CC Minutes 10-12-20 - ConsentCHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
OCTOBER 12, 2020
Mayor Ryan called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The meeting was opened with the
Pledge to the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Ryan, Councilman McDonald, Councilman
Campion, and Councilwoman Coleman
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilwoman Tjornhom
STAFF PRESENT: Heather Johnston, Kate Aanenson, Charlie Howley, Jake Foster, Jerry
Ruegemer, Greg Sticha and City Attorney Roger Knutson
Mayor Ryan: Again good evening everyone and welcome to our council meeting. To those of
you that are watching at home or livestreaming from the Chanhassen website, thank you for
joining us. For the record we have 4 of the 5 council members present tonight. Councilwoman
Tjornhom is absent with an excused absence. Our first action is our agenda approval. Council
members are there any modifications to the agenda as printed? Alright if not we will proceed
with the published agenda.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT:
Mayor Ryan: We have one public announcement tonight that’s not listed but we have a long
time retiree who’s in the room with us now. We have two. And Mr. Knutson I know you
weren’t looking for a big farewell ceremony but we wanted to recognize you and share with you
our appreciation for your long standing service to the City of Chanhassen so I’d like to read a
letter on behalf of council to you. Dear Roger, Mr. Knutson, back in 1983 the City hired you as
it’s city attorney. On behalf of the City Council I want to thank you for 37 years of service to the
City of Chanhassen. People who have worked with Roger over the years will tell you that his
commitment to high quality and timely work is rivaled only by his dedication to the work and the
clients he served. Unusual for many lawyers Roger’s known for his reserved nature and concise
responses. His letters were two sentences and the second sentence was quote, call me with any
questions. This is because Roger wanted to give broad guidance to help cities make decisions
and arrive at the opinion that was best for their circumstances. You have spent countless hours
sitting through meetings with city businesses, property owners, residents, city staff and city
council meetings listening to discussion, debate, dissent, emotion, dissemination and decision.
His responsiveness was legendary. Whenever you called him he always picked up his phone.
When asked for your advice and recommendation you used your years of experience, knowledge
of city code, administrative laws and regulations, legal precedence, state statute and Constitution
and stated quote, council may do what it wants. Roger was the go to person to keeping us out of
trouble while helping the council understand the flexibility allowed under the law. He
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encouraged city councils to make the decisions they needed to make. In addition to guiding the
city through countless development deals Roger helped the City clean up it’s ordinances, getting
rid of outdated ones or redundant state law. He also helped change land use regulations to ensure
compliance with the state regulations. No small task. We’ve mentioned some of how his
extraordinary work on specific development or a case but there are so many that this letter you
would need a ream of paper to print. We didn’t want it rolling all the way out. Roger has never
been one to seek credit for his accomplishments. A win was the City’s win. No matter how
crazy the environment is Roger could always be counted for his strong, steady manner. You’ve
always been available to provide advice and direction promptly responding to city requests for
information, process requirements, legal standards, ordinances and agreements and contracts.
We will miss your wisdom, your kindness and quiet confidence. Thank you for your service and
enjoy your well earned retirement. Sincerely all of us at the City Council so thank you.
Congratulations. And we will present you with this Maple Leaf Award and council would you
join me with your masks on out front with Mr. Knutson please. Mr. Gerhardt, welcome back.
Please state your full name and address for the record.
Todd Gerhardt: For those people that don’t remember me I’m Todd Gerhardt, 1330 Stratton
Court. Previous city manager for the past 20 years here for the City of Chanhassen and I’ve had
the pleasure to work with Roger for 34 years and Roger was kind of a mentor to me as I started
out in this field and coaching me along, along with Don Ashworth and I got to say Roger is very
quick to get to the point and he wouldn’t keep you on the phone long so he wasn’t looking to get
billable hours up and for those people that haven’t been to his office, and if you’ve been in my
office, there would be paper all over my desk and at Roger’s desk there would be absolutely
nothing on his desk. The only thing Roger had was a file cabinet behind him and city code
books for each city he represented. And in most cases he didn’t even pull out the code books
because he had them memorized pretty much. But the bit story that I always remember is that
prior to Roger working for the City it got to the point where councils wouldn’t make the tough
decisions like you guys make today and what they would do is leave it up to applicants or
developers to end up taking us to court and that is not something the court process is set up for.
