CC Minutes 1-25-21Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2020
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Campion: That’s helpful. Thanks.
Aanenson: Yes. It seems like a long time ago that we did the Emerson one. To Nick’s point, you
have to audit those all the time and the state does too to make sure what they presented or
represented is true. So, with that, I’ll proceed with the…
Mayor Ryan: Councilwoman Rehm, did you have any questions?
Rehm: No. No, I don’t have any questions at this time. Thank you.
NEW BUSINESS: APPROVE A REQUEST FOR A SITE PLAN REVIEW AND
VARIANCE FOR A 110-UNIT APARTMENT BUILDING FOR SENIOR LIVING
LOCATED AT 1361 LAKE DRIVE WEST (POWERS RIDGE APARTMENTS)
Aanenson: I’ll circle back with Nick as we get to, I’ve got a placeholder for a TIF slide here.
This is Lake Place, Powers Ridge. As you recall, we talked about this early this summer as this
project was to go forward. A public hearing was held at the Planning Commission on January 5
and it is before you now. There are actually three requests with this project. One is for site plan
approval. The other is for a variance for the building height and then for the TIF request itself. So
the location on Lake Drive West, this is part of, there is existing buildings here. This is the last
one of the buildings. The first two were built. This one was the most recent one and this is the
infill piece and this is just over three acres in size. So, this was the project, Lake Susan Hills, the
entire project was approved in 1987 and had quite a few units in it. Over 400 single family. This
is the part that was guided high density. As I mentioned, these three buildings were constructed,
then the senior building, and this one was entitled for 88 units. Again, the high density one came
back through in the year 2000 so all the buildings were given site plan approval, but the reason
that this is before you now, this building did not come back because they met all the original site
plan approvals so those stayed in perpetuity. Because this one is changing up they are staying
within that footprint but they want the additional density that’s coming back for your review in
an amendment to the PUD. The site plan itself as I mentioned is staying within that same
footprint. Again, they are asking for the additional units to do that. In looking at that, we went
back and looked at what the original approval was and it did allow for more overall units. So
looking at that the density allocation under the comprehensive plan says you can do that but then
there’s the requirement that you provide affordable housing, which is what we discussed earlier
this summer and into the fall, talking about that. So staff, based on additional units and what we
were looking at for the expectation for assistance would be to get to the area median income, so
it would be 50 units. I know there was some question about the number of units so there will be a
total of 110 and 50 of those would have to meet the area median income and we will go into the
details of that in a minute. But the building again stays within the same footprint I think which
was a little bit of a challenge and that forced the height requirement. I’ll let the developer talk a
little bit more about that. A little bit taller ceilings and a little bit more architectural detail than
the first two buildings. So again, there was some combined parking with some of the other, all
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29
the associations would be combined so there is crossover parking with this one. Because it is
now senior apartments the parking ratio is slightly less so they can meet all the parking. Actually
they do exceed the parking standards. Again, the building material consists of masonry either
Black Hills Velour brick. They still are working on those types. The material samples are on the
microphone table? I was going to say dais, but that’s up here. He can put the overhead camera on
too. There you go. So, I think while it is slightly different, it meets today’s kind of look and so it
does have the street presence. Again, highly articulated, and the Planning Commission did
recommend approval of those changes. Again, the building elevations and the signage. It does
have that presence. That collector street. So the garage floor plans, I’m not sure if you’re looking
at all the floor plans but I’ll go to the exterior, some of the issues there. One of the challenges on
these pre-existing sites is when those were originally put in place even back into the early 1970s
and then early 2000s, the storm water has changed dramatically. Some of the challenge here was
the storm water. I know when the Planning Commission was concerned about the separation and
the units but we do have minimal separation and it exceeds that so that shouldn’t be the problem.
They’re putting the additional storm water here and best practices for the controlling cleaning of
the water. In a future item we will be talking about those costs and the grant application for that
through the Carver County CDA. So they both drain to public systems downstream and the
capacity, they will have to provide that information to Engineering and that’s a condition of
approval, that they would have to meet those standards and provide that documentation to the
Engineering Department before any permit would be issued. Again, the arrows show the
direction that the storm water is moving. Utilities, there’s adequate public utilities that were built
out during Phase I and II to service this site. The applicant is proposing to provide new sewer
and water laterals and then there’s a monument sign that’s proposed over an existing main so that
has to be relocated. I don’t see any problems with that. Access, this came up at the Planning
Commission public hearing. There were two calls in. I know you received another letter tonight
and I will just go through it briefly and then I will rely on the City Engineer to give a much more
detailed nuanced response. Those access points, access to the site is actually via two access
points. One servicing this building that is the senior building, and then the drive in three and four
are, access three is proposed for underground parking and egress and then points two and four
are proposed for the above-ground circulation. One of the concerns that was raised is whether
there would be enough visibility coming out of the site and some of the sight lines. I’ll let Mr.
