes. You’re asked to approve both.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. So clearly there is little latitude for us to either approve or deny on the
metes and bounds subdivision because if it meets the ordinances we really are obligated to approve it, but
we can influence the development contract. More importantly the performance against the development
contract and I see in Mr. Bona a gentleman who’s very interested, comes to us with a spirit and an attitude
of cooperation and I think that he made that very clear to us. I hope that he’s also made that clear to the
neighborhood as well, and if you challenge that in any way please, address it with Mr. Bona because he,
at least for the while, he’s going to be your neighbor. He’s going to be a citizen of your community.
Some in Chanhassen. Perhaps some in Shorewood as well. I’m pleased that there’s acknowledgement
that development will occur because I think that Chanhassen as a population right now, correct me Ms.
Hokkanen, 22,952. That will continue to grow and, close enough? Okay. That will continue to grow and
in that growth will be people who like Mr. Liedtke and his neighbors will love the neighborhood that they
live in and we should openly welcome those people as long as they can be good citizens like the citizens
of Murray Hill. Mr. Mayor I’m prepared to support both the metes and bounds subdivision and the
development. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. I’ll try to keep my comments short in that I agree with the appreciation for
those who spoke at the public hearing, as well as who have worked with our city staff and city staff as
well. And Mr. Bona and his firm for working with our staff and continuing to show that desire and
saying it here that they want to keep doing that throughout the process and that will be very important to
making this successful as possible for everyone involved. With regard to the issue before us on the metes
32
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
and bounds definition, staff has represented that there are no variances being requested. That it does meet
our ordinances. I didn’t hear anything that said that it didn’t meet our ordinances so then the question is
how, you know the biggest issue came up was the road and while it’s not something we’re dealing with
tonight, I think for city staff to think about and the residents too is, right now looking at the staff report
Hummingbird Lane was last sealcoated in ’99, is that right? So again trying to do the math. 14 years.
That’s pretty good for it to still have a pavement rating in the mid to low 70’s. Knowing how we deal
with roads, and we’ve got a group of residents here that, with Kiowa Trail that’s looking at being
reconstructed, that quality of pavement could fall off rather quickly even if these homes weren’t built.
But the next time that this road comes up for reconstruction I think it should be seriously considered to be
widened to as close as possible to our current city standards for all the reasons that were mentioned here
tonight about the narrowness. Cars not being able to pass. You know pedestrian traffic. Bike traffic.
Conflicting, the traffic. Obviously you’re not going to get rid of the hill on Summit. That’s going to be
there and so, while that may affect the character of the neighborhood, from a safety standpoint I think it’s
something that the city and the residents should seriously consider. That doesn’t address the issue here
but based on comments made by staff there may be additional subdivisions in the future. I think part of
the challenge here is that but for Ms. Osterby’s home being reconstructed after the fire it looks like in
2008, there hasn’t been much construction up here for 20 plus years. That will be different. There will be
change and that’s why I think it’s incumbent upon and I appreciate Mr. Bona’s willingness to work with
staff to make sure it’s done in a way that is the least intrusive as possible. But with regard to the matters
before us tonight, I think it does meet the ordinance. It should be approved and the development contract
should be approved with the exception of the one issue. Request on the park and trail dedication fees.
Make sure that’s verified and adjusted and give staff the option. The ability to verify that and make that
adjustment. And with that if there are no other comments would somebody like to make a motion?
Councilwoman Ernst: I’ll make a motion.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: I make a motion that City Council approve the two lot metes and bounds
subdivision of Hummingbird Heights subject to the conditions of the staff report and adopts the Findings
of Fact and Decision and the development contract.
Mayor Furlong: And then what sort of language Mr. Knutson should we have with regard to the park and
trail dedication fees?
Roger Knutson: Subject to confirming that park dedication’s required on both lots.
Councilwoman Ernst: Subject.
Mayor Furlong: What he said?
Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah what he said.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah, okay. Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Laufenburger: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing
none we’ll proceed with the vote.
33
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Laufenburger seconded that the Chanhassen City
Council approves the two-lot metes and bounds subdivision of Hummingbird Heights subject to the
following conditions and adopts the Findings of Fact and Decision:
Building:
1. Appropriate permit(s) required for the demolition or moving of any existing structures.
2. A final grading plan and soils report must be submitted to the Inspections Division before
building permits can be issued.
3. Retaining walls over four feet high require a permit and must be designed by a professional
engineer.
4. Each lot must be provided with separate sewer and water services.
Engineering:
1.A $10,000 security must be provided to ensure that the street is restored following the
installation of sewer and water services to Lot 2. The security can be released when the City
determines that the patch is in good condition after one freeze-thaw cycle.
2.Sewer and water hookup charges are due for both parcels, a portion of which shall be
collected with the subdivision:
Water: 2 units x $1,886/unit = $3,772
Sewer: 2 units x $664/unit = $1,328
The remainder of the water and sewer hookup fees shall be paid with the building permit at
the rate in effect at that time.
3.The City Attorney shall draft and the developer shall execute a “Grant of Permanent
Easement for Public Drainage and Utility Purposes” document. This document shall be
recorded with the metes and bounds subdivision.
