PC Minutes 6-18-19-verCHANHASSEN PLANNING COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
JUNE 18, 2019
Chairman Weick called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Weick, Mark Undestad, Mark Randall, John Tietz, Michael
McGonagill, and Laura Skistad
MEMBERS ABSENT: Doug Reeder
STAFF PRESENT: Kate Aanenson, Community Development Director; and MacKenzie
Walters, Associate Planner
PUBLIC HEARING:
CONSIDER CAMP TANADOONA SITE PLAN REVIEW FOR DEMOLITION OF
EXISTING DINING HALL AND CONSTRUCTION OF NEW DINING HALL AND
CONNECTION OF CITY WATER AND SEWER, DEVELOPMENT OF ACCESS ROAD
AND DROP OFF.
Walters: Yep so this is the Camp Tanadoona site plan. It will go before the City Council on July
8th and the applicant is requesting site plan approval for the construction of a new 10,500 square
foot dining hall in the location of the old dining hall. So a little bit of background. The location
is 3300 Tanadoona Drive. It’s two parcels. They combine for just over 104 acres. The land is
zoned rural residential and the 2030 land use plan guides it for public/semi-public use. It’s
currently used as a day camp, summer camp, field trip and event center and the proposed uses
zoning are all the same. Nothing is changing there. Little bit of background. Camp Tanadoona
is in the middle of a master plan to kind of refurbish and update the park. I believe the master
plan was finalized in 2012. In 2014 they constructed some new day camp villages, a tree house
learning center and a few other buildings which are shown in orange and they completed that in
2014 and they are now moving onto Phase 2 which is replacing the dining hall and then
connecting it to city water as well as realigning their sewer connection. So they are proposing to
remove the existing dining hall located here and construct a new dining hall in it’s place. The
new dining hall will have a 5,135 square foot footprint and they are proposing to connect the
dining hall to city sewer and water and realign some of the interior roads as well as adding some
parking stalls along the road for guests and visitors. I think it skipped a slide on me. Yeah sorry
my system’s a little slow today. Well I apologize. I’m not quite sure why it’s not moving. Well
let’s just go from my notes and it will catch up when it catches up. So I’ll let Kate work on that.
So I was going to give you a little bit of site context before jumping into the actual proposal.
The camp is bordered by Lake Minnewashta on the west. It is located, there it is. So there’s my
context slide. So it’s located, Lake Minnewashta’s on the west. There is a flood plain as well as
the 500 year flood plain but the proposed dining hall is well, well clear of the lake. It is located
within the shoreland overlay district but because the camp is well under the 25 percent lot cover
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and the dining hall is such a significant distance away that will not trigger any of the shoreland
overlay district ordinances. There are some wetlands on the site. Again the proposed area of
work is a significant distance from them. There’s no anticipated impact. The surrounding land
uses are primarily single family residential with a few planned unit developments but it’s all low
density residential and then there is the Westwood Church to the south which is located office
and institutional. So the dining hall, this is an interior shot of the dining hall. It will be a 10,500
square foot structure. Again it will be a little bit larger on the bottom than the top. The height as
the City calculates it is 17 feet 2 inches which is the average height from main floor grade to the
average height of the roof. It’s planned to have a 200 person seating capacity and the building
will feature a dining area, a commercial kitchen, program area, restrooms as well as some
storage. The architectural elevations are shown here. This is the north main entrance elevation.
Single level here and then the southern elevation is a walkout level. As you can see they’ve done
quite a bit to differentiate and break up the façade. They’ve used gabled architecture. Even
though I note in the report that because this is zoned rural residential they’re exempted from our
formal architectural standards. This building meets or exceeds all of them. It’s a very attractive
building and it’s well suited to it’s natural context. They’ve added a lot of nice amenities around
the site. They have a mulched walking trail with wood stairs to help facilitate transition from the
upper to lower level. They have a standing fireplace and patio to the north. Campfire circle and
patio to the south as well as a large deck. They’ll be screening the trash area here with a
retaining wall. They’re not proposing any standing lights or parking lighting and signage on site
is limited to directional and way finding. They are going to be using the camp in terms of the
access lot frontage and parking locations are going to be using the existing access onto
Tanadoona Drive I believe and they’re going to be putting in 20 foot deep stalls. Engineering
has asked that they consider slightly deeper. Just provide a little more cushion between traffic
and loading/unloading but the 20 foot stalls exceeds the 18 foot required by ordinance so it meets
code there. There’s going to be a 20 foot fire lane as well as a 12 foot turn around. I believe the
fire chief has indicated he would like to make sure the landscaping is clear of that to make sure
that it can accommodate the turn movements and because the roads are under 26 wide, 26 feet
wide they’ll need to be signed no parking fire lane. The road will be gravel and it will need to be
designed to a 75,000 pound design so that it can support the weight of a fire apparatus. You can
see that they are going to have kind of expanded parking area here to accommodate event
parking for when they’re using it as an event center but mostly the traffic is, you know people