And what Roger did is he came in and established strong land use regulations and something that
staff and administration could enforce and to the glee of many judges that did not have to sit
there and try to make a decision if McDonald’s should go ahead or not. And so Roger thank you
for your strong leadership, your wisdom, and your short letters. They’re very appreciated and
your calmness. You kept us all calm when dealing with personnel issues and development issues
so I wish you the best. It’s not about you Roger. It’s about us talking about you and giving us
the opportunity to share our thoughts and appreciation for everything that you’ve done for us
over the years and we wish you the best. I can tell for the last 3 months you’ve got to get into a
routine. You don’t know what that routine is but you don’t have to get up at 7:00 or anything
like that but, and don’t interfere with your wife’s routine. I found that out early. And but I wish
you the best and thank you for your outstanding service. It’s very much appreciated by the entire
city here and your fingerprints are all over Chanhassen so thank you.
Roger Knutson: Thank you.
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Mayor Ryan: Thanks Todd. Any other comments? Okay, go ahead Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Well as a fellow attorney I wish you the best. I look forward to that
day myself but being an attorney it’s always kind of tough because you’ve always got that one
more client and it’s just like you want to see them through this and so it’s very difficult to decide
on this day I’m walking away so I appreciate you thinking about us and trying to get us to a place
where we could move on and we weren’t left in a lurch without you so thank you very much for
that. And just for the record I want to say that I requested cake because a retirement is not a
retirement without cake but I was overridden so I’m sorry about that Roger but yeah, I wanted to
make sure this was something you will always remember but again thanks for your many years
of service.
Mayor Ryan: I didn’t override. I know I don’t usually eat the cake but I didn’t override.
Heather Johnston: That was my compromise. Roger not wanting us to…
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman McDonald I appreciate it.
CONSENT AGENDA:
Mayor Ryan: Okay next we have the consent agenda. Tonight we have consent agenda items
number 1 through 8. All items listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine by
the City Council and will be considered as a single motion based on staff recommendation.
There’ll be no separate discussion of these items. If a discussion is desired by anyone on council
or here in the chambers you may request to have the items removed and have it considered
separately on our agenda this evening. Are there any items that the council would like to
consider separately?
Councilman Campion: Yes Madam Mayor. I would like to remove item D-4 to be discussed
separately.
Mayor Ryan: Alright. Item D-4. The zoning permit, okay. And I would like to remove D-7 and
that is the grading permit and development for the Bluffs. Are there any other items to be
removed from the consent agenda? Alright. With that could I get a motion to approve consent
agenda items 1 through 3, 5 and 6 and 8.
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded to approve the following
consent agenda items pursuant to the Interim City Manager’s recommendations:
1. Approve City Council Minutes dated September 28, 2020
2. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated September 15, 2020
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3. Approve Code Amendment to Permit the Construction of Certain Structures on Outlots
4. Item removed for separate discussion by Councilman Campion
5. Approve Updates to City’s Purchasing Policy
6. Resolution #2020-57: Accept a Donation from Charter Bank for the Senior Center 2020
Holiday Party
7. Item removed for separate discussion by Mayor Ryan
8. Pervious Paver Operations and Maintenance Agreement with 2061 Pinehurst Drive
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 4-0. And we will start under, well we’ll move that to old
business so F-1 will be your’s Councilman Campion. D-4 will move to F-1 and D-7 will be
moved to F-2.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. None.
CONSENT AGENDA: 4. APPROVE CODE AMENDMENTS REQUIRING ZONING
PERMITS FOR ALL STRUCTURES THAT DO NOT REQUIRE BUILDING PERMITS.
Mayor Ryan: Let’s move to F-1. So old business here which is the consent agenda item number
D-4. And that is the approval code amendment requiring zoning permits for all structures that do
not request a building permit. Ms. Aanenson.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah I can answer if there’s a specific question I could answer that but the
intent of this is, we have a lot of people that put up structures that don’t require permits. They
could be an outdoor fire pit. Fence. A smaller fence. A dog run. Those sort of things. And so
instead of trying to inform them of potential setbacks, encroachments into easements, being a
good neighbor it saves us a lot of time on the front end as opposed to on the other side when it
goes up and we have an unhappy neighbor and we spend a lot of time trying to resolve the issue.
There’s no fee involved in this but somehow the Planning Commission got off on that but there
is no fee involved with this. It’s really just informational. We do have a number of residents
that do call in and ask whether or not they need, if they need a permit so we always try to use it
as an educational opportunity so again just it formalizes that process. We always say to people
so the intent then again is to not charge a fee but to inform people and try to be a good neighbor
and just try to be proactive.
Mayor Ryan: Councilman Campion.