4.The City Attorney shall draft and the developer shall execute a “Preservation Easement”
document. This easement shall restrict the removal of vegetation to allow for only the
removal of invasive vegetation or noxious weeds and only after the removal has been
reviewed and approved by the City. The document shall also forbid any topographic
alterations or placement of fill materials except as is necessary to correct demonstrable
erosive conditions provided a plan is developed by a licensed civil or soils engineer or a
licensed geologist or soil scientist. In the event this easement is vacated, Storm Water
Management Fees, as listed in Section 4-30 (c) 3 of the City Code, shall be due for the
vacated area at that time. This document shall be recorded with the metes and bounds
subdivision.
5.Storm Water Utility connection fees totaling $5,336.10 shall be collected with the
subdivision.
34
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
6.A plan showing the design of the rain garden features along with details and specifications
shall be provided for review and approval.
7.The proposed location of the rain gardens shall be moved such that it treats water from the
driveway and/or road area and so that there is not a concentrated flow condition to the bluff
area.
8.The applicant must provide a letter from Minnehaha Creek Watershed District stating that the
development is in compliance with their stormwater management and erosion control rules.
9.An operations and maintenance manual describing the schedule for anticipated inspections
and maintenance of the rain garden areas and indicating who is responsible for the long-term
care and maintenance of the features unless included with MCWD submittal and approval.
10.A $5,000 security must be provided to ensure that the rain garden features are constructed on
lots 1 and 2. The security can be released when the City confirms that they have been
constructed per design and have adequately performed through one full growing season.
11.A Surface Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) meeting the requirements of the
NPDES construction permit shall be provided for review and comment.
12.The applicant shall provide proof that the NPDES permit has been applied for and received
from the MPCA. This can be in the form of the permit number.
13.All erosion prevention and sediment control shall be installed prior to any earth-disturbing
activities. The city shall be contacted to inspect that this condition has been met.
14.All applicable details shall be included in the plan set and shall be specific to the proposed
improvements.
15.The detail for the bioretention facility shall be modified such that it does not include in situ
soils materials.
16.The underdrain shall be fitted with a mechanism to restrict flow to the outlet. A geotechnical
report or percolation testing report indicating that the area is not conducive to infiltration as
described in the MN Online Stormwater Manual can be submitted in lieu of this.
17.Silt fence or other perimeter controls shall be installed to protect the rain garden areas from
all construction-related activities and shall be placed as far from the top of bluff as is
reasonable to allow adequate room for construction equipment yet protecting the bluff.
18.The plans should call out for all infiltration/filtration areas that they are to be protected from
all construction related activities throughout the duration of the project.
Park and Recreation:
1.The developer shall pay park dedication fees at the rate in force upon final plat approval for
the two lots prior to recording the property deeds.
35
Chanhassen City Council – January 27, 2014
Planning:
1.Deeds for the two parcels shall be submitted to the city for review and approval and then
recorded at Carver County.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Laufenburger seconded that the Chanhassen City
Council approve the development contract for Hummingbird Heights conditioned upon the
applicant shall supply the City with a cash escrow or letter of credit for $17,655.00 and pay a cash
fee of $22,531.10, and subject to staff confirming that park dedication is required on both lots. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: Let’s take, and I hate to do this for everybody that just sat through that and is interested
in the next item but at 5 to 9:00 here, let’s take a short break. We’ll reconvene. We’ll recess now and
reconvene at 9:00 and I appreciate everybody’s understanding.
(The City Council took a short recess at this point in the meeting.)
Mayor Furlong: I’d like to reconvene the Chanhassen City Council. Continue on with our agenda items.
2014 STREET RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT: PUBLIC HEARING FOR KIOWA TRAIL.
Mayor Furlong: Let’s start with a staff report please then we will have a public hearing as well so Mr.
Oehme, good evening.
Paul Oehme: Good evening. Thank you Mayor, City Council members. So tonight I’d like to review the
Kiowa Trail proposed improvements for 2014. So the agenda for tonight, I’d like to quickly just talk
about the project background. The project scope and talk about the Springfield connection associated
with this project proposed tonight. I have with me tonight is Tom Sohrweide. He’s with SEH engineers.
They are the ones that helped the City draft the traffic study for this project. I’ll also review the cost and
the financing for the project. Schedules for the project and open it up for public hearing would be the
request. So with that, the project is actually split out into two areas in town. The north side of, one of the
areas is the Minnewashta Shores neighborhood. That is proposed to be held for a public hearing on
th
February 10 but tonight we’d like to focus on the Kiowa Trail improvements. In total there’s a little
over one miles worth of streets that the City is proposing to reconstruct. Kiowa Trail is a narrow rural
section roadway. It varies in width between 23 and 25 feet. From our records the last time major
improvements were completed was in 1978. It was sealcoated several times and a pavement condition
index that we rate our streets with is currently at 13 which is very low considering 100 is a brand new
street. So it is within our reconstruction areas. Or recommended for reconstruction. So with that we are
recommending a full depth reconstruction of the street to it’s current geometry and width. We did take
soil borings and there is a lack of sub-grade material to support a new roadway section so we want to dig
that clay material out and replace it with a heavier duty pavement section. 18 inches of sand. 10 inches
of Class V material which is a gravel and 3 1/2 inches of bituminous. We also in our typical section of
roadway we would install draintile to help with the drainage of the sub-grade and this also allows
property owners to connect into their, their sump pumps into the draintile so it doesn’t discharge onto the
road and cause ice damage or other degradation to the road as well. The street width, we are proposing to
maintain it to it’s current width. This area has some topographic challenges and some steep driveways.
In order to widen out the road or change the grade of the road it would impact negatively some of the
driveways so we don’t want to decrease or make some of these driveways steeper or worst condition than
36