CC Minutes 9-14-20Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2020
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Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 4-0. Congratulations and welcome. Wish you the best of
luck. You thought that was going to be a long one. That was pretty snappy. Can’t wait to visit
you. Yes, thank you.
Charlie Howley: Mayor did you say 4-0?
Mayor Ryan: No that’s good, thanks for asking. No. She was not able to make this part of the
meeting but thank you for checking.
CONSIDER AN APPEAL OF THE CITY’S DENIAL OF AN ENCROACHMENT
AGREEMENT FOR RETAINING WALLS AND VARIANCES FROM THE CITY’S
PROHIBITION ON LOCATING STRUCTURES WITHIN DRAINAGE AND UTILITY
EASEMENTS LOCATED AT 6893 HIGHOVER DRIVE.
Kate Aanenson: Mayor I think the applicant would like to table this item so I’ll let them
formally request that. To have the item tabled.
Mayor Ryan: Okay, please come forward and state your name and address for the record.
Mark Kelly: Yes my name is Mark Kelly. I’m an attorney. I represent Larry and Joan
Synstelien who are present today. At the last meeting it became very apparent that it was in the
interest of the, both the city staff’s commentary or observations and the property owner to the
east with concerns of water flow which this project was all about redirecting water that hits my
client in the south from 4 lots. Capturing it. Redirecting it to the city street so that their property
wasn’t inundated. It’s an imperfect process. The neighbor to the east, I’m sorry I don’t
remember the lady’s name, was concerned. The city staff felt that some water may be flowing
towards that lot despite my client’s efforts and we filed an application for a building permit to
put essentially a small berm right along the lot line to capture all the water. Redirect it to the
north, to the street. Create a barrier for the property owner to the east and the city staff would, I
think would benefit, the City would benefit by having their comment, we’re trying to get to a
point where this matter is behind all of us and we’re done with it.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. So you’re working directly with city staff.
Mark Kelly: We have. I’ve been working with Mr. Ferraro and Mr. MacKenzie from time to
time and they need to be able to review and comment. Ask for clarification and then report to
you and to me.
Mayor Ryan: Okay so you’re formally asking that we table this item to a later date?
Mark Kelly: Yes Your Honor.
Mayor Ryan: Okay do we have a time?
Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2020
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Kate Aanenson: That’s what I was going to say. We also want to make sure that you’ve waived
any time.
Mark Kelly: Waive anything under 1599.
Kate Aanenson: Okay, that’s fine.
Mayor Ryan: I’m not sure what that means.
Mark Kelly: State law.
Kate Aanenson: The 60 day, yeah.
Mayor Ryan: Oh 60 days.
Mark Kelly: 60 day rules away.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. I’d like to think that I knew what it meant but I still want to make sure I
know. So when we table this, just for clarification for whoever makes the motion, if this is
tabled you’d like to have a date. Specific date or just 60 days?
Kate Aanenson: What we’ll do is review the permit and see if it, you know how it satisfies the
issue and we may be back here still trying to resolve it. It may resolve the issue and then we’ll
have to close, yeah. It would close the appeal.
Mayor Ryan: Okay, so it just needs to be tabled. We don’t need a date?
Roger Knutson: Correct.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Alright, thank you. Is council clear on that then? Okay. So if anybody
would on council would like to make a motion to table this item.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I make the motion that City Council tables this motion. Do we need
any numbers or anything?
Roger Knutson: No.
Kate Aanenson: No.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: With this, okay. Item number H-1. Does it matter?
Mayor Ryan: Perfect. We have a valid motion to table item number H-1. Do we have a second?
Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2020
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Councilman Campion: Second.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman Campion.
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the City Council
table item H-1 on the agenda. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with
a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 4-0 and it will be tabled.
Mark Kelly: Thank you Mayor and council.
Kate Aanenson: Mayor I’d also like to, there are residents following this issue so I just want to
make sure that we are transparent in keeping them in the loop so we have the name of some of
the neighbors that were at the Planning Commission and may be here tonight so we’ll make sure
we circle back so they understand where we are in the process and what’s going on. If that
makes sense.
Mayor Ryan: That would be great and if not I’m sure they will follow up so I appreciate it.
Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you.
Mark Kelly: Thank you Mayor.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you.
CONSIDER AN APPEAL OF THE BLUFF CREEK OVERLAY DISTRICT BOUNDARY
DETERMINATION MADE BY A CITY ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER FOR
PROPERTY LOCATED AT THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF HIGHWAY 212 AND
POWERS BOULEVARD.
Mayor Ryan: Kate have you caught your breath yet? Right I know. We went right up to it.
Well thank you. Alright next up we have item number 2 and that is an appeal of the Bluff Creek
Overlay District boundary.
Kate Aanenson: Yes, so this like the item before you would have heard is actually an appeal of
an administrative officer. You don’t see these too often but the Planning Commission serving as
the Board of Adjustment hears relief from ordinances but they can also appeal any decision made
by an administrative officer which would be the planning staff in most cases. So in this
circumstance, this was an appeal made by administrative officer so I’ll kind of just briefly go
through that. These are in some of your attachments but this regards the Bluff Creek Overlay
District so I’ll go into that in detail. But to help us based on the opinion that the staff had made
we went to an outside source and that’s included in your packet and that was WSB. So they