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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 03/09/2010 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE CITY COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010 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 Gene Dietz, Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah, City Attorney Rick 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 Girl Scout Troop 10562, sponsored by the Prairie Star Service Unit, for presenting the colors. III. OPEN PODIUM INVITATION IV. PROCLAMATIONS /PRESENTATIONS V. APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND OTHER ITEMS OF BUSINESS Neal said Items XIV.A. and XIV.B. should be changed per the revised annotated agenda. Case added Item XIV.A.1. MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Case, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 5-0. VI. MINUTES A. COUNCIL WORKSHOP HELD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2010 MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Nelson, to approve the minutes of the City Council Workshop held Tuesday, February 23, 2010 as published. Motion carried 5- 0. B. CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2010 MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Case, to approve the minutes of the City Council Meeting held Tuesday, February 23, 2010 as published. Motion carried 5-0. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 2 VII. REPORTS OF ADVISORY BOARDS & COMMISSIONS A. HERITAGE PRESERVATION COMMISSION Ann Higgins, Chair of the Heritage Preservation Commission, gave a PowerPoint presentation reviewing their vision and mission statements, their accomplishments during 2009, and their 2010 work plan. She noted they have updated Helen Anderson's book on the history of Eden Prairie and are working on a marketing plan for the book. Aho asked about the cost of the books and when they will be available. Ms Higgins said they are available now, and will cost about$20.00. Nelson asked how one would get a copy. Ms Higgins said there are forms to fill out at the City desk, and there will be information on the website and in the City newsletter. VIII. CONSENT CALENDAR A. CLERK'S LICENSE LIST B. SET HEARING DATE FOR APPEAL OF FINAL ORDER 2009-14 C. AWARD CONTRACT FOR 2010 STREET SWEEPING TO RELIAKOR SERVICES, INC. D. APPROVE AMENDMENT TO COOPERATION AGREEMENT WITH METROPOLITAN COUNCIL FOR THE FAMILY AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROGRAM E. AUTHORIZE PREPARATION OF PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS FOR TRAIL RECONSTRUCTION ALONG DUCK LAKE TRAIL, VALLEY VIEW ROAD AND EDENVALE BLVD. Duckstad said he had questions about Item E and asked that it be pulled for discussion. MOTION: Nelson moved, seconded by Aho, to approve Items A-D on the Consent Calendar. Motion carried 5-0. Duckstad said he has questions about the three trails that are to be reconstructed per Item E. He asked if we have other trails similar to these that will be upgraded in the next year or so. Lotthammer replied we upgrade trails that need repair on an annual basis. We sometimes do overlays and seal coats,but some segments such as these will be completely torn out and reconstructed. He said staff uses a rating system to select the trails to be reconstructed based on their condition. Duckstad said we have problems with revenue shortfalls because of the economy, and he wanted to know which additional trails we will have to spend money on from our capital improvement funds in the next year. Lotthammer said these three trails CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 3 rate out as some of the worst sections in our trail system. These sections are north of Valley View on Edenvale Blvd. and Duck Lake Trail and were created in the 1980's when houses were built in that area. The soils in that area are very poor, so our consultant recommended we take the trails out to put in a better base and also use a geotextile fabric under the crushed rock base in some areas. Young asked if staff will come back to the Council this year with other trail projects. Lotthammer replied these will not be the only trails that need some attention in terms of our regular preventative maintenance. There will be other packages that will include seal coating and overlays but these three trails need the most extensive type of work. Duckstad said he would like some kind of list ahead of time to see what we are talking about. He said he agreed there are spots on the trails that need repair but he questioned whether we would have to do the whole 5,000 feet of trail because this job has an estimate of$100,000. He thought it should be much cheaper just to do those segments that are badly in need of repair. Lotthammer said we have taken a band aid approach over the past few years, and staff is suggesting we get away from that type of approach. Staff believes the segments we didn't redo would fail more quickly, so by coming in and doing the repairs as a continuous segment we get away from having to band aid segments every year. This will make it have a longer life span and will save quite a bit of money over the long term. He said segments that are brought up to standards should last 15-20 years. Young noted the band aids failed every year in the Edenvale area near where he used to live. Lotthammer said there are over 100 miles in the overall trail system, so we must deal with 4-6 miles of trails on an annual basis just to keep the system in shape. He said this item is asking for authorization to prepare specifications and take this out for bid, and we may get a lot better pricing than in the past. He thought this item would be about one-fourth of the total cost for trails and sidewalk repairs throughout the City this year. The rest of the repairs will be for seal coating and overlays. Duckstad asked if there is any reason why we have to use a consultant to make this recommendation. Lotthammer said our staff engineers do some projects in house from both a design and implementation standpoint,but we balance it to determine if an outside contractor makes more sense to do the work on the larger projects. Case noted we operate on a multi-decade and multi-Council Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), and he didn't think we can gut our City of quality by stopping our CIP spending and micromanaging projects our staff recommend. Duckstad said he was not trying to second guess our CIP system of making necessary repairs to trails and roads, and he was in favor of the trails. However, he was suggesting some spots could be fixed in segments and we would not have to redo the whole trail. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Nelson, to authorize preparation of plans and specifications for trail reconstruction along Duck Lake Trail, Valley View Road and Edenvale Blvd. Motion carried 4-1-0, with Duckstad opposed. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 4 IX. PUBLIC HEARINGS/MEETINGS A. 2010 CDBG FUNDING RECOMMENDATIONS (Resolution 2010-23) Neal said official notice of this public hearing was published in the February 11, 2010, Eden Prairie News. He said the 2010 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocation has not yet been announced by the office of Housing and Urban Development(HUD). Therefore, the Human Services Review Committee (HSRC) used the conservative estimate of$260,000 in making funding recommendations. The HSRC's recommendations were presented to the City Manager and revised to transfer$2,000 from CAPSH car repair funding to the YMCA child care program. Including CAPSH, three applicants are not recommended for funding this year. Once the actual CDBG allocation amount is received, the funds will be modified on a percentage basis for each of the funded applicants unless otherwise directed by the City Council. The regulations stipulate that public service funding may not exceed 15 percent of the City's total allocation. He reviewed the funding amounts proposed for the human services and housing activities. Duckstad asked if the 10% allocation designated for PROP housing support services could be increased. Neal said the total amount for human services is $50,000 and he believed we could adjust one of those items upward. Jeremiah noted if we did that we would have to adjust one of the other items downward. She said PROP requested $30,000 and the YMCA requested $15,000, so those two did not receive the full funding they requested. Beth Kodluboy, Director of Homeline, said they served 124 families through the tenant helpline last year. They are seeing a trend of renters in homes being foreclosed on, and the tenants do not know what their rights are. She said they do presentations at the High School to let students know their rights and responsibilities when they start to look for housing. Kitty Engle, representing Senior Community Services, said HOME is celebrating 30 years of service to seniors. They help seniors remain independent by helping them with housecleaning, grocery shopping, snow removal, and other chores. Ann Harnack, Executive Director of PROP, said there are a lot of people with economic troubles now so she appreciated the ongoing support. Rob Kolar, representing Southdale YMCA, said the funds help with scholarships for before and after school programs. They have about 30 families that take advantage of the program throughout the year. Basil Weisner, 8293 Mitchell Road, asked why we can't start reducing the administrative costs for these programs in the future. MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Nelson, to close the public hearing. Motion carried 5-0. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 5 Young asked what fiscal year the human services recommendations are for. Jeremiah said it is for the 2010 fiscal year. Young asked if they have already budgeted for receipt of these dollars. Jeremiah said these are funds they would expend during 2010. Young said we had a discussion in November or December about the allocation of City funds for these services, and he questioned why we can't do a better job of reconciling the two actions. He didn't know why we can't combine the CDBG funding with the other bucket, and didn't understand why we have one YMCA program in one bucket and another of their programs in the other bucket. He thought some are more appropriate to City funding and others for CDBG funds. Neal said we could move the CDBG allocation process up so it synchs with our regular budget process, or we could move our budget process. Doing that requires an assumption of what we may get from CDBG or requires an earlier commitment from the City Council about what you want to reallocate into that part of the budget. Young said some of the programs we considered in December made more sense to be part of the CDBG process, and he was told the decision needed to be made then for the 2010 funds. He noted these programs are also for 2010, but we are already three months into the year. Neal said these are different programs, and there could be an element of risk to the funding because this is an estimate for these funds. Young said he didn't think this YMCA program is different from its program at CMS so the budgeting process must be the same. Molly Koivumaki, Housing and Community Services Manager, said the CDBG funding cycle begins on July 1 so that cycle is different from the City's funding cycle. Young asked if the same programs that get City dollars are also eligible for CDBG funding. Ms Koivumaki said there is an income eligibility applied to CDBG funded programs, while the other programs don't have income guidelines. Young asked if the YMCA program at CMS would have satisfied CDBG eligibility, and he said his position is that he would like to reallocate the programs being funded out of the two buckets we have. