CC Minutes 12-9-19Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019
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Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman McDonald. Council any other questions for either Mr.
Simich or I would stand, if not I would stand for a motion as well.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll make a motion Madam Mayor. I would make the resolution that
the City Council adopts a Resolution of Support for Southwest Transit.
Mayor Ryan: We have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second.
Resolution #2019-59: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded
to adopt the Resolution of Support for Southwest Transit. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 5-0. And Mr. Simich if you want to, once as you shared with
us in our work session the next steps for this resolution are what?
Len Simich: Sure. I will be meeting with, as I mentioned all of our core cities that form
Southwest Transit as well as some of our neighboring communities that do take advantage of the
services we offer. That will all be packaged together and be part of our legislative initiative and
we will actually be trying to introduce some legislation this year. We’re talking to some of the
area legislators. In the Senate Senator Osmek has been one of our main leaders so that’s really
our next step is trying to get some legislation drafted and this will like I said be the backbone of
that legislation.
Mayor Ryan: Perfect thank you and as Mr. Gerhardt mentioned in our work session we also put
together a list of legislative priorities as a council and share that with our legislators and we will
be adding this to the list as well to offer support.
Len Simich: Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Alright thank you.
AVIENDA PRELIMINARY PLAT/GRADING PERMIT EXTENSION.
Mayor Ryan: Alright perfect, going backwards now to Old Business. We have the Avienda
preliminary plat and grading permit extension.
Kate Aanenson: Alright thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. The action being
requested tonight is to grant an extension of the preliminary plat and the grading permit and I’d
just like to give a little bit of background on this because it’s been ongoing for a couple of years.
So back in July of 2017 the City granted preliminary plat. Our city code allows a certain
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timeframe that the final plat has to be executed so on June 25, 2018, within that one year period
they did do a final plat and then they also wanted to do the grading. In looking at t he grading
they decided they probably wanted to do some changes and just wanted to move forward with
the grading itself. So we asked that the City Council extinguish the final plat and just allow the
preliminary plat to move forward with the, with an extension. So that was done and we gave
them until the end of December this year so they would have to have that extended, the
preliminary plat for another year and that would permit the grading permit with the conditions
that were outlined in the previous. So the goal here then is that they would come back and they
want to make some changes to the final plat and amend the PUD so the goal that we’ve outlined
with them is that we would go back, meet with the City Council in a work session to kind of go
top down. Get your approval on some of those changes. There’s a resident here from the
neighborhood. They’re concerned that they want to make sure that they can see those changes so
before we would have a public hearing which is required as a part of the PUD, that they would
meet with the neighbors and then go through the process of a public hearing, the PUD and then
the final plat for that phase but with the grading permit that allows them to do some work.
They’ve got a number of months, the Level 7 team does to do the grading permit so it allows
them to work and the best conditions which would be winter conditions with the poor soils. So
the other thing with the grading permit approvals is one of the things that they have met these,
they’ve already done some of the wetland banking and taking those credits out so they’ve done
some of this. They’ve worked through the watershed district on the underground containment
system. It’s very complex. The other thing that they will have to do is provide the outlot with
the conservation easement on it and so that would be required. Then we also had that be staked
so some of those items have been completed but some of them before they get notice to proceed
they would have to demonstrate all those steps before they can get the notice to proceed for
grading. So with that the staff is comfortable. There’s been a lot of work put into this including
the Environment Assessment document. The AUAR which is almost you know a year process
going through all of that so we feel t hat we, it makes sense for both parties. The City and the
developer. Level 7 Development to extend it and as they stated in their letter that they’ll be
meeting with the City and that they will hopefully be under grading this spring. So with that we
are recommending approval of the extension with the conditions that are in the staff report.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Ms. Aanenson. Council any questions before we get an update from
Mr. Nordland, are you prepared to give an update? Okay. Any questions of Ms. Aanenson?
Alright Mr. Nordland are you, I think you know we’ll come back to some of the grading permit
if there’s any further questions there but as we have communicated with you it’s the one
frequently asked question at city events and emails that council gets is what’s going on with that
site and so with the understanding that you’re looking for an extension for the grading permit if
you could just give us a little update of where you are all at that would be great. So welcome.
Thank you.
Mark Nordland: Yeah no problem. Thanks for having us and thanks for the report. We do
intend to start grading this spring. I know I sound a little bit like a broken record. Hearing you
say it was 2017 I think when we got that first approval. I was shaking my head too. It’s a
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complex project we’ve all been through a lot of work to get it to this point. The markets have
been shifting on us as we know we’ve been putting this into place. As the retail market has
changed and housing markets have changed and we’re continuing to try to iterate so that we
build the right thing and we believe that we are close to having that laid out. There are going to
be some changes that we’re going to propose back to the council in work session which includes
some PUD amendments. They’re not, well I guess it’s yeah they…but we don’t believe they’re
significant changes. It’s the same types of uses. It’s some configurations within the site and
access that we’d like to propose but we do want to get going with grading as soon as possible. In
order to, well I was going to say keep momentum but to get momentum back within the market
place we need to start building that road and get the grading in place so. That’s where we are
today. If we could get this extension I believe it will be our last and we’ll be underway here this
year.
