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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 10/05/2010 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE CITY COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 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 III. OPEN PODIUM INVITATION IV. PROCLAMATIONS /PRESENTATIONS V. APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND OTHER ITEMS OF BUSINESS Neal said there was an item on goldenrod paper that replaces Item VIILF. Nelson asked that Item VIII.B.be pulled from the Consent Calendar and discussed under Ordinances and Resolutions as Item XI.B. Rosow added Items XIV.H.1. and XIV.H.2. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 5-0. VI. MINUTES A. COUNCIL WORKSHOP HELD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2010 MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Duckstad, to approve the minutes of the City Council workshop held Tuesday, September 21, 2010, as published. Motion carried 5-0. B. CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2010 MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Case, to approve the minutes of the City Council meeting held Tuesday, September 21, 2010, as published. Motion carried 5-0. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES October 5, 2010 Page 2 VII. REPORTS OF ADVISORY BOARDS & COMMISSIONS VIII. CONSENT CALENDAR A. CLERK'S LICENSE LIST B. APPROVE SECOND READING OF ORDINANCE AMENDING CITY CODE SECTION 11.03, SUBD. 311, RELATING TO SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR OFF STREET PARKING AND OFF STREET LOADING FACILITIES AND ADOPT RESOLUTION APPROVING SUMMARY PUBLICATION C. APPROVE SECOND READING OF ORDINANCE NO. 17-2010 AMENDING CITY CODE SECTION 2.05 RELATING TO SALARIES OF MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS AND ADOPT RESOLUTION 2010- 71 APPROVING SUMMARY PUBLICATION D. APPROVE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH ERICKSON ENGINEERING FOR 2010/2011 BRIDGE INSPECTIONS E. ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 2010-72 AUTHORIZING ISSUANCE AND SALE OF GENERAL OBLIGATION PERMANENT IMPROVEMENT REVOLVING FUND BONDS, SERIES 2010A (SINGLETREE LANE IMPROVEMENTS) F. APPROVE USE OF UP TO $75,000 IN CDBG FUNDS TO REHABILITATE TWO GROUP HOMES WHICH SERVE ELDERLY PEOPLE G. AUTHORIZE MAYOR AND CITY CLERK TO EXECUTE DOCUMENTS TO TRANSFER THE ICMA-RC 457 RETIREMENT ACCOUNT FOR CITY MANAGER SCOTT NEAL TO THE CITY OF EDINA MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Aho, to approve Items A and C-G on the Consent Calendar. Motion carried 5-0. IX. PUBLIC HEARINGS /MEETINGS X. PAYMENT OF CLAIMS MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Nelson, 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 A. ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 2010-73 APPROVING THE CITY OF PRIOR LAKE AS A MEMBER OF THE SUBURBAN TRANSIT ASSOCIATION CITY COUNCIL MINUTES October 5, 2010 Page 3 Neal said the City has received a request from the Board of South West Transit requesting the City Council's approval of a resolution which will allow the City of Prior Lake to join the Suburban Transit Association. The authorization of the City Council for this action is required by the bylaws of South West Transit and the Suburban Transit Association. Neal said he has discussed the matter with Len Simich, the Executive Director of South West Transit, and he believes it is in the best interests of all parties for the Council to consent to this request. Case noted he served on the Board of South West Transit for six years. He said he was in favor of the action; however,he was concerned with the implications if we jump over some cities to pick up others. He thought there was a transit opt-out that could service Prior Lake. He noted transit opt-out used to be funded by taxes, but it is a little bit different now in that each time a rider rides on the South West Transit system it costs us money. It is not a money maker so we will not gain by adding Prior Lake. He was not sure what is in it for Eden Prairie nor why we would want to proceed down this path. Neal said this request isn't for Prior Lake to begin being part of South West Transit,rather it is to be part of the Suburban Transit Association which is an advocacy group that deals with transit issues all over the metropolitan area. Young asked why we need to approve their joining the Suburban Transit Association. Rosow said the by-laws of the Suburban Transit Association state it is a city-run organization, and the by-laws require member consent to allow new members into the organization. Duckstad said it looked as though the City Manager has had an opportunity to talk with the CEO of South West Transit, Len Simich. He said he was sure Mr. Simich would not make such a recommendation unless it was in the best interest of everybody. Neal said Mr. Simich has asked us to approve this. MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Nelson, adopt Resolution No. 2010-73 authorizing the City of Prior Lake to join the Suburban Transit Association. Motion carried 5-0. B. APPROVE SECOND READING OF ORDINANCE NO. 16-2010 AMENDING CITY CODE SECTION 11.03, SUBD. 311, RELATING TO SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR OFF STREET PARKING AND OFF STREET LOADING FACILITIES AND ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 2010-70 APPROVING SUMMARY PUBLICATION Nelson said she supports the approval of this ordinance but she thought this needs to get similar wording throughout, and we might want to mention pavers in the text. She said this is an amendment to the City ordinance that specifies what kinds of surfaces can be used in parking areas, driveways and loading areas. The current ordinance states it has to be bituminous or concrete, and now we are adding other things to the list. She thought it needs a little work before second reading. She asked if a comma belongs after"natural stone"in Section 3.(d) as it appears in Section 2.(d), and if natural stone would include gravel. She thought we should CITY COUNCIL MINUTES October 5, 2010 Page 4 make it clear that green pavers are something that could be used. Rosow said the Council can send it back to staff to take at least one comma out and add pavers in a couple of places. Nelson said she wanted to make sure that green pavers are a legal surface. Neal said staff will bring this back outside of the consent calendar so the changes can be discussed. XII. PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS XIII. APPOINTMENTS XIV. REPORTS A. REPORTS OF COUNCIL MEMBERS 1. City Manager Search & Appointment of Interim City Manager Neal said tonight he wanted to gauge how the Council felt about making the interim City Manager appointment as there are several ways to go about this. The Council can appoint someone from the management staff to be the interim City Manager. In 2002 there was a period when a former City Manager, Carl Jullie, served as the interim City Manager. There is a group of retired city managers called "Range