Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks and Recreation - 05/05/1997 1997 � 1 MAY 5 MINUTES Parks, Recreation & Natural Resources Commission � CITY OF EDEN PRAIRIE � i G i i AGENDA PARKS,RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION MONDAY,MAY 5,1997 7:00 P.M.CITY CENTER 8080 MITCHELL ROAD COUNCIL CHAMBERS i COMMISSION MEMBERS: Claire Hilgeman, Chair; Richard Brown, Frantz Corneille, Don Jacobson,Vicki Koenig,David Kracum,John Wilson j STUDENT MEMBERS: Jennifer Frcemyer,Melody Hasse i 1 COMMISSION STAFF: Robot A. Lambert, Director of Parks, Recreation and r s Natural Resources; Stuart A. Fox, Manager of Parks and Natural Resources; Laurie Flclling, Manager of Recreation Services 1. ROLL CALL IL APPROVAL.OF AGENDA Ill. APPROVAL.OF MINUTES-APRI1.7. 1997 IV. PETITIONS.REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS V. DEVFLOPMENT PROPOSALS T A. Homestead Villau B. Pax Christi Catholic Community Addition C. Equitable Office Building VI. OLD BUSINESS A. Preserve Park V11. NEW BUSINESS j A. h[Q= Vill. REPORTS OF COMMISSIONERS AND STAFF IX. ADJOURNMENT 1 1 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE PARKS,RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES MONDAY,MAY 5, 1997 7:00 P.M.CITY CENTER 8080 MITCHELL ROAD COUNCIL CHAMBERS I COMMISSION MEMBERS: Richard Brown, Chair, Frantz Corneille, Claire Ililgeman, Don Jacobson, Vicki Koenig, David Kracwn,John Wilson COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT: Claire Hilgeman COMMISSION STAFF: Robert Lambert, Director of Parks, Recreation and Facilities. Stuart A. Fox, Manager of Parks and Natural Resources; Elinda Bahlcy, Recording Secretary STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Jennifer Frccmycr,Melody Hasse 1. ROLL CALL 3 Chair Brown called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. Brown welcomed new number,Frantz Corneille,to the Commission. z 11. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Koenig added,Update on the Community Pool,under New Business. Jacobson added,Update on the Facility Use Policy,under New Business. i MOTION: Koenig moved, seconded by Jacobson, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion curried 6-0. „ { Ill. APPROVAL OF MINUTES-APRIL 7 1997 ' Koenig noted on page six,second sentence,change committee to Commission. MOTION: Wilson moved,seconded by Koenig, to approve the minutes of the April 7, 1997 Eden Prairie Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission as amended. Motion curried 5-0-1 with one abstention by Commissioner Krucum. j IV, PE'1THONS,REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS None. it Approved Minutes Narks,Recreation and Natural Resources Monday,May 5, 1997 V. DEVELOPMEN]'PROPOSALS A. Homestead Village Staff referred the Commission to a memo dated April 30, 1997, from Stuart A. Fox, Manager of Parks and Natural Resources and a staff report dated April 25, 1997. from Michael D.Franzen,City Planner. Fox noted the proposal is for a long stay hotel like an Extended Stay Hotel. ]'his site was previously approved for Rio Bravo Restaurant on 78 Street and Technology Drive. The site has already been graded. At that time one concern was that the NURP pond was to take care of all storm water for the entire site. It was graded with the Fuddruckers'site and that pond is in place. There arc a number of modular block retaining walls that were to be constructed to create the buildings pads as well as the parking lot area. Those have been done with the exception of the most westerly portion of one of the retaining walls. The Commission also wanted to make sure there was going to be a continuation of the trail that had been started on the south side of Lake Idlewild to go around the north side. Probably 70 percent of that trail is in place. The only thing that remains to be constructed would be the trail out to West 79 Street. The discussion has been to continue that trail along the westerly side of the parking lot Ind continue out to West 78 Street. lie noted the issues involved with the waivers f'or the development along the shoreline arc adequately addressed in the Planning staff report. If staff were to enforce the Shorcland Ordinance, the City would have to buy this site because it would be unbuildablc. That's the reason why the Planning staff has recommended waivers on this particular site Paul Crabtree, Homestead Village Hotels, gave background information about I lomestead Village, They have done a lot of market research and are doing three �' 3 extended stay hotels in the Twin Cities area with one in Eden Prairic, Eagan and Plymouth. I le reviewed the revised site plan for the hotel:Ind the building elevations. The site is about 2.5 acres and there will be 97 units in a three-story building. They have designed the hotel so that it tits where the existing retaining walls are. Thcrc arc less parking spaces than there were for the restaurant but they have less of a demand for parking,and have less traffic than a restaurant. Staff recommended they add more landscaping and they arc revising the plans to do that. 2 Approved Minutes Parks,Recreation and Natural Resources Monday,May 5,1997 Wilson asked how many more trees will be planted and the breakdown relative to coniferous and deciduous trees. Fox replied they have 40 deciduous shade trees and 30 coniferous trees which would be the trees considered for screening. The Planning staff asked