Howley answer those, or respond to those comments.
Howley, Thank you, Kate. Mayor and Council, so the issue that we’ve heard about is with acess
number three which is the access to the underground garage and if you’re coming out of that
garage if you can imagine driving easterly and you want to take a left, the inbound traffic you
would have to cross but you would have to look kind of behind you at an angle, not at 90
degrees. In the staff report, the Engineering Department recommended that their engineer and
architect and planners kind of review site circulation because we feel there might be a better way
to do it. Utilize existing point one and three, which is what the original site plan contemplated.
Potentially we didn’t like the turning movements all that much at access point number two
because those entrances are offset and there is a lot of pavement there. There potentially could be
a better way to lay out the access to the underground garage and the parking lot. However, there
Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2020
30
are approved site plans in place that show kind of what they are doing so we didn’t take it to the
level of a condition that thou shalt change it because we don’t like it. It didn’t rise to that level.
With private streets, the risk is with the owner and they have an engineer who is signing these
plans who takes responsibility for things like that. So we left it as a recommendation to look at it
and review it but we didn’t put it as a condition that they need to change it.
Mayor Ryan: In the comments that are coming in that we received is that from the president of
the homeowners association I think it was? And then a couple of comments that came through
the Planning Commission, is they would prefer it to have dual access, so on the east and west?
Or are they asking just to have it on the west end or is it to line up with the driveway on the other
side, or all of them?
Aanenson: I think they wanted two access points.
Howley: Yeah. I think they wanted, my impression was, they were a little late to the game. They
didn’t quite know it was coming. This is the email that I’m talking about from the association
president. They literally just want to talk about it and understand it and maybe strategize a little
bit what would work better. I didn’t get the impression that they had, these are what we want,
make sure you do that. More discussion I think is what they want.
Aanenson: So I think when the developer talks, they wanted some other outside amenities there
too like community gardens and pickleball and some of those sort of things. I think that was
some of the rationale but obviously safety plays into all that too. I’ll let maybe the applicant
address that in a little more detail but as Mr. Howley stated, one access point was there already
and they felt like the sight lines were adequate. Landscaping, it does not meet the minimum
requirements for landscaping. We put those in the conditions of approval, some additional
landscaping that needs to be put into place but I am confident that that can be accommodated.
Again, that’s covered by that. Again, the variances for the 42-foot height and that’s measured at
the midpoint of the roofline, that was some discussion with the Planning Commission. Again,
that’s in order to accommodate the additional, they are staying within that footprint because they
half to. It’s a tight site. But also that provides for a little bit larger spaces in the floor and also the
pitched roof element. The Planning Commission did support that one too. We put the variance
findings in there. I’m going to go through all those unless there’s a question on those. Again, the
Planning Commission, we had one no vote which we will talk about in a minute. But I do want
to spend a little bit of time on, Nick went through the tax increment, what we had talked about
with the City Council, kind of the recommendation. So there was a couple, to Dan’s point, Nick
had put together a couple of different runs, that the different percentages of 75%, 85% available
tax increment up to 95%. What the Council’s recommendation was at that time was to go with a
90% so what we had recommended was, as Nick said at least 40% would have to be put aside,
but we had recommended that so it was between 45 and 55 when we recommended based on the
density that density bonus that would be 50 units at 60% of AMI and that would also be then for
16 years. That would be a shorter term with their payback. That was a recommendation that
came out from you and that’s kind of what we were going forward with then and that’s what we
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31
presented at the Planning Commission. Again, the Planning Commission doesn’t vote. That’s a
City Council decision. There’s a separate process that will be involved in the TIF itself but the
recommendation for that. We want them just to be aware of it because they will have to approve
the consistency with the comprehensive plan as part of the TIF agreement.
Mayor Ryan: And the TIF comes back us at the EDA, right?
Aanenson: Correct. We will go through that schedule that I wanted Nick to kind of go through
too so you are aware of that. It would go back to Planning Commission just to say it’s consistent
with the comprehensive plan, not the exact numbers. But the Planning Commission did
recommend approval. They liked the design. The negative vote again I think was maybe not so
supportive of the TIF itself. It had some concerns about the overall design based on that.