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Nelson, to adopt Resolution 2010-23 approving the use of 2010 CDBG funds as recommended by the City Manager. Motion carried 5-0. 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." XI. ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS XII. PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS XIII. APPOINTMENTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 6 A. COMMISSIONS Neal said the City Council hosted Commission interviews on Tuesday, February 23, 2010. Overall, there were 21 applicants (13 new applicants and 8 re- applicants). Fifteen candidates are being designated for Commission appointments on March 9, 2010; eight appointed for the first time, and seven reappointments. All terms of appointment are scheduled to begin on April 1, 2010. A required City Commission Orientation session will be held on Thursday, March 25, 2010, for all new and re-appointed Commission members in advance of the April 1 start date. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Aho, to appoint Tonja Bivins and Gina King to the Arts & Culture Commission, terms to expire March 31, 2013. Motion carried 5-0. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Nelson, to appoint Laura Jester, Greg Olson and Prashant Shrikhande to the Conservation Commission, terms to expire March 31, 2013. MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Case, to appoint Matthew Fyten, Jeffrey Lawler and Mark McPherson to the Heritage Preservation Commission, terms to expire March 31, 2013. MOTION: Nelson moved, seconded by Aho, to appoint Robert Rozanski, Gayle Sanders and Pamela Spera to the Human Rights & Diversity Commission, terms to expire March 31, 2013. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Nelson, to appoint Tom Bierman, Larry Link and Joan Oko to the Parks, Recreation & Natural Resources Commission, terms to expire March 31, 2013. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Nelson, to appoint Kevin Schultz to the Planning Commission, term to expire March 31, 2013. VOTE ON THE SIX MOTIONS: Motion carried 5-0. B. BOARD OF APPEAL AND EQUALIZATION Neal said the proposed members for Council approval are experienced real estate professionals with extensive knowledge of the southwest metro area. The proposed members of the Board of Appeal and Equalization are: Brian Duoos of Edina Realty, Jim Johnson of The Realty House, Lyndon Moquist of Edina Realty, Annette O'Connor of Coldwell Banker Burnet Realty and Patricia Pidcock of Edina Realty. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Aho, to appoint to the Board of Appeal and Equalization: Brian Duoos, Jim Johnson, Lyndon Moquist, Annette O'Connor, and Patricia Pidcock for the period of April 1, 2010 through May 31, 2010, or until the Board of Appeal and Equalization completes its work. Motion carried 5-0. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 7 C. CHAIRS AND VICE CHAIRS OF COMMISSIONS Neal said Chairs and Vice Chairs are appointed annually by the City Council following the appointment of members to City Commissions. The City Council hosted Commission interviews on Tuesday, February 23, 2010, and determined Chair and Vice Chair assignments for the period of April 1, 2010, through March 31, 2011 at that time. He noted the Council did not have previous discussion about the Chair of the Flying Cloud Advisory Commission. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Aho, to appoint Ann Rorem—Chair and Farida Kathawalla—Vice Chair of the Arts and Culture Commission. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Case, to appoint Laura Jester—Chair and Greg Olson—Vice Chair of the Conservation Commission. MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Nelson, to appoint Ann Higgins —Chair and Kathy Veurink—Vice Chair of the Heritage Preservation Commission. MOTION: Nelson moved, seconded by Aho, to appoint Pamela Spera—Chair and Marcy Harris —Vice Chair of the Human Rights & Diversity Commission. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Nelson, to appoint Gerry Napuck—Chair and Hutch Coburn—Vice Chair of the Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Nelson, to appoint John Stoltz—Chair and Kevin Schultz—Vice Chair of the Planning Commission. MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Case, to appoint Rick King—Chair and Jeff Larson—Vice Chair of the Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission. VOTE ON THE SIX MOTIONS: Motion carried 5-0. D. CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR OF BOARD OF APPEAL & EQUALIZATION Neal said Chairs and Vice-Chairs are appointed annually by the City Council following the appointment of members to City Boards and Commissions. City Code Section 2.22, Subd. 5 Officers states, "the Council shall in March each year choose a chairperson ad vice-chairperson for a Board or Commission to serve for a period of one year." To be eligible for consideration, City Code states, "a chairperson must have served one year on the Board or Commission before becoming eligible for appointment as a chairperson." MOTION: Nelson moved, seconded by Case, to appoint Patricia Pidcock—Chair and Brian Duoos —Vice-Chair of the Board of Appeal and Equalization. Motion carried 5-0. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 8 XIV. REPORTS A. REPORTS OF COUNCILMEMBERS 1. League of Minnesota Cities Amicus Brief— Council Member Case Case said he wanted to respond to the issue raised at the last Council meeting regarding the League's amicus brief filed against the Governor's use of unallotment and whether we as Council Members should have weighed in on the issue. He thought in this case it is more complicated than what was presented at the meeting. Eden Prairie received Local Government Aid (LGA) funding during the 1970's and 1980's, and we weren't opposed to it then. Currently LGA funding goes to Hennepin County as well as individual cities, so our residents will likely have an increase in county taxes to fund services such as HCMC. He thought there may come a day when we need to come before the legislature with our hands out. By sending a letter on Eden Prairie letterhead and referring to a majority of Council Members' support, he thought our City has now been perceived as taking a stand on an issue that is very complicated and, at worst, may cause our residents to pay more in property taxes. Case said in the League's response to the letter they claimed they decided to file an amicus brief because they believed there was a constitutional problem with the Governor's action. In addition, they admitted cities may be hit harder financially in the legislature because the legislature may have to make deeper cuts in the LGA funding than have already been made. Young said he was not going to debate the letter, and the time to raise the concern would have been at the last meeting. The letter has been sent, and he thought the League should stay out of that fight. He believes Eden Prairie is a donor city, and he thought we need to speak up about that. He also thought it was unprecedented for a Council Member to lecture about a subject after the fact. Case noted that during his 14 years on the Council there has been an unwritten code of ethics whereby a Council Member would always alert the others if there was a controversial issue to be discussed. He thought it was unprecedented to surprise the Council with this issue and not allow other Council Members time to consider their responses. Young noted that the letter sent was his own. Duckstad said at the time it was discussed at the last meeting it was not an agenda matter and had nothing to do with a position of the City of Eden Prairie. He thought the League should have remained neutral and stayed out of the issue entirely because it did have some political ramifications. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 9 B. REPORT OF CITY MANAGER 1. Cummins Grill Lease Neal reviewed the timeline of events that led to the proposed lease between the City of Eden Prairie and the Eden Prairie Historical Society for the Cummins Grill House. He said on May 20, 2008 the City Council received a study that discussed different options for adaptive reuse of the site, and in July of 2008 the Council moved 5-0 to approve the acceptance of the report. There was a request from the Historical Society to at least engage them in discussion about doing something with the property. He said the motion before the Council at that time was to accept the report and to direct staff to begin marketing the property for one of the uses identified, but the motion passed was just to accept the report. On December 16, 2008, Jan Mosman gave a presentation on the Historical Society and this was one of the items in her report. Neal said at the May 19, 2009 meeting, there was another update from the Historical Society. The Council asked staff to keep working on it and requested a workshop be scheduled. There was extensive discussion at the July 21, 2009 workshop and some talk about the Historical Society purchasing the house. We talked about different options for how we might manage the relationship, and the Council asked staff to keep discussing this and try to put an agreement together. Tonight we have a lease agreement that provides for a greater degree of control of the Cummins Grill House by the Historical Society and provides them the opportunity to use the building and grounds to create a revenue stream that would be used for improvements to the property. Duckstad said the report referred to the fact the use study was financed in part by the National Parks Service and asked how much that grant was for. Neal said he did not recall. Duckstad asked if the grant was for the study itself and also how much the additional grant from the State of Minnesota Heritage Preservation office was for. Jeremiah said she thought it was $6,000. Duckstad asked if all the money was used for preparation of the report. Neal said most of it was used for the report preparation,but some may have been used for repairs to the building. Duckstad asked if the City provided any funding for the report in addition to the two grants. Neal said he was not sure. Aho asked what the proposed lease with the Historical Society would entail in terms of commitments on the City's behalf and what the Historical Society would provide. Neal said we are looking at the City continuing to have some role in making sure the building doesn't degrade and continuing to have some responsibility for large maintenance items as the building owner. He said from here on out this would require the Historical Society to do the day-to-day small maintenance items, would provide them the ability to program in the facility and to market those programs, to lease parts of the CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 10 facility and to do general improvements to the facility with the approval of the City. Young had concerns with the specificity of what is going to be done and asked if there is an obligation for anything to be done to the property. Neal said there is not. Young thought we need to tighten that up a bit, and he thought we should get the five-year plan that was discussed with the donor and make that plan an amendment to the lease. We need more specifics and there needs to be progress towards the goals. He thought it would be better to split it into two