dropping off kids and leaving so there isn’t a huge need for permanent on site parking. Speaking
of the utilities, the water will be stubbed in here. Run under the road and go to the building. I
believe they’ve discussed doing an alternate water access with the engineering department to
create a loop system. That way if maintenance was needed here they’d be able to still get water
service to the building. I believe that’s maybe done during a future phase but it’s certainly a
potential and then this is the proposed route for the sanitary sewer being routed up there. In
terms of grading, again it is going in the existing location. There’s a small retaining wall under 4
feet here near the trash enclosure. Any excess material moved will be stored here. It will create
a little bit of a berm and they’re proposing erosion control down throughout here. Landscaping
is again the context is primarily a wooded area. I think there’s going to be very limited removal
of trees and they’re planning on planting over a dozen additional trees for reforestation. The
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City’s natural resources coordinator has stated that it meets the landscaping requirements in
terms of foundation plantings and in terms of stormwater I believe that the watershed district is
requiring the installation of a rain garden because while the site is reducing the impervious
surface coverage it is not enough of a reduction to trigger an exemption from needing a physical
best management practice so they’ve recommended that a rain garden be installed and the
applicant is working with the Minnehaha Watershed District on that. Beyond that we did a quick
rundown of compliance with city code. As you can see it’s well under the maximum building
height. Well in excess of every required setback. In terms of parking is probably the only thing
worth noting. Camp Tanadoona is a very unique fixture of the community and it doesn’t slide
nicely into any of our existing parking categories. The city code does accommodate that and
allows for applicants to provide us with a statement of use describing you know how it’s used.
Typical parking demands and their plan for parking. Camp Tanadoona provided us with that.
They’ve been in business a long time. We’ve never had any issue. All their numbers make
sense and there’s abundant space that if they need to expand parking they would be able to so
staff is very comfortable with the proposed parking provided. Hard surface, the site’s 4 ½
million square feet predominantly open space. It didn’t necessarily seem practical to make them
calculate out exactly what small percentage was being covered especially as they are reducing
the impervious surface on site. But it does comply with all aspects of city code and we’d be
happy to answer any questions you have.
Weick: Thank you MacKenzie. Commissioners can jump in at this time if they have any
questions of staff. Yeah.
Tietz: I have one Steve.
Weick: Yeah.
Tietz: MacKenzie I didn’t notice in the report but are there, by hooking up to the sanitary system
is there any septic system left on the site?
Walters: I’ll defer to the Community Development Director on that.
Aanenson: I’ll answer that question. So we had them put a sewer system in. It goes out to the
shed just right now because it was, the septic system was failing so they took care of that a
couple years ago. That’s a part of their capital campaign so this is just extending it, yes.
Tietz: Thank you.
Weick: Anyone else? Questions. If not we will go ahead and have the applicant speak or tell us
about the project if you’d like.
Marnie Wells: Hi.
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Weick: Yes, thank you.
Marnie Wells: Thank you for including me. My name is Marnie Wells. I’m the CEO of
Campfire Minnesota and Camp Tanadoona and it’s an honor to be in front of you. We are very
excited to be in partnership with the City of Chanhassen. I will just say ask me any questions.
We have been around since 1924 so we’ve been a long time neighbor and our intention is to be
for at least another 100 years at least. We serve children throughout the year because we believe
nature is such an important catalyst for change. We know that kids are spending about 90
percent of their time in front of screens and the research is abundantly clear that when children
are disconnected and connected to nature that they do better in school. They’re more engaged in
their community and they’re physically healthier so we believe this is a win/win not only for the
children from the entire area but certainly a win as far as being one of the biggest neighbors in
the city of Chanhassen so if you have any questions I’d be happy to answer. If you want to come
out the gate we can open that right up and have you out. Thank you.
Weick: Yeah thank you so much and it’s a, you know it’s certainly an honor to have you in the
community as well.
Marnie Wells: Thank you.
Weick: It’s such a good use of a great piece of property. Questions? Anyone. Comments.
Tietz: It looks like a great proposal.
Weick: Yeah it’s beautiful.
Marnie Wells: Thank you.
Tietz: I think Kate I had a conversation with Kate I think last week but it looks like the lower
level then is a storm shelter as well right.
Marnie Wells: Correct.
Tietz: So you’re providing in addition to a great upper level.
Marnie Wells: Yes.
Tietz: And dining facility it’s a safety.
Marnie Wells: Absolutely. And flexible space. Absolutely yeah, thank you.
Weick: Great, well thank you very much.
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Tietz: And you have a nice new sign.
Marnie Wells: Yes we do.
Tietz: We approved that last year.
Marnie Wells: Yeah, caught some people’s attention, thank you.
Weick: Great so at this time we will open the public hearing portion. If anyone would like to
come forward and speak. Seeing no one jump up and come forward we’ll go ahead and close the
public hearing and at this time open it up for commissioner comment. Motions.
Undestad: I think it looks very nice.
Weick: Beautiful.