for at least another dozen trees and about half of those would be along the Technology Drive portion and the remaining will be along the south side of the NURP pond. There is also a recommendation for additional lowland shrubs to be placed in that area. Staff also referred the Commission to Attachment A which depicts the additional plantings. Kracum was concerned about the no vote from the Planning Commission. Fox said the no vote was because they felt this was too intense of a use for this particular site and thought it would be better fora restaurant. i Koenig asked about the impervious surface. Fox said the impervious surface is identical on the restaurant site plan and the hotel site plan. I Brown was concerned about the NURP pond being large enough to handle this kind of hard surface because it's almost full right now. Fox said if it's full right now what's happening is it's holding the water and it will be discharged. The purpose of `- a NURP pond is for short term storage of the storm water to hold it until it can be discharged. Since this NURP pond was constructed last summer,there still may be some obstruction of the pipe itself because they have not done a total restoration of the area. MOTION: Wilson moved, seconded by Kracum, to approve staffs recommendation for the Homestead Village site. Motion carried 6-0. B. Pax Christi Catholic Community Addition Staff referred the Commission to a memo dated May 1, 1997,from Stuart A. Fox, Manager of Parks and Natural Resources:and a staff report dated April 25, 1997, From Michael D. Franzen,City Planner. John Justice,architect,reviewed the development proposal including the site plan, grading plan,the landscaping plan,and presented an aerial photograph of the site. The proposed development is an addition of approximately 47.000 square feet of a multi purpose activity building connected to the existing church structure. There was a parking lot built a few years ago and will be reconstructed with new engineering because there airs some soil problems,and they will be adding a new parking lot. i i The concept for the NURP pond is to have it located on the City property. It would be stomt water management for the existing parking,new parking,and also to take 3 I Approved Minutes Parks,Recreation and Natural Resources Monday,May 5, 1997 care of Homeward Hills. Right now Homeward Hills drains without any sedimentation. On the far west end of the property,adjacent to the cemetery,a few stalls have been added to maximize the parking on the site. They are trying to build on areas that don't have existing deciduous and coniferous trees. 'Tile majority of the conifers will be used to screen the parking lot from Homeward Hills Road. In addition,quite a bit of deciduous plant material is being used to supplement the area between the existing parking lot and the new parking lot for the proposed addition. The NURP pond is also being landscaped with native shrubs which will help to soften the visual enect of the enlarging of this storm retention pond. There are sonic existing pines in the new parking area and they are reinforcing the existing coniferous trees with some new pines that will form a nice background to the existing parking. There arc about 37 deciduous and 25 coniferous trees in total, j Wilson asked how close the NURP pond will be to the sidewalk. Fox said approximately 100 feet. Wilson asked what the slope is from the parking lot down to the NURP pond. Justice replied it's about 38 feet deep. j Koenig asked if there tire any plans to transplant some of the trees as recommended i. by the Corp.of Engineers. Justice said there arc 27 trees existing that are part of the tree removal and if they can get to them with a spade they will try to relocate them. Koenig asked how many acres were dedicated to the City on the church plan. Justice said it's about R to 10 acres. Fox reviewed the staff report with the Commission. In terms of the tree loss,there is only one significant tree on the site to be lost as a result of constriction. Thcrc arc approximately 60 replacement trees and additional shrubs and ornamental trees that don't count,but they do meet the landscaping requirement. Regarding the issue of moving some of the on site trees,the Church has tried to put trees along Pioneer Trail on their own to do some of the screening of the parking lot because they did not have full screening of the parking lot. Since they did it in the past,staff felt if , they were going to use them on site,it would be a great place to try and put them. 'file NURP pond is being recommended by staff because of the future expansion that is currently being submitted on the cast side of Homeward Hills Road. There is a proposal to bring in some housing on that side and that's the reason the Engineering staff has recommended the development of this NURP pond. This will help both the City with the storm water runoff us well as to take care of the storm water r noff on the Church site itself. 