five-year leases with the same terms,but firm up the commitment that something will happen with it. If revenues are generated as a result of the programs there, a portion of the revenue should be put into a fund for the property itself. Young said it states the Historical Society is to name the City as an additional insured on any property and casualty coverage or comprehensive liability policy it obtains, and he thought that doesn't answer the question whether we are obligating them to get that type of coverage. Rosow said the language was deliberate, and we have consulted with the League's insurance trust on the coverage available to the City. The Historical Society is named in a resolution of the City in the 1970's designating them to do certain tasks related to maintaining certain documents and historical treasures of the City, and they are covered under our liability policy with respect to those activities. It is optional for them to obtain additional coverage. Young asked if that meant there is no need for them to have their own coverage. Rosow said it was his judgment the historical programming they would do is covered under that charter-based resolution from the 1970's. Duckstad said it appears the Historical Society can continue to use the property as they are now if there were no lease, and he didn't see the lease agreement either enlarging or limiting the uses of the property. He was concerned about the City's situation here. He saw from the report we spent a lot of money and engaged an expert consultant and our best staff people to look at this. He also saw in the report the house could be maintained in its present state and sold as a residence requiring the owner to preserve the historical preservation aspect of the house. The house then would be self supporting and would be put back on the City tax roles. He thought that was a good plan and would be in the best interest of the taxpayers. He thought to enter into a lease with the Historical Society for 5-10 years ties our hands to go ahead and fulfill the purpose of the report. He noted at the time the report was endorsed by the Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC). He didn't know why we are abandoning the concept and didn't know that we should tie ourselves to a situation where we aren't free to do something in our best interests. Kathy Case, President of the Historical Society, said the report the HPC sent to the Council included the Historical Society and they did recommend the Historical Society take over the house and help fund it. She said the CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 11 lease is very important because what we really want to do is save tax dollars and give the City money. A donor in Eden Prairie feels the site is very important and has offered us $50,000,but will not give the money unless we have a five-year lease. She has been a part of the discussions regarding the house since 1989, and there has been very slow progress over the years. If the Historical Society receives a lease on the house, they can get grant legacy money from the state and double the donor's money. They plan to restore the house but there is a lot of work to be done. They would like to work with the City to be sure we follow the integrity of this nationally registered site and they want to do this for the community. She thought it is a great site, and the landscape will be incredible. Young said he wanted to make sure the conditions were workable to the Historical Society. Neal noted we haven't completely abandoned the reuse study at this point, and the Council asked to defer the implementation of the study until this discussion ran its course. He noted from a capital improvement standpoint the Cummins Grill House will never be as high on the priority list of the City as it is for the Historical Society, and the Historical Society gets a greater degree of control over the facility with this lease. Duckstad said he has trouble with the length of the lease because it ties us up and prevents us from carrying out the recommendations of the report. He asked why the Historical Society couldn't continue to help us as is or do a month-to-month lease so we don't tie ourselves up. He was opposed to signing some long term lease because he didn't think we need it. Young said we are talking about two goals which could be inconsistent but need not be. There is a goal to improve the property and also a goal to make sure the City doesn't pay the freight to have it done. He thought we accomplish the primary goal of not having to increase our financial obligations beyond the minimal ones we have if we enter into the lease. Neal said the "do nothing" option in this case is not an option without cost because the site has operating costs of$15-16,000 per year. Young thought the financial donor wants to see a business plan for developing the property, and he thought we should make that a condition of the lease. He also thought we should split it into two five-year terms and, if the business plan is not satisfied, it becomes a default under the lease. That gives them the opportunity and the time they need to satisfy the conditions of the donor. Nelson liked the idea of improving and keeping up the house. It is a value to the City to have it in good condition and available to the public. It is wonderful that we have an individual that is willing to put together a grant, and she thought two five year leases or a ten year lease gives them that opportunity. She didn't see any problems in adding their five-year plan to this if we pass this tonight. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 12 Young thought it is workable. We need to include an obligation in the lease that within the course of the next year the five-year plan needs to be fully developed with the donor. Jan Mosman said she is chair of the task force for the five-year plan, and it is pretty much completed. The Historical Society doesn't have a lease yet, but they communicate with the donor family regularly and the donor receives meeting minutes. The donor knows what is proposed, what the priorities are,how the grant money would be used and that they would apply for the state legacy funds. Most of this cannot be done until we have a lease, and we can't get the money from the donor until that happens. The reason for the longer term lease is that most of the projects take a while to accomplish and we will do the work slowly and with historical accuracy. Case agreed that we could have two conditions: two five-year leases and the condition of the five-year plan being produced within a year or less. He said he spoke to the donor tonight, and he was clear that if there is no five-year plan there is no $50,000. That would mean there is no legacy grant and no benefit to the taxpayers. Duckstad asked if we know who the donor is and if they have made representations to the City or made an offer. Neal said he was not aware of the donor's name,but he knew of the communications between the donor and the Historical Society. Duckstad said the lease called for ten years but also outlined the obligations of the City to do certain things that cost money. He asked how much additional cost to the City those obligations would bring. Neal said we think our average annualized cost for the facility will be less than what we have today. We will have to maintain a small CIP fund to fulfill the building maintenance issues that we are responsible for. Young asked about paragraph 9 of the lease that says the City will provide certain utilities as long as those utilities are extended to the property. Neal said currently the Cummins Grill House is not served by city water or sewer. Both of those services have recently been extended to the property line and are readily available. Our plan has been that when an adaptive reuse of a building occurs, the entity would bring the utilities into the property at their cost. Young said he didn't think that is what the paragraph says. Neal replied that, like other City properties, we would provide water and sewer service to the property,but we would not extend it into the building. Rosow said he can do a better job of drafting that clause. Neal said he believes we have a common understanding of what that means but we will correct it. Aho said his recollection of the issue of this house and its adaptive reuse study was that one of our main goals was to be able to maintain it and offer it as an amenity to our taxpayers at no additional cost to us. This is a good opportunity that accomplishes those goals, and he was very much in favor of it. He thought a five-year lease term is a nice way to do it. He was CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 13 looking forward to seeing the property opened up and this gives an opportunity for it to be used by more of the public at almost no cost to the City. Young asked Rosow if the language could be worked out after making the motion, or if we should have an amended version before us before the Council passes a motion. Rosow said the Council could approve the lease with the changes discussed and authorized by the City Council and approved by the Mayor and City Manager upon execution. He said we would tighten up what the Historical Society needs to do with the property, and make the performance of a five-year plan a condition of the lease along with seeing progress towards the goals. The lease would be split into two segments, a five year term with an option for five years provided there is no default under the lease, with default being lack of progress on the five-year plan. If revenue is generated, a portion of that revenue should be put into a capital improvement fund dedicated to the property. The five-year plan needs to be submitted within a year or less. Paragraph 9 will be corrected to reflect that utilities are not now extended, and the cost of extending utilities would be at the expense of the Historical Society. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Nelson, to approve a lease agreement with the Eden Prairie Historical Society for the Cummins-Grill Homestead property with the conditions laid out by the City Attorney. Motion carried 4-1-0, with Duckstad opposed. 2. FCM Issues Update Neal said on February 16 the Council received an update on a number of issues affecting Flying Cloud Airport. One of the issues was regarding the warning letter received by pilots who violate the voluntary noise mitigation plans. We have also had a request from MAC to look at that part of the Final Agreement. The Council asked for additional discussion on the issue regarding the warning letter, and we could either discuss this tonight or could send it back to the Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission for additional discussion and recommendations. Young said his preference would be to send it back to the Flying Cloud Advisory Commission for further discussion since it is something that contemplates an amendment to the final agreement. Nelson said she would like to send the commission a little guidance to find a way to not back off from how many violations we are telling them about but perhaps to do it in a different format. She thought there could be a more effective way to hold them accountable for the number of violations. Neal said he thought measuring the number of letters sent may be the wrong metric because the outcome we want is to have fewer violations. One way to get that may be to send letters out but we may want the commission to CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 14 discuss strategies for another way to get fewer violations. Case said if we send this back to the commission,his concern is that we would want a proven means to change the outcome. This is perceived by many as a very weak voluntary compliance ordinance as it is, and there was never a belief that a lot would happen when a letter was sent. If we remove even that, there will be a perception that it is being weakened. Neal said the final agreement requires the City and MAC to cooperate to do noise testing in 35 homes within two years after the completion of the runway expansion. Our staff and MAC's staff are working to get this ready to go this summer. We have produced two letters, a letter to go to homes that have been selected for the voluntary testing and a letter to the general neighborhood because they will see technicians working and will hear noise as part of the testing. 