Undestad: It’s a beautiful site and a beautiful job.
Weick: Absolutely. These are fun. We can certainly entertain a motion if anyone so desires.
Undestad: I’ll make a motion. Chanhassen Planning Commission recommends approval of the
site plan for a 10,500 square foot dining hall, kitchen and program area building subject to the
conditions of approval and adoption of the Findings of Fact and Recommendation.
Weick: We have a valid motion. Do we have a second?
Tietz: Second.
Weick: We have a second. This item as a reminder will be in front of the City Council on July
8, 2019. Any further comment from any of the commissioners?
Undestad moved, Tietz seconded that the Chanhassen Planning Commission recommends
approval of the site plan for 10,500 square-foot dining hall, kitchen, and program area
building dated May 17, 2019 subject to the following conditions:
Building
1. The building is required to have automatic fire extinguishing systems.
2. Building plans must be prepared and signed by design professionals licensed in the State
of Minnesota.
3. Building plans must include a code analysis that contains the following information: Key
Plan, Occupancy group, Type of construction, Allowable height and area, Fire sprinklers,
Separated or non-separated, Fire resistive elements (Ext walls, Bearing walls - exterior or
interior, Shaft, Incidental use), Occupant load, Exits required (Common path, Travel
distance), Minimum plumbing fixture count.
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4. Detailed occupancy-related requirements will be addressed when complete building plans
are submitted.
5. Structure proximity to property lines (and other buildings) will have an impact on the
code requirements for the proposed building, including but not limited to: allowable size,
protected openings and fire-resistive construction. These requirements will be addressed
when complete building and site plans are submitted.
6. Retaining walls (if present) more than four feet high must be designed by a professional
engineer and a building permit must be obtained prior to construction.
Engineering and Water Resources
1. Provide top of wall and bottom of wall elevations for entire retaining wall build, which
includes retaining wall built below grade, i.e. bottom of wall.
2. Salvage existing topsoil and indicate all proposed stockpile location(s) on the plan.
3. Connection to the existing sanitary sewer manhole will require a core drill and
installation of a boot to facilitate a water-tight connection.
4. Appropriate city permits for construction within the public right-of-way shall be obtained
prior to construction. Work within city streets requires a traffic control plan.
5. A preconstruction meeting with Public Works and Engineering shall be scheduled by the
contractor prior to the connection of any public utilities.
6. All call-outs on construction plans that reference a detail shall be updated to incorporate
the sheet the detail is illustrated on and the detail number referenced for construction.
7. Watermain fittings shall be epoxy coated.
8. Hydrant lead pipe shall be C900 PVC.
9. The Contractor shall examine the existing 6-inch gate valve identified to remain. If mild
steel bolts are in-place on the valve or as part of the fittings the bolts shall be changed out
with stainless steel or Cor-Blue bolts.
10. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure and submit proof that permits are received
from all other agencies with jurisdiction over the project (i.e. Army Corps of Engineers,
DNR, MnDOT, Carver County, MCWD, Board of Water and Soil Resources, MPCA,
etc.).
Environmental Resources
1. All tree proposed for preservation shall be protected with tree preservation fencing
installed at the dripline or furthest point possible away from the trunk. Fencing shall
remain in place until construction is completed.
2. A walk through of the tree preservation fencing prior to start of construction is required.
Fire
1. Full Fire Alarm and Full Sprinkler system required in the new structure.
2. Hydrant locations are acceptable.
3. No parking Fire Lane signs and yellow curb paint will be needed on both sides of all
roads under 26 feet in width.
4. Parking shall be limited to designated parking spaces.
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5. Provide information showing that the gravel roadway can support up to 75,000 pounds.
6. All landscaping, rocks, planters, etc. will need to be kept back away from the roadway to
allow for proper turnaround of emergency apparatus. Additional space shall be provided
along the turnaround lane and entrance to allow for property maneuvering.
Planning
1. The applicant shall enter into a site plan agreement and provide the security required by it
prior to receiving a building permit.
2. The applicant may install directional and wayfinding signage as need for the safe and
efficient navigation of the site, provided it meets the height, size, and location standards
in section 20-1255(2) of the City Code.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0.
Weick: The motion passes unanimously.
Aanenson: So Chairman I just want to remind everybody that this, the reason we’re, they’re fast
tracking this to get through now is as soon as the camping season’s over they’re going to begin
construction so it gives them time now, we’re going to go to the City Council on the 8th for them
to get their plans put together. Construction plans and so just to let everybody know that’s the
neighbors. This will be kind of a fall project.
Weick: Perfect. Thank you.
McGonagill: And that was in the mailer to the neighbors so they kind of know the schedule?
Aanenson: Yep.
Weick: Thank you. Is there any other new business? No.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Commissioner Undestad noted the verbatim and summary
minutes for the June 4, 2019 Planning Commission meeting.
COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS.
Weick: Any commission presentations?
McGonagill: Yes Chairman the one comment I have.
Weick: Yes please.