4 4 1 f Approved Minutes Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Monday,May 5, 1997 Currently,the City has an eight foot wide bituminous trail along the Homeward Hills portion of the Pax Christi property. It was recommended that this trail be maintained during the construction process and be restored wherever the trail is removed due to construction activities. All of the construction occurs outside the 300 foot shorcland area from Purgatory Creek. The only thing that falls within this area is the NURP pond. This was reviewed by the Planning Commission at the April 28 meeting and it was approved by a 6-0 vote. Wilson was concerned about the runoff into the marsh area. Justice said they are developing a similar drawing of storm water collection system,low grade,and curbs on the parking lot impervious surfaces. Brown expressed concern about the right-in/right-out. Fox noted the issue of right- in/right-out is one issue that's going to be addressed by the City Council. The County will also be addressing the issue of an additional entrance way on Pioneer Trail, Whether or not that gets approved or not is based on what the County allows ( because it's a County issue. j MOTION: Corneille moved, seconded by Wilson, to approve the Pax Christi Catholic Community Addition based on the staff recommendation. Motion carried 6-0. 1 C. Equitable Office Building i Staffreferred the Commission to a memo dated April 30. 1997.from Stuart A. Fox, Manager of Parks and Natural Resources. Fox explained this has come before the Parks Commission before the Planning Commission because the request is to do some fast tracking on this project because currently the people who want to occupy this building arc going to be displaced with some of the I lighway 212 upgrade. ' Brian Trontblcy, ( '??'?'?'? ), explained the proposal is for construction of approximately a 20,000 square foot office building for multiple tenants on Equitable Drive. He reviewed the building elevations and the grading plan,and noted it will be a brick and block building. The storm water will be handled by an underground stonn sewer which will be channeled down to the northerly end and filtered into a pond which would retain the water and then be disbursed into Purgatory Creek. Tim Boyce,('?'???? ),noted this was originally planned as a one-story building and explained why it will be a two-story building, Ile reviewed the landscaping plan and 1 5 i Approved Minutes Parks,Recreation and Natural Resources Monday,May 5, 1997 noted they would like to grade the entire site. There will be approximately 80 trees and a variety of shrubs planted. Koenig referred to the staff report's recommendation of an additional need of native ' type plants to be incorporated around the NURP pond,and asked if the developer would put in cottonwoods. Boyce replied they have no preference and would take direction from the Commission. i I-ox commented there is no significant tree loss but out on the site there are a lot of fingerlings and(dog hair????)growth on the slope. In order to comply with natural NURP pond standards,the NURP pond would be constructed in the area covered by the conservation casement. This pond would be similar to those approved with the Metro Printing and Reality Interactive Buildings which were in the same type of situation because of the grading. Staff has been meeting with the Engineering Department to figure out where the best place is for the NURP pond. Because of this site,the best place is down closer to the creek. 0 A majority of the trees included in the landscaping plan arc coniferous up along the i street to provide for the screening and landscaping requirements according to the ordinance. Staff recommended additional native type plant materials to be planted j along the NURP pond to stabilize the embankments of that pond,and to enhance its restoration following construction to bring it back to the native type landscape that t exists today. There is currently a five foot sidewalk along Equitable Drive and the recommendation is to keep that sidewalk operable during construction. In addition, curb cuts should be made through the driveway entrance so there isn't a drop from the sidewalk through the driveway entrance into the site. The Reality Interactive site was potentially it trail connection to reach the soft surface trail at the bottom and may come to this site. Stuff received information today which indicated it will be back on the Reality Interactive site and not on this site if they can meet the grading criteria. Brown was concerned about putting up a wall when they start grading because it's a steep slope and there could be substantial runoff. Fox said the Engineering Department will probably require double erosion fences and will monitor those erosion fences. Koenig was concerned that they do not have to pay cash park fees. Lambert said they don't have to pay cash park fees and explained why. He noted the people that originally made those commitments are long gone. 6 1 i Approved Minutes Parks,Recreation and Natural Resources Monday,May 5,1997 MOTION: Wilson moved,seconded by Jacobson,to approve Equitable Office Building based on staffs recommendation, with the recommendation from the Commission that cottonwoods be put into the landscape plan especially around the NURP pond to enhance the native plantings. Motion carried 6-0. i V. OLD BUSINESS A. Nesbitt Preserve Park Staff referred the Commission to a memo dated April 21, 1997. from Bob Lambert, Director of Parks,Recreation and Natural Resources. Lambert presented the original grading plan for Nesbitt Preserve Park and the new revised grading plan. He gave background information surrounding Preserve Park and explained the recommendations of staff at this time. He reviewed the concerns that would have to be addressed with the revised plan and what it could