Otherwise, they did recommend approval. So with that, we are recommending approval of the
site plan for the 110 units, the three-story apartment building with the variance for the height of
42 feet, subject to the conditions of approval. Again, increase the landscaping and the findings of
fact, but all this is kind of predicated on the TIF approval going forward and that’s a whole
separate process. That’s our recommendation. I would be happy to answer any questions you
have.
Mayor Ryan: Thanks. Do you want, before we bring in the developer, answer questions first? Is
that what you prefer?
Aanenson: Sure. Yeah.
Mayor Ryan: Council, any questions for Ms. Aanenson? Councilman McDonald?
McDonald: Not at this time. Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Councilwoman Rehm?
Rehm: No questions at this time, thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Councilwoman Schubert?
Schubert: Not at this time.
Mayor Ryan: Councilman Campion?
Campion: None at this time.
Mayor Ryan: I don’t either so if Mr. Simning is on the line and he has anything to add or share?
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Todd Simning: Good evening, Mayor Ryan and City Council members. Thank you Kate for the
good introduction and Nick, for your explanation of TIF. I think the first thing that I want to
point out is I think this project, what our building is amenity wise, is going to be a really, I’ll say
a fantastic addition to Chanhassen. When I look at the projects around the southwest region,
Chanhassen, Shakopee, even some of the inner rings. I don’t really think that they have the
amenity package that we have. I’m looking at pickleball. We have garden areas. We’ve really
taken into account a dog run, bike facilities for both the racking system as well as even a
maintenance program for bikes. Having a really nice main floor library, lounge area. Having an
area towards the back with a large patio with a kitchen area, walking down to a patio. We have a
fire pit. We have a sky lounge. Those are things that you don’t talk about in Chanhassen. It’s
things that you talk about maybe in the inner city when you get closer, but what we are trying to
do as a development group and as myself being one of the owners, being a resident of
Chanhassen, and my other four partners, we are really trying to bring something different to the
suburban area that seniors would really want to be a part of. We are looking forward to working
with Chanhassen to be able to utilize this, I will say kind of package in a way, to bring it to
another community to say we are really trying to bring some affordable housing to a area that
typically doesn’t get a lot of development reaction. What we are looking for is a little bit of a
participation with the City to help us be able to bring a really high level of amenity and living
standard to people that really want both affordable and market rate. So it’s really been a fun
process for me as a developer. I’ve been doing this for 34 years. To be able to give something
back to my community and I think that’s probably the biggest thing that I want to emphasize to
the City and make certain that you guys understand that this is a deep commitment from
somebody that’s live here in the area for quite some but, want to use this as kind of a springboard
to bring it to other communities. We don’t know whether that’s going to work or not. The City of
Chanhassen, so far, City staff has been very proactive to help us be able to develop this so I’m
really excited about that. We talk about the height variance. One of the reasons why we need a
height variance is because on the main floor when you walk into most apartment buildings, you
have and eight of nine-foot ceiling height. In this case, we actually have a 10-foot ceiling height
on the main floor because we really want to create and ambience that people want to live in.
That’s one of the reasons why our height of the building got a little bit higher. The entrance that
people are talking about from the east side to the west side, you know it’s fundamental to us
because on the west side again talking about amenities, what we are trying to do is create a
garden area and a dog area on the west side of the property. That really is conducive to sunlight
and whatnot and actually having gardens flourish. It’s a really great area for people to walk out
and take their dogs out. You get on the east side, kind of the north side, its, you’re not able to
create that same ambience. When you’re driving out the east side and again when this original
plat was approved, they say a entrance, number 3, from the east side and obviously they thought
it was okay. Otherwise, the City staff, City Council, everybody wouldn’t have approved it. When
you are out there, it’s interesting because you are actually sitting at a high point. I’ve been out
there, I took pictures. I encouraged the City Planning Commission to go out there. I encourage
you guys to look at it also, is that you actually have a really good visibility. There is a lot of
traffic that comes up there obviously that goes into the other building, but you really have good
visibility out of there. Our building is going to be 55+. There are some that are 62+ that have
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33
maybe some older population but when you drive through this area and, particularly between the
new building that was built and the second building that was built, there is not that great of
visibility coming out of those two garages. That one garage coming out of the second building
and we are going to be actually in a really, really good position to have good visibility and when
you get up there it isn’t like you have to turn your head completely one way or another. You’re
sitting at the top of the building. So I really want to preserve the east side exit. I don’t want to
denigrate the west side strictly because on our project and what we are trying to accomplish, we
really want to bring more of a benefit to the garden area and dog run and people, I’ll say people
of my age, younger, older, we like our pets and we are really trying to create something that is
very, very usable to the residents that might live there. So, I really want the east side exit and
truly feel as though that would work out well and if you guys went out there and saw that you are
at the high point I don’t think that would be an issue. One of the fundamental parts of
Chanhassen and for us asking and working with the City staff, City Planners, City Council for
TIF, is that Chanhassen consider themselves to be a community for life. What we’re trying to
bring to Chanhassen is allowing people that have lived here their entire life to stay here. That’s
one of the reasons why Nick actually has been very, very helpful, is that he has helped both
Planning Commission and staff and hopefully you guys understand that truly by helping us
create a TIF district, it actually helps us be able to keep residents that wouldn’t be able to afford
to live in Chanhassen, to stay in Chanhassen. We’re going to, our plan is to own this long term.