Mayor Ryan: Okay thank you.
Mark Nordland: Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Council any questions of Mr. Nordland? No? Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Okay as part of this, as I understand it you’re going to be coming back
and talking to us about the final plat. The drawing that is in here in our packet, is that what’s
changing or is this going to also be changing and basically everything on the inside is up for
grabs at this point?
Mark Nordland: Well we’re going to be back to you with what is substantially similar to this
plan yes.
Councilman McDonald: Okay so this is kind of the upgraded plan from what we saw before
because yeah it was laid out a little bit differently. As far as the central I guess business district
within this was before and so you’ll come back and explain what’s going on with the individual
buildings and will you have maybe some idea as to what kind of retail is going to be coming into
town at that point or?
Mark Nordland: We will have, we’ll update you as best we can at that time about what we’ve
got commitments for and then also what we’re trying to do. We can be completely forthright in
what we’re trying to do. As far as commitments I can’t tell you exactly what we’ll have locked
in but this, you’ll notice the big change that is in the plan in the packet is the collapsing of that
corner of the ring road to make it more pedestrian friendly. To make it so that the uses that are
outside the ring road aren’t as isolated from those that are inside the ring road. We had feedback
from retailers and the housing developers as well that it felt too isolated for those that were out,
you know coming into the inside of that with as many cars as will be probably coming to the
project.
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Councilman McDonald: Okay well.
Kate Aanenson: I think most of the square footage or the total number of housing units and the
square footage is pretty similar. It’s just the, it’s what those end users are going to be and where
they’re located but.
Mark Nordland: So we’re looking at adjusting right now it’s shown angled. We’re potentially
going to straighten that. I mean it’s not verbatim to this but it will be, it will be substantially
similar to this.
Councilman McDonald: Well yeah I notice there’s not as many big anchor stores as there were
before but I look forward to you coming back and explaining how all of this is changing and how
that’s going to make for a much better development and everything so yeah it has been a long
time and we have gone through a number of different changes so I appreciate your patience and I
hope you appreciate our’s by you know kind of hanging in there with you.
Mark Nordland: We do and we don’t take it for granted.
Councilman McDonald: Okay well thank you.
Mark Nordland: Thank you.
Councilman Campion: So sorry building off that. When is that that we will hear those updated?
Mark Nordland: In the next couple of months. We’re working on some dates here after the new
year. My guess is it’s February for a work session. Is that?
Kate Aanenson: That’s kind of what we’re talking about. That we were going to try to meet in
January and get a schedule put together for the council. For the neighbors. Planning
Commission.
Mark Nordland: Yeah and we do have the ability I believe to pull the grading permit with the
preliminary plat to start some grading work out there which we’re really trying to get some of
that as Ms. Aanenson mentioned the soil conditions, some of those areas are easier to do while
it’s actually frozen which is not typical but in this case it is so we’d like to be able to get out
there before the thaw to start some of that and then continue the grading and road work through
the summer and hopefully into the fall and be done then.
Mayor Ryan: And that actually leads to one of my questions. To feed off of that, how do you
start grading if you don’t totally know what the final plat is going to look like?
Mark Nordland: The approvals are based on the plan that had the complete ring road.
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Mayor Ryan: Right.
Mark Nordland: And the grades aren’t substantially different from that and we would have some
feedback from the work session hopefully that we’re not just totally going down the wrong path
with the City. Obviously you will need to approve any changes fro m the approved plan that’s
currently in place.
Mayor Ryan: Right.
Mark Nordland: So we understand that but if there’s general alignment that we’re heading
down the correct path then at risk we would go ahead and start the mass grading for the site and
especially the mucking out of some of the tougher soils during the wintertime and then while
we’re going through the PUD amendment and the final plat.
Mayor Ryan: And I’m sure it would have been highlighted in there that if you were going
outside of what was initially approved. That we’re not going into any of the protected areas.
The bluffs or the.
Mark Nordland: No the condition, well you can.