accomplish. Wilson was concerned residents would be opposed to the lighting from the hockey f rinks. Lambert explained they don't have a lot of objections on hockey rinks. One i reason is the lighting is fairly low level and they're only lit in the winter time and co le arc general) inside. "file problem with softball lighting is people are out at 'P P 'a generally P lighting ��P P night and they require much higher poles. He noted he has never received one complaint in 20 years about lights from a hockey rink. i Wilson commented the revised plan is a great idea because one of the problems they I have is trying to create skating opportunities and this will help that problem. Corneille asked how staff justified trading the soccer field for the hockey rink. Lambert said you can't justify it based only on that issue. You have to say what's the best plan for the park and he noted the City needs hockey rinks on the cast side oftown. Jacobson asked if the parking lot is any further away from the baseball fields than Lit other parks. Lambert said at least 50 percent of the baseball fields in other city parks arc this distance or further from the parking lot. I f people go to a park to play baseball or soccer and can't walk 300 feet perhaps they should reconsider their sport. Brown asked what the proposed costs will be. Lambert said they don't have proposed costs yct, however, it would be in the neighborhood of$300.000 to $350,000 depending on decisions on water and sewer needs. Lambert explained what the Commission should do if they approve this as a concept. 7 j j I Approved Minutes Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Monday,May 5, 1997 The first thing to do is make it recommendation to the City Council to consider a new plan for Nesbitt Preserve Park and plan for that improvement in 1999. The next thing is to recommend reallocating the money for replacement of the playground equipment at Nesbitt Preserve Park to replace the playground equipment at Homeward Hills Park this year. The Homeward Hills Playstructurc is virtually the same structure that is located in Preserve Park. The playstructure would then be replaced when the park is renovated in 1999. MOTION: Wilson moved, seconded by Jacobson, that the Parks Commission present to the City Council the recommendation of the staff for the new Nesbitt Preserve Park f:►cility. Motion carried 6-0. The Commission agreed to meet Lambert at the City Center on Monday,May 12,at 5:30 p.m.to take a tour of Nesbitt Preserve Park. VI1. NEW BUSINESS A. Update on file Comm►roitX Pool Lambert commented the City Council tomorrow night will review and hopefully approve file second phase contracts with the design companies. One was with Erickscn and Ellison,Inc, and they're going to do just the I I-VAC system. Then the water technology people will do a separate contract on just the recirculation system lr of the pool and the chlorine system. Bruce Johnson from Erickscn and Ellision, Inc. relayed to staff he did not think they will get that design done with the final cost estimates until the end of June. At that point they come buck and a decision is made as to whether or not to proceed with the project. Koenig asked if the Water Technology, Inc. Proposal includes the ozone system. Lambert said it does not. All improvements are made and the ozone system can'be added at any time fix about$100,000. Cash park fees is the only source they have f'or li►nding and it's anticipated to cost about$365,000. Staff has recommended it be reimbursed from the General Fund over a number of years. C. Update on Facility Use Policy Lambert explained that the City Council did approve it to be effective January I, 1998. 'Phis summer staff is going to meet with the difTerent associations affected and there are some requests that have to be detennincd and decisions have to be made. A dozen other cities have callixl lbr a copy of the policy because they have the same problem. 8 t I Approved Minutes Parks,Recreation and Natural Resources Monday,May 5,1997 Vill. REPORTS OF COMMISSIONERS AND STAFF A. Meeting with the Metropolitan Airport Commission Lambert commented he had a meeting Friday with the Metropolitan Airport Commission staff regarding Eden Prairie's requests to have them look at whether or not they can do this expansion of the parameter. They said as a staff they will recommend approval to the Board of Directors. The perimeter road system they think is a good idea subject to a couple of things. There needs to be some modification in the design and it must not impact the A-Zone. They will not make approval until the City actually has a grading plan to review in detail. The staff recommendation to the Board of Directors will be denial of the request to expand to Spring Road because at this point they want to keep their options open for a golf course around Flying Cloud Airport. lie said he will go to the Baseball and Soccer Associations and tell them about the risk of hangars being put in. The irrigation system will cost$40,000 and it could be a waste of money if the hangars go in, although in his opinion the risk is fairly limited. B. Senior Week Wilson said he would like to recognize that it's Senior Week coming up. IX. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Wilson moved,seconded by Jacobson,to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 6-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m. v 9