CC MinutesChanhassen City Council – March 13, 2017
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Mr. Mayor I’d like to make the motion that the City Council
approves the request for an on-sale beer and wine license to Eric Liu, dba Soya Sushi and Grill
contingent upon receipt of a Certificate of Liquor Liability Insurance.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright we have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. McDonald I’ll give that one to you. Any discussion?
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council
approves the request for an on-sale beer and wine license to Eric Liu, dba Soya Sushi and
Grill contingent upon receipt of a Certificate of Liquor Liability Insurance. All voted in
favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Laufenburger: Eric, Mr. Liu, good luck to you. You have the approval and we look
forward to having you joining the business community here in Chanhassen. Best of luck to you.
Eric Liu: Okay thank you very much.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you.
COLONIAL SQUARE – APPROVE VARIANCE TO ALLOW A WALL SIGN ALONG
THE EAST FAÇADE OF THE BUILDING, AND A MONUMENT SIGN TO BE
LOCATED WITHIN THE PARKING LOT’S 10 FOOT SETBACK ON PROPERTY
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ZONED CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT LOCATED AT 400-412 WEST 78
STREET. OWNER/APPLICANT: VERNELLE CLAYTON, COLONIAL SQUARE
LLC.
Mayor Laufenburger: Do we have a staff report?
Kate Aanenson: Yes we do. This is one of the rare ones where a sign variance always goes up to
the City Council. I think that might be a future discussion of whether or not you want to
continue to do them that way but this was reviewed by the Planning Commission at their April,
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excuse me their February 21 meeting and recommended 6-0 for the two variances. So this is a
variance for Colonial Square to allow for two variances. It’s located at the corner of Galpin and
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West 78 Street, across from the Chapel Hill. It includes two addresses and is a relocation of a
business that was actually over where Chick-fil-A was. The property is zoned Central Business
District which is our highest intense use of commercial zoning district. Around it as I stated is
the school and then residential to the north. It is staying the proposed sign is currently legal non-
conforming and instead of going through the details here I think it’s probably more illustrative to
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kind of give you a little bit of the history of the site. December 14 a sign plan review was
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Chanhassen City Council – March 13, 2017
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approved and in 2016 they allowed permits for the entrances there. July 19 a permit was issued
for the south façade. East façade were not approved. This was a PUD that had restrictions on it.
As you might have noticed there’s a number of businesses that have relocated in there as we
were kind of moving things around in the core. So the pylon sign that’s on the corner there, it’s
really in the right-of-way. It’s just north of the fire hydrant but it’s non-conforming. So the
current owner now that needs a place where it wants to put a sign on the wall. We are
recommending approval of that. It does meet the criteria for the wall sign as far as all the
standards. And then replacing the pylon sign with a monument sign that meets city code and that
would also accommodate all the users on there as opposed to the old Colonial Square Shopping
Center sign. So one of the concerns that we had, we did go verify this with engineering. If we
move that back. Making sure we’re not, that’s a busy corner there with people going into the
school, to make sure that we weren’t blocking any sight distance lines and it’s actually going to
be a better situation there. So this is how it looks today and again the question came up with the
fire hydrant at the Planning Commission so it’s actually going to be a good situation and again
the Planning Commission did recommend approval 6-0. So with that we’re recommending that
the City Council approves the two variance requests. One’s for the pylon sign and the other, or
excuse me the monument sign and then the other one is for the wall sign and I’d be happy to
answer any questions that you may have.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Ms. Aanenson. Council any questions for staff? Mr.
Campion.
Councilman Campion: The monument sign, will that include all the residents there because
there’s more than what’s shown right now right?
Kate Aanenson: Yes and they have an opportunity to advertise on there. It’d be their, you know
whoever wants to.
Councilman Campion: But the sizing will be as proposed here?
Kate Aanenson: Correct. That’s all the bigger it could be, correct.
Councilman Campion: Okay.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, Councilmember Ryan.
Councilwoman Ryan: Just a question in terms of the, it said the applicant expressed concern. It
was about the condition of a window signage along the east façade. Could you just speak to that
please?
Kate Aanenson: Sure. So originally instead of going for the variance for the wall sign, staff had
indicated a way to do that was to put in a window sign and they didn’t want to do that. They
wanted both so ultimately the city ordinance does allow for window signs. Those also can be
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Chanhassen City Council – March 13, 2017
electronic so we were just stating that you know you’re facing the school area and it would
actually duplicate. We did discuss that. We actually asked the Planning Commission to give us
some consideration and they didn’t want to limit that because other businesses were allowed to
do that so that was the discussion on that.
Councilwoman Ryan: And so this is a better option than the window sign is that or are they just
very separate issues?
Kate Aanenson: Two separate issues. They wanted to maximize their ability to advertise and
didn’t want to be limited.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay. But that’s off the table and that’s why we’re just dealing with just
the monument sign?