I’m really excited. This is one of the first times that as a developer, most of the time, I’m
developing and selling and you don’t have any ownership into it because people just buy from
you and in this case, we’re actually going to have a vested interest in making certain that number
one, the building is a really, really fantastic building. We want to be able to bring this example of
what we did in Chanhassen to other communities and we have a vested interest in making certain
that it is successful. With that, I am open to questions from Staff, City Council, and just
understanding where you guys are and just helping to make Chanhassen a better place.
Mayor Ryan: Great. Thank you, Mr. Simning. Council, any questions for Mr. Simning?
Councilman McDonald?
McDonald: I have no questions but I do appreciate you trying to bring a product such as this to
Chanhassen. You’re right. We do try to be a community for life and I think something like this
could prove to be a benefit, especially for age group that you are looking to target this at. I don’t
have any questions going forward. I understand where you are at and I guess where I am at is
that so far that it looks okay to me. So thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you, Councilman McDonald. Councilwoman Rehm?
Rehm: I would like to echo Councilman McDonald’s comment about how we are a community
for life and I live the idea of more people being able to stay here in Chanhassen, as they get
older. I think a building like this would be a good solution for that. I do have a question about
like the amenities. I think the community garden sounds great. I’m curious about connections to
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trails and walking and also about the pickleball? I know that’s super popular right now. Is that
something that 20 years from now can they use that space for other activities as well?
Mayor Ryan: Ms. Aanenson?
Aanenson: Sure. I admitted that the trail connection, that is a condition of approval. If you could
put that PowerPoint on really quick? So there is a trail connection going across right here that is
a condition of approval. That would take you over to the park so that would be a condition of
approval. Then some internal connections, too. Sidewalks internally to connect it to the other
ones so they are all part of the association. I would leave it up to the developer but as we know, a
lot of these projects, their amenities change over time depending on what’s popular. We know
that outdoor fire pits are popular right now and picnic areas.
Mayor Ryan: Anything further, Councilwoman Rehm? Any follow-up questions or comments?
Rehm: No, that’s it for now, thank you. That was a good presentation.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilwoman Schubert?
Schubert: Yeah. I will also echo, I know when I was campaigning, probably the most asked
question was, had to do with senior housing and affordable housing and this kind of marks both
of those so I’m excited to see that. I was a little concerned because I kept reading comments and
whatnot on just the east side entrance and I have the map up, Google Maps right now, and it
looks like building two and building three probably use that, because the curve was one concern
but the other concern was just volume of traffic. But it looks to me like buildings two and three
would use the west entrance more just based on where the garages comes out. Is that correct or
have you guys ever done kind of a, what’s the work I am looking for, looked at the volume of
traffic based on both entrances you have to the three buildings currently?
Simning: Is that a question for the developer.
Schubert: Yes.
Simning: I wasn’t sure but no, we haven’t done a traffic study itself but the entrances for those
other two buildings are further to the west and you do see a fair amount of traffic that actually
moves that way. I think when people come from Chanhassen from the east, they do primarily
come up the main road and kind of come through, but when they’re leaving, it seems as though
they are leaving towards the west because it’s a shorter route out. But we have not done a traffic
study itself.
Schubert: Okay. That’s all.
Mayor Ryan: Perfect. Thank you. Councilman Campion?