Kate Aanenson: I was going to say it’s a condition. We’ve had that discussion. The neighbors
are concerned about it. So typically before they get a notice to proceed engineering and planning
staff and the City Forester will actually walk the site and make sure it’s, the fence, snow fence is
up and the like. I also want to touch too on the grading. Those are fixed points and they have
been from the beginning where it’s going to tie into Bluff Creek Drive at both ends. It’s a fixed
point so those elevations really haven’t changed at all and then also the touch down at Lyman
Boulevard. From the very beginning all the environmental documents so it’s just some of that
internal, and we’re not at that granular level. I think what we were trying to do and with the
engineering was just making sure that the stormwater collection system and the sewer and water
and I think we found another way not to have to continue the depth of that sewer as we’re
looking at some of that so the grading overall at this level it should just match up fine.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor and council just to kind of maybe clarify some of Mark’s comments on
the, it had a ring road that would go from Sunset all the way down to Bluff Creek Drive and then
on the west side it went down to Bluff Creek Drive and what they’re thinking is the easterly part
of that ring road would be eliminated to bring the development closer together so you didn’t have
a public road separating the uses on the east side of the development so that would be a private
drive in that area to bring those uses closer together instead of having a public roadway
separating the development basically west of Powers to where the public street was going to be.
That would be more of a private street that would go up to Sunset and so it wouldn’t separate
those two uses.
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Councilman Campion: So does that translate to more parking stalls then or?
Mark Nordland: No. It’s ironically, well I guess it’s not ironic. We’re dealing with the same
basic footprint but the number of parking stalls, the number of square footage of buildings and
types and number of housing units is almost identical. I don’t want to say it’s identical because
there’s a couple but it’s substantially similar to what we had initially proposed. It really just has
to do with the pedestrian access between those areas and really getting people from the housing
to the retail and back and forth without feeling like, the last thing we want is somebody that lives
here to feel like they need to jump in their car to go someplace else within the development.
Unless they’re buying something very heavy but we want people to be able to, this to be a walk.
I mean we understand that a lot of people will still take a car to get here but once they’re there
we want them to be able to walk within the development.
Mayor Ryan: Okay any further questions? No?
Mark Nordland: Yeah we can get much deeper into it when we have the work session and I
really appreciate your consideration. Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Alright, thank you for being here tonight.
Mark Nordland: Thanks.
Mayor Ryan: Council any further questions of Ms. Aanenson or a motion?
Councilman Campion: I’ll make a motion.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Councilman Campion.
Councilman Campion: It’s a long one. So I’ll move that the City Council approves extension of
the preliminary plat until June 30, 2020 and permits grading as stated in the conditions listed
below and in accordance with the preliminary plat approvals. Item 1. Approval of the
stormwater permit by the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District. 2. Meet all
requirements of the WCA approval. 3. Receive approval of the plan set for grading in
stormwater by both the City and the RPBCWD. 4. Placement of Outlot A in a conservation
easement. The City shall review the easement language. 5. Boundary of Outlot A shall be
staked and inspected prior to grading. 6. Provide proof of withdrawal of the wetland banking
credits from the banks once the withdrawal is completed. And 7. Complete the withdrawal of
banding credits fo rm for the LGU review and signature.
Mayor Ryan: We have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Coleman: I’ll second that.
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Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Coleman seconded that the City Council
approves extension of the preliminary plat until June 30, 2020 and permits grading as
stated in the conditions listed below and in accordance with the preliminary plat approvals.
1. Approval of the Stormwater Permit by the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed
District (RPBCWD).
2. Meet all requirements of the WCA approval.
3. Receive approval of the plan set for grading an stormwater by both the City and the
RPBCWD.
4. Placement of Outlot A in a Conservation Easement. The City shall review the easement
language.
5. Boundary of Outlot A shall be staked and inspected prior to grading.
6. Provide proof of withdrawal of the wetland banking credits from the banks once the
withdrawal is completed.
7. Complete the Withdrawal of Banking Credits form for LGU review and signature.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 5 -0.
AMENDMENT TO CITY CODE CHAPTER 4, FEES.
Mayor Ryan: Alright back to New Business. Number 2, let me pull that up real quickly. This is
for amendment to city code Chapter 4, Fees. Mr. Sticha this is you?
Greg Sticha: Yep. Good evening Mayor and council. On an annual basis city staff reviews
Chapter 4 of city code which does, is about fees for the City that they charge for various items
that the City, the most significant of which that is reviewed on an annual basis is the City’s
utility fees of it’s water, sewer and surface water funds. There is one additional proposed
amendment in this year’s Chapter 4 amended ordinance in front of you and Ms. Aanenson may
comment on that briefly but before we get to that I’m going to go over kind of the process that
we took or went through to come to this evening and having the revised fees for our utility funds
in front of you. The process started early in the year with staff reviewing all of it’s utility
expected infrastructure and other costs. Earlier this year than anticipated we attempted to have
City Council have the report from Ehlers back to it by September. We were trying to
accommodate Ms. Coleman in her eventual happy baby that we got to see this evening so. We