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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 02/17/2009 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE CITY COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2009 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Council Chamber 8080 Mitchell Road CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Phil Young, Council Members Brad Aho, Ron Case, Jon Duckstad and Kathy Nelson CITY STAFF: City Manager Scott Neal, Parks & Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer, Public Works Director Eugene Dietz, City Planner Michael Franzen, Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah, City Attorney Ric Rosow and Council Recorder Jan Curielli I. ROLL CALL/CALL THE MEETING TO ORDER Mayor Young called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. All Council Members were present. II. COLOR GUARD/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Young thanked Boy Scout Troop 342, sponsored by Eden Prairie United Methodist Church, for presenting the colors tonight. III. COUNCIL FORUM INVITATION IV. APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND OTHER ITEMS OF BUSINESS Case added Item XIV.A.1. Neal added Item VIII.E. to the Consent Calendar and noted this item will authorize improvements to bring the Art Center up to minimal ADA requirements. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 5-0. V. PROCLAMATIONS/PRESENTATIONS A. I-494 CORRIDOR COMMISSION Melissa Madison, Executive Director of the I-494 Corridor Commission, provided an update on the work of the commission and their plans for 2009. She said the improvements to the I-494/169 interchange are their highest priority. They are also advocating for auxiliary lanes on I-494 and on Shady Oak Road. She noted MNDoT has said the work of the I-494 Commission was instrumental in accelerating the expansion of I-494. The commission works closely with over 100 employers in Eden Prairie on transit issues. They are sponsoring a Spring Commuter Challenge with a competition between the cities that are members of the commission. She noted the City of Bloomington has challenged Eden Prairie in this competition. Aho said he thought the City receives an excellent value for our membership in this CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 17, 2009 Page 2 organization. The City is focused on trying to move forward the I-494/169 interchange because that is the most important project to all our residents and also to the greater Twin Cities metro area. He thought the commission is instrumental in that effort. Young thanked Ms Madison for her report and said he believes the I-494/169 interchange project is absolutely critical. VI. MINUTES A. COUNCIL WORKSHOP HELD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2009 MOTION: Nelson moved, seconded by Case, to approve the minutes of the Council Workshop held Tuesday, February 3, 2009, as published. Motion carried 5-0. B. CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2009 MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Duckstad, to approve the minutes of the City Council Meeting held Tuesday, February 3, 2009, as published. Motion carried 5-0. VII. REPORTS OF ADVISORY BOARDS & COMMISSIONS VIII. CONSENT CALENDAR A. CLERK'S LICENSE LIST B. AUTHORIZE STAFF TO ENTER INTO LEASE AGREEMENT FOR THE HOUSE AT RILEY LAKE PARK C. APPROVE PURCHASE OF REPLACEMENT VEHICLES AND EQUIPMENT D. APPROVE DESIGN FEE ADJUSTMENT FOR SRF CONSULTING GROUP FOR FINAL DESIGN OF SINGLETREE LANE IMPROVEMENTS, I.C. 07-5690 E. ART CENTER BUILDING REMODELING MOTION: Nelson moved, seconded by Case, to approve Items A-E on the Consent Calendar. Motion carried 5-0. IX. PUBLIC HEARINGS /MEETINGS X. PAYMENT OF CLAIMS MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Case, to approve the Payment of Claims as submitted. Motion was approved on a roll call vote, with Aho, Case, Duckstad, Nelson and Young voting "aye." CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 17, 2009 Page 3 Case said he thought the revised format is wonderful now that it separates out the enterprise funds. He asked if salary and benefits are broken down within separate departments. Neal replied the Payment of Claims have Accounts Payable items and includes everything except payroll items. He said payroll is not one of the things the Council authorizes at each meeting. XI. ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS A. SECOND READING OF ORDINANCE 1-2009 AMENDING CITY CODE CHAPTER 11 RELATING TO HOME BASED BUSINESSES (Resolution 2009-16 No. Adopting Summary Ordinance for Publication) Neal said this is second reading of the ordinance amending the home occupation code. First reading of the ordinance was held at the February 3 meeting, and the Council had some questions that night about the home based business ordinance. Staff promised to make some additions and changes to clarify some of the issues raised about home based businesses and also to make it easier for someone to have a home based business. Since that time Staff and Council Members have received questions about the changes. Young noted several questions were related to the application of the ordinance to in-home day care, especially the part that limits the home based business to 25% of the living area of the residence. He said staff advised him that in-home day care is regulated by the State of Minnesota, so our ordinance does not apply to those businesses. Jeremiah said all the calls staff received were for businesses that would be unaffected by the ordinance change, because they were either already out of compliance or were under State regulation. She said this ordinance was reviewed by the Chamber of Commerce's government committee, and we did not receive any formal comments from that group. She noted we want to continue to encourage home based businesses, and this ordinance should help with commute congestion and should provide clarification if there are enforcement issues. Referring to Subparagraph H that requires a vehicle used in the home based business to be kept in an attached garage, Case said he thought there might be a line that is crossed in the case of a large