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Campion: I don’t have any more questions at this time and it does look like a very high-quality
product that they’re designing here and I’m excited to see it go forward.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Thank you. I have one, well I have a couple comments. First, Mr. Simning, I
appreciate this and while its not, and I agree I don’t think it needs to be condition necessarily,
you know whenever you want to have a good healthy working relationship with the association
that you are going to be a part or the neighboring buildings and so while maybe there are not
major changes to the exit/entrance, maybe there’s some tweaking with alignment coming from
building one and I just would encourage, Council did receive an email from the President of that
association, and just being a good neighbor. I would just encourage you to connect with them
and then work obviously with City staff to see if there are any solutions that don’t change the
total complexity of the project but if there is some tweaking or articulating that can be done I
would, I think Council would really appreciate it and show your good-neighbor spirit. I just
wanted to make that comment and appreciation. I also just, you know from a personal standpoint,
I’m extremely excited about this project for a couple of reasons. First, just kind of the
formulation. This is really has been a grass-roots effort. It came about two years ago to me from
a meeting that I had with some seniors at the Senior Center, that they love Chanhassen, they love
being here, but they are near the end of living in their homes and they don’t know where to go.
While we have a lot of great senior housing in Chanhassen the affordable component was
something that was missing. So it was brought forward and something that I talked to the former
City Manager, Mr. Gerhardt, about, with Ms. Aanenson about, this was something obviously in
our comprehensive plan and just a real missing link in Chanhassen was senior affordable. About
that same time two years ago Mr. Simning reached out to me and we went to coffee and he
talked about wanting to do something in Chanhassen that would kind of leave his legacy as a
long-time resident, a developer, he wanted to know what he could do as a legacy type project in
Chanhassen and talked to him about the importance if senior affordable, and I just want to say,
you know, thank you to Mr. Simning to kind of pushing this through and working with Ms.
Aanenson and staff to find a way to get this done. I know there were some challenges early on
finding the right way to make this happen and go about it and introducing it to Council. But I just
think it’s really neat when you have a Chanhassen resident, senior residents, and everybody can
come together to present a project which I know will be really high quality based on the work
that Mr. Simning does. I’m just really excited to have this in Chanhassen and its not only a great
project, but an affordable component for our seniors. I just want to more say thank you if this
moves forward with Council support, I just want to extend my appreciation for everybody that
was involved to continue this project and moving it through, so I just wanted to share that, share
my thoughts on that. Next, I think we just need to have a better understanding of timeline?
Aanenson: Yeah. So my preference would be is you make a motion on this and there is two other
action items that I will just kind of briefly go throught.
Mayor Ryan: So start with a motion on this and then we move to the other items? Okay. Council,
is there any one that would like to make a motion please?
Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2020
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Councilman Campion moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the Chanhassen City
Council approves the site plan for a 110-unit three-story apartment building with a
variance for the building height to allow 42 feet to the midpoint of the roof, subject to the
conditions of approval and adoption of the findings of fact. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5-0.
Aanenson: If Nick’s still on the line I would just like to take a minute and kind of go through the
next steps because while it seems like we’re going to be moving along, because now things start
picking up steam. We have been talking about this as you mentioned Mayor for a few months
and so now we are on a timeline for the developer as there is incurring costs. The first thing I
would like to go through is there is a schedule that Nick has put together regarding what needs to
happen to put a tax increment district together. So he’s put together a calendar which was
included in your packet. That was part of his presentation. Nick, did you want to just take a
minute or two and maybe hit some of the high points of this?
Anhut: Sure. So we envision that at the next Council meeting agenda on February there will be a
formal resolution provided to set a public hearing for the TIF district in March. That public
hearing we envision to be March 22. This will give us the time necessary to prepare the
documentation and to also disclose those documents to the county and the school district. We
plan on distributing that draft of the TIF plan document on February 19 to the county and the
school district, consistent with the 30-day requirement. This item will also go before the
Planning Commission, again the TIF plan itself, just to confirm that the proposed project that’s
to be within the TIF district is in conformance with the actions that you have taken this evening
to approve the land use. That will come before them on March 2. We will have potential for a
workshop discussion with the EDA on the 8th to review that TIF plan document and to talk about
the agreement with the developer. Then a notice of a public hearing will be published March 11
and the public hearing held at the Council on March 22 to go over the tax increment plan and
then once the public hearing is closed, there will be a resolution for consideration by the City
Council to approve the TIF plan document and establish the new TIF district. That is the gist of
the schedule going forward.
Aanenson: That’s the schedule we will be following. Thank you for that, Nick. I think that’s all
we need him for at this point. I’ll relieve him.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you, Nick. Thanks for the great presentation. That was fantastic.
Anhut: Thank you all. Have a good evening.
Mayor Ryan: You too, thank you.
NEW BUSINESS: CARVER COUNTY CDA – COMMUNITY GROWTH
PARTNERSHIP GRANT