3. Goode Broadband Initiatives Neal said we have received a large amount of interest in the City participating in the Google fiber-to-the-home initiative. There is a Request for Information out seeking cities in which they would like to build and operate a fiber-to-the-home network similar to the one they operate in their home town, Mountain View, CA. We are actively investigating the process and finding what is required to submit. We believe we have a better than average shot at this because we have good demographics and a good business base that would benefit from the network. He noted David Lindahl is the staff coordinator for this effort. Nelson thought this is a good thing for the City to be doing. 4. Yellow Ribbon Community Proposal Neal said Governor Pawlenty has a program called the Yellow Ribbon City Program, the purpose of which is to create a supportive community atmosphere for deployed soldiers and their families. There are some social- support networks that need to be set up. A lot of it is not dependent on city government but city government is part of the effort. A private citizen from Eden Prairie is launching this and has a meeting set up at Grace Church on March 16 in which he wants to share more information. Neal said he will attend the meeting, and Council Members are also welcome to attend. 5. CAPSH Veteran's Housing Proposal Neal said the Community Action Partnership of Suburban Hennepin County (CAPSH) is an entity that does affordable community housing programs. We have an agreement with Hennepin Village by which we can require they set aside a number of units for affordable housing. They have three remaining units, and CAPSH has developed a program that would set these CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 15 aside for first time home buyers who are returning veterans. We would like to continue to develop the program with CAPSH. It would require the City to redirect the program that is in place but doesn't require more money. Nelson asked if that will be for both regular military as well as Minnesota National Guard. Neal said the program defines veteran as reservists who are reactivated. Nelson said she assumed they would have to be combat veterans. Neal said he didn't know if that was the case. C. REPORT OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR 1. Smith Douslas More House Conditional Use Permit Amendment and Lease Amendment Jeremiah said this item was continued from the February 16th meeting of the City Council. The public hearing on the conditional use permit was closed at that meeting. There was some discussion with regard to whether live music should be allowed outside on the property, whether campaign signs and literature should be allowed on the property, and whether a farmers' market would be appropriate. Since that meeting staff met with Ms Schuster to talk more about the clarification of the proposed uses. There have been some changes made in the conditional use permit to try to clarify. There is a new reference regarding the sale of beer and wine. Staff has proposed we allow outside acoustic music on the south side of the property only. There were some concerns from a resident about it taking place on the front porch, but the patio is typically where it takes place. We also had an email from Ms Schuster regarding her request to be allowed to have amplified music on the patio. Jeremiah noted the City Attorney suggested some revisions regarding the political use on the goldenrod sheets. She said Ms Schuster doesn't allow any political material to be left at the business. She said staff has not made any changes to the farmers' market language provisions. This is located in a rural zoning so it is within the City Council's purview to include any conditions or exclude such use. The email from Ms Schuster shows her preference regarding that. She also noted the email from a resident about the open sign in the window. The zoning administrator took a look at that and there is no violation. Case said the farmers' market issue was problematic before but we are now looking at a different model. This is publicly-owned property that is considered to be in private control. He saw this as being an opportunity for this entrepreneur to really actualize the property similar to what was requested last year for Christmas trees. It would draw people into the property and make it more of a gathering place. He would like to see some language regarding the farmers market. He said he also favored the amplification change. There have been zero complaints about that, and he has been there when it was played all day and it just hasn't been an issue. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 16 He thought the political activity and events are a little more problematic and it is difficult to look at events that could be held there that might somehow become political. He said he knows of at least six candidates who chose to have gatherings there. He thought this is a nice gathering place and if we are concerned about having a sign put up we could limit the time. We need to be sensitive that the City may seem to be sponsoring some candidate's event. He thought there is a way to allow all three of the activities to occur and we could develop language to address our concerns. Young thought the language in amended Exhibit B would prohibit political events at the property. The issue he raised at the last meeting was not whether political signs were good or bad. He said he wanted to make sure we have a uniform standard and that everyone knows what the standard is. It also needs to be a condition of the lease. He said there are other places in the City where people want to have amplified music and asked what we prescribe there. Jeremiah said we have a noise ordinance that addresses the volume levels. Some businesses have outdoor eating and some of those have music. Young asked if the noise ordinance would apply here. Jeremiah said it would. Rosow said he had a long conversation with Ms Schuster about the language on the goldenrod sheets for purposes of identifying the type of activities that would be part of the rules. She is equally concerned about having identifiable standards so she can communicate those to her customers. He said paragraph 11 is written to prohibit outside signs. This is the City's property and as a landlord we have an interest in making sure the enterprise is successful. Paragraph 12 deals with material inside and allows us to say we can determine we want to have rules at a future time. We also discussed whether we could say that no political assemblies could be organized and sponsored by the proprietor, and he thought the City as landlord could impose that on the property. Nelson asked if the language regarding non-commercial signs would prohibit a Girl Scout cookie sale. Rosow said that would be a commercial use. Nelson said that means they could do something for a non-profit group. She assumed a political candidate could put out an email about a gathering and that would still be allowed. Rosow said it would be and we are talking about sponsored events. Regarding the farmers' market issue, Young said his concern is whether the site can accommodate it. Case said Ms Schuster rents space from the funeral home for parking,but there may be a concern that it is hard to get emergency vehicles through the driveway. Neal said we think there are times now when parking issues occur there that are problematic from a public safety standpoint. People sometimes park on both sides of the drive, and that is the biggest concern staff has regarding a farmers' market development at that site. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 17 Case said Ms Schuster has plans for parking and he would like to see us allow it and then work at dealing with what happens. He didn't see the City has a down side on this. Young asked about the current term of the lease. Jeremiah said the current termination of the lease is December 31, 2011. Young asked if we should have the conditional permit terminate at the same time as the lease. Rosow said it doesn't really matter because the City is the owner of the property and if the lease isn't renewed the City can terminate it. The only downside to making it coterminous with the lease term is that the conditional use permit process would have to be repeated if the lease is renewed. Rosow said a conditional use permit is the City acting in its legislative capacity, and the lease is acting as a landlord. It isn't as easy to change the conditional use permit as it is to amend the lease, and that may argue in favor of the conditional use permit being coterminous. Young thought if it is granted and is coterminous with the lease term it takes certain issues off the table. Aho thought we can say the conditional use permit continues as written if we renew the lease. Nelson said if we see there are problems with parking on both sides of the driveway, we probably need to sign "no parking" on one side of the driveway regardless of what is going on at the property. She was glad they do have some kind of agreement to extend parking to the property next door. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Nelson, to approve the Conditional Use Permit Amendment for the Smith Douglas More House, and to approve the Lease Amendment for Pure Grace, LLC, through the end of the lease term, per the version printed on the goldenrod paper and with the outside amplification permitted. Motion carried 5-0. D. REPORT OF PARKS AND RECREATION DIRECTOR E. REPORT OF PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR F. REPORT OF POLICE CHIEF 1. Homeland Security Grant Police Chief Reynolds said he was asking the Council to accept a Homeland Security grant for$67,000. The money will be used to support the employee at the Minnesota Joint Analysis Center(MNJAC) and would cover the time from April 2011 through March 2012. He said the MNJAC is a very important communication link between local agencies and regional agencies and connect to other JAC's across the nation. There are no matching funds required and no long term employee commitments involved. Duckstad asked if Eden Prairie is not obligated to keep the individual on the CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 9, 2010 Page 18 payroll at the end of the current period. Reynolds said it is entirely grant funded. MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Nelson, to accept the 2009 Homeland Security Grant#2009-MNJAC-00513 for the amount of$67,000. Motion carried 5-0. G. REPORT OF FIRE CHIEF H. REPORT OF CITY ATTORNEY XV. OTHER BUSINESS XVI. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Nelson moved, seconded by Aho, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5- 0. Mayor Young adjourned the meeting at 9:18 PM.