Kate Aanenson: That’s how the Planning Commission saw it, that’s correct.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any other questions of staff? Did you comment, did you hear anything
from Chapel Hill Academy about this?
Kate Aanenson: No we didn’t and nobody spoke against it at the Planning Commission either
and I think that’s why they felt like there wasn’t strong feelings regarding the window sign or the
wall sign somebody would have probably attended or written us a letter.
Mayor Laufenburger: And Ms. Aanenson just one last question. Are these variances
inconsistent with other similar variances agreed to or denied in the city?
Kate Aanenson: They are consistent with others correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Consistent with others that have been approved, is that correct?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. And the, just to comment. Your first question that preceded this
was does the council want to see these things in the future.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: I would say that I don’t think there’s anything that would compel us to
change the way we’ve done things. If it comes to the Planning Commission it’s worthwhile even
it comes to us in some form I think it’s appropriate that the council continue to do that so at least
that’s my view at this time.
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Chanhassen City Council – March 13, 2017
Kate Aanenson: Great.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay? Alright. Any other question or motion from council? Oh just a
second. This does not require a public hearing or does it?
Kate Aanenson: No it does not. The public hearing was held at the Planning Commission.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. It’s alright. My ears. I pay attention to what you say Mr. Knutson
because you are the legal authority most often.
Roger Knutson: Sometimes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Mr. Campion please.
Councilman Campion: The Chanhassen City Council approves the variance request to allow a
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wall sign along the east façade of the building at 400 to 416 West 78 Street and a monument
sign located within the parking lot’s 10 foot setback subject to the conditions of approval and
adopts the attached Findings of Fact.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Mr. Campion. We have a valid motion. Is there a
second?
Councilwoman Ryan: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilmember Ryan. Any further discussion?
Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Ryan seconded that the Chanhassen City
Council approves the variance request to allow a wall sign along the east façade of the
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building at 400 to 416 West 78 Street and a monument sign located within the parking
lot’s 10 foot setback subject to the following conditions and adopts the attached Findings of
Fact:
1. The applicant must apply for and receive the required sign permits from the City.
2. The applicant must enter into an encroachment agreement with the City in order to locate
the ground low profile sign within the drainage and utility easement.
3. The wall sign on the east façade must comply with all provisions of the city code, and the
Colonial Square Shopping Center Exterior Building Sign Plan, excepting the provision in
the later that limits signage to the south elevation.
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Chanhassen City Council – March 13, 2017
4. The ground low profile sign must meet the sign code’s design criteria, and follow the
standards for the Central Business District (CBD).
5. The ground low profile sign may not be located within the sight distance triangle depicted
in the attached.
6. If the ash tree is removed, a tree must be replaced with one shade tree. The tree shall be a
minimum size of 2” diameter.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
ALTERNATIVE URBAN AREAWIDE REVIEW (AUAR) – AUTHORIZE SUBMITTAL
TO ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY BOARD.
Mayor Laufenburger: Staff report, is that you Ms. Aanenson?
Kate Aanenson: Yes. Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. This is a continuation
of the environmental document that you authorized the City to undertake and to get you up to
date of where we are on that. We did hold an open house a couple weeks ago and the dates of
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that are in, was Tuesday, February 28 and then a week later we had a public meeting at the
Planning Commission to take public comment on that so what you’re doing tonight is just
authorizing publication. This requires publication in the Environmental Quality Board and that
comment period is open for 10 days. We did extend that a couple more days so we have
received comments and some of those comments were included in your packet. We do not have
all the Planning Commission attached yet but our goal then is as we send it out to all state
agencies, as required, and then we’ll also send it to some of our neighboring communities and
the county to get their comments because we want to make sure we’ve addressed those as we’ve
moving forward for the preliminary plat. But so this, what you’re doing tonight is not weighing
in on it. You’re just saying we’re advancing it to go out for publication and then we’ll bring you
back all their comments with a recommendation on where we go from there. As you may have
noticed in the comments traffic was a big issue. Concern. We’re working to address those and I
think we’ve done a good job. Jon Horn has been managing that part of it and we’ll go through
that. You saw the boards that were presented and the same information was put in your packet
again but that is the information that was shared at the work session and at the Planning
Commission meeting. Again received a lot of good comments and we’re also collecting all those
emails too and addressing those as they come. So again tonight, unless there’s specific questions
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on the process itself. Again it will get published, we set it up on the 27 to get published on
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April 3 and then I think what I put in the staff report we’d be taking comments til I believe
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April 17. We wanted to give that hard deadline because that gives us a chance to analyze all
those comments. Again we had to have a minimum of 10 days and we’re giving them a little bit
longer on that. I also want to note that there are copies, obviously electronically online but
they’re available over at the library now. They’re in the catalog over there. You can just ask at
the counter. We also have copies here at City Hall during regular business hours anybody can
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