truck with a blade on the front that would not fit into the garage. He asked if this is too strict and if it would prevent those kinds of trucks, or, for example, a taxi or an employee-driven City-owned fire vehicle from being parked in the driveway. He also was concerned about Subparagraph K that limits the home based business to four parking spaces, none of which can be parked on a public or private road. He thought friends or clients would usually choose to park on the street. He said we might want to try to clarify that point or perhaps it was best left"under the radar." Aho asked if staff has received any complaints about the vehicle parking issue raised by Council Member Case. Franzen said the most frequent complaint is about the outdoor storage of supplies. He said we don't define hours of operation but do CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 17, 2009 Page 4 have a 7 to 7 clause for hours of operation. He said we get some complaints about vehicles when there are a number parked in the driveway. He said they limited parking to four vehicles because of the typical setback from the curb to the garage, but there is a four-hour temporary parking window included to cover those situations. Nelson asked about the subparagraph regarding only one employee for the home based business. Aho said Subparagraph K includes a limit to four spaces for an employee, visitors and invitees. Franzen said the current ordinance allows home based businesses to have one employee who doesn't live in the household. Duckstad said reference was made to a State statute that covers home care. He asked if we assume that a State statute exists that applies to a specific situation, then our ordinance will be ignored. Rosow replied the State statutes specifically provide that a permitted single family use is defined to encompass a variety of uses, and one of those specifically permitted is a licensed day care facility serving 12 or fewer persons. Duckstad asked if we consider our own ordinance at all in those cases. Rosow said there are a number of these state mandated permitted uses in the single family and multi-family zoning, and if we ever tried to enforce our ordinance on a home based business against a permitted use, we would not prevail. Young said he did not think we need to specifically amend our ordinance to state it does not apply to day care. As far as the question regarding truck parking he was less concerned about relaxing the number of parking spaces than he was on the types of vehicles because we have to draw a line somewhere. Franzen said we are not changing our approach in administering the ordinance, and we will continue to enforce it on a complaint basis. Nelson said Subparagraph H only talks about vehicles with a home based business, whereas a police officer or fire fighter's vehicle is not involved in a home based business. She asked if we regulate those anywhere else. Franzen said we do not. Nelson asked if the hours of operation apply to home based businesses because she thought there are businesses that have make-up parties or Tupperware parties in someone's home in the evenings or on weekends. Franzen said those would not meet the definition of home based business. He said it is important for our rules to be measurable and reasonable. We are adding a purpose and intent to the ordinance because the rules have to relate back into something we are trying to accomplish. Case said he agreed that his two concerns should stay "under the radar." If someone were employed by a company to drive a snowplow, that would not be considered a home based business so that person could park the vehicle at his home. Franzen agreed that would not be considered a home based business. Case noted our ordinance is derived from problems so we should be open to tweaking it in the future if the need arises. Franzen said over the course of a year we will apply what we learn, and if we are too rigorous staff will come back with a change. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 17, 2009 Page 5 Young thought the Council has had a good and thorough discussion of amending this ordinance, and staff has reassured us about the questions raised. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Nelson, to approve 2nd Reading of Ordinance No. 1-2009 amending City Code Chapter 11 relating to Home Based Businesses and adopt Resolution No. 2009-16 approving summary publication. Motion carried 5-0. XII. PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS XIII. APPOINTMENTS XIV. REPORTS A. REPORTS OF COUNCILMEMBERS 1. Case—Application for Federal Economic Stimulus Funds Case said he received an email from someone who was concerned that Eden Prairie was not on the list of the many cities in Minnesota that had applied for various stimulus package funds. He asked Mr. Neal to comment on why we have not applied for funds. Young noted he received a number of emails from people who were shocked and amazed at what some of the other mayors were asking for. Neal said when you look at how the different cities in the Twin Cities area have approached the availability of federal funds, you can see a lot of examples of cities that found projects the cities had other funding plans for but that suddenly became good candidates for federal funds. He said we had some ethical concerns about that. When we thought about the kinds of projects around Eden Prairie that are legitimate uses, the one that stands out is the I-494/169 interchange project. He thought all the other projects we have going on in the City would require an ethical stretch for us to ask to fund those with federal money. Young said this was a discussion he and Mr. Neal had a few weeks back. He said they talked about ways to get funding for I-494/169, and he thought the decision we made was a good and right one. Duckstad said he agreed with Mr. Neal that the I-494/169 project should be a target in the event we receive stimulus funding. Transportation is a core governmental function, and a project of that nature is a real stimulus problem which would create immediate jobs and would carry out the objectives of stimulus funding. Case said he supported everyone's comments, and he just wanted the City Manager's perceptions to be shared. He noted one of our neighboring cities has submitted 18 projects for the stimulus projects, and he did believe we should at least be able to explain why we aren't submitting such a list. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 17, 2009 Page 6 B. REPORT OF CITY MANAGER 1. Street Utility Legislation Neal noted during the legislative session issues come up quickly. There is an initiative going on that is sponsored by the League of Minnesota Cities and will allow some cities to charge a street utility fee. The fee would be a small monthly fee on a utility bill that is legislated to street repairs. We do not currently have state authority to do this. There have been previous attempts by the League and other groups to do this, and there will be another attempt this year. The League is looking for some cities to be the poster cities. The legislation isn't drafted yet, and, if we agree to become one of the poster cities, we would have the ability to withdraw at the time if the bill as drafted is too onerous or is inappropriate. Dietz said we have talked about transportation funding a lot in the past and we have advocated for this. We have a stable source of funding for our utility infrastructure, for sewer and water and for storm water, but we lack a stable source of funding for street maintenance. This would be used to maintain the roads we have, and it would be very desirable to have a stable source of funds. He said today we generate about$800,000 in our storm water utility at a charge of$4.00 per quarter. We would probably need about three times that amount in order to fund all the pavement maintenance we do, so that would probably come out to about$12.00 per quarter, depending on how it was structured. Young said his recollection is that the Council has supported this in the past. Dietz said they are looking for 10-12 cities to be a test on this process. Young asked if, when we get to the time that most of our roads require major reconstruction, we would have to use special assessments to pay for that without this funding source. Dietz said it is currently hard to sustain the tax part of this. Nelson said we just talked about a section of town that needs to be redone and asked if that is considered maintenance. Dietz said we have set aside a certain amount of the pavement management money to reconstruct roadways. We have $1.5 million in the capital utility fund budget and $500,000 in street operations and maintenance programs. That, along with some other items, would all add up to $2-2.5 million, and we would propose that this would be part of that. He said that level of funding should sustain our system. Our policy is that if curb and gutter don't exist on a street, those items would be an assessable cost. The $2.5 million total is about enough for the job at this point. If more is needed in the future, the Council could increase it or adopt an assessment policy as well. Nelson asked if we would be blocking ourselves into a situation where there is not enough money in the fund and we are not able to use tax money. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 17, 2009 Page 7 Dietz said one of the dangers would be that it would be awkward to put back the assessment if we jump into a street utility when it is authorized but later the legislature changes or stops the legislation. We would then have to take it out of the general fund for street maintenance. Nelson asked if we are a good candidate for being out in front on this since we have developed in large segments over periods of time. Dietz said what makes us a good candidate is that we have high aspirations for our street system and high standards that are as good as any in the metropolitan system. We have a pavement index rating system and have a goal to score 80 out of 100 on that system. Nelson said she believes in putting money away into this kind of a system. It is much easier to pay a small amount along the way and put it aside for a specific purpose. Aho asked if we go forward with this and be part of this program would this just give us the ability to levy or would we start to levy these taxes immediately. Dietz said initially it would be to have the ability to levy. However, we would go into it hoping that we could implement a street utility. We would go into it planning to implement it,but would reserve the option to bail at the last minute if the legislation was too onerous. Neal said staff will update the Council as the effort goes along. He noted we might have to testify as part of our participation in the effort. C. REPORT OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR D. REPORT OF PARKS AND RECREATION DIRECTOR 1. Resolution 2009-17 Accepting and Recosnizins! Gifts and Donations for 2008 Lotthammer said in 2008, over $1,631,493 in cash and in-kind donations were contributed to the City of Eden Prairie towards programs, events and construction projects. These contributions make enhancements to programs and facilities along with allowing several programs to be available to the community that would not otherwise be possible. He said we are required to accept all donations and gifts to the City by resolution. He noted we received 67 different contributions in cash and 51 different in-kind donations. Young said it was a very impressive list, and the Council is grateful for the generosity of our residents, the business community and charitable groups. MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Nelson, to adopt Resolution 2009-17 accepting and recognizing the generous contributions and donations totaling over$1,631,493 from businesses and individuals to the City of Eden Prairie during 2008 as listed in Exhibit 1 of the resolution. Motion carried 5-0. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 17, 2009 Page 8 E. REPORT OF PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR F. REPORT OF POLICE CHIEF G. REPORT OF FIRE CHIEF H. REPORT OF CITY ATTORNEY XV. OTHER BUSINESS XVI. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Case, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Mayor Young adjourned the meeting at 7:55 PM.