Riders" who work in a consortium with the League of Minnesota Cities doing this kind of work. Duckstad said he would welcome any additional information the City Manager could give us about our department heads. He would also appreciate getting information on former city managers, either former Eden Prairie city managers or the retired "Range Riders." Young asked if Mr. Duckstad was suggesting we don't go a particular route this evening. Duckstad said he would like some additional information before making a decision. Case said at the workshop tonight we were talking about accelerating the City Manager search process,but either way that works out we are looking at January or February at the latest to fill the spot. He didn't see us waiting a long period of time for this process, and we should make a decision fairly quickly. He thought it would be less expensive and a lot better to hire an internal interim manager because there would be less of a learning curve. He said he would hope we would pay an additional stipend to that individual,but it would still be an incredibly cheaper route to go. He said he would be willing to talk about it tonight,but he thought we have a little time to spend on it. Duckstad said he would be in favor of choosing one of our department heads because we have a lot of good department heads. He would be amenable to one of them if one was available. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES October 5, 2010 Page 5 Aho said he would vote for going with one of our department heads because that does expedite the process and it is cost effective. He would like to know if Mr. Dietz is available and wondered if we have had discussion with him about filling this role. Nelson agreed that with the budget process coming up it would be hard for anyone who isn't internal to get up to speed quickly. Case noted Mr. Dietz has stepped in before and has done an incredible job; however, several department heads have come forward to say they would be willing to serve. He thought there might be an advantage to groom someone else for the position. He noted Mr. Lotthammer has volunteered to serve. Young asked if there has been some discussion with the department heads. Neal said there has been. Young thought perhaps we can plan for a selection to be made at the next meeting. B. REPORT OF CITY MANAGER C. REPORT OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR D. REPORT OF PARKS AND RECREATION DIRECTOR 1. Birch Island Woods Parking Lot Review Lotthammer said at the September 19, 2010 open podium, Mr. Jeff Strate approached the City Council and asked that his alternative parking plan be examined in lieu of the plan that was arrived upon during the Birch Island Woods master plan process. Council Member Nelson, along with the concurrence of the Council, asked staff to present an overview of the past process and a current status of the project. Lotthammer said in 2002 a task force comprised of a group of citizens, a landscape architect and staff members put together a master plan for Birch Island Woods. The parking lot plan that began to be implemented a couple of weeks ago was what was recommended in 2002. It has nine stalls for car parking and is fairly typical of conservation area parking. He showed slides of the road showing the entrance into the parking area. He said the buckthorn will be removed so there will be greater visibility into the parking lot. As Mr. Strate pointed out, there has been a regular party that happens near there. We know having more positive activity in an area generally leads to some of the negative activity going away. The intent was to get more access in terms of numbers of people and in handicapped accessibility. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES October 5, 2010 Page 6 Lotthammer said in 2003 the master plan was approved by the Parks Commission and City Council and was put into the CIP. Since that time it has been pushed forward in the CIP. In 2006 the Friends of Birch Island Woods (FBIW) went back and took a second look at the recommendation for the parking situation. They came back and recommended the same parking as the 2002 master plan. It achieves off-road parking and gives better accessibility. Lotthammer said we planned to use internal resources to hold construction costs as low as possible. He noted we have received quite a few emails from the FBIW encouraging us to keep this project on track and to stay with the recommendation of the task force. He said staff developed a timeline to clear the area of invasive species and do prep work for the site. They worked with the Watershed District to mitigate storm water runoff, and the preliminary wetland evaluation report shows no impact to the wetlands based on the design concept. They had planned to install a rainwater garden in and the parking area this fall. Case said just because this had an original plan doesn't mean we can't question it tonight. He asked if there are any other parking areas in our City parks that are tucked back in areas that might have safety concerns. Lotthammer said there are two, one at the Edenbrook Conservation Area and another at the north lot for the Richard T. Anderson Conservation Area. Case asked if there will be a gate at the entrance to the parking lot. Lotthammer said there will be a gate right off Indian Chief Road and that gate was important to the task force. Case asked if the placement of the concrete slab for the hog barn is driving the placement of the parking area. Lotthammer said the task force talked about that, and this placement is really the least ecologically damaging spot. Case asked why they brought it all the way in to the hog barn site. Lotthammer said the planned parking area connects with the nature trail, and there are some issues with the grade if we pull it back towards the road. Case asked if this location was chosen because there would be possible cost impacts and possible wetland impacts at other locations. Lotthammer said the wetland impact is not an absolute. Case asked if they looked at costs to relocate it to different areas. He said he was trying to figure out why we wouldn't save money by moving it 20-30 feet off the road. Lotthammer said the contours near the road go up dramatically on the north side and it actually drops off on the southwest side, so we don't have much of an opportunity to slide it in any direction. Case asked about traffic on Indian Chief Road. Lotthammer said he was there for ten minutes the other day taking these pictures and was surprised at how many people came through.. Young noted there are a number of people who cut through that area and they tend to drive fairly fast. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES October 5, 2010 Page 7 Duckstad said in the information provided by Mr. Strate he stated the parking lot would be an invitation to increased nuisance behavior in the conservation area. He asked if Mr. Lotthammer was aware of any extensive problems in the conservation areas in the last ten years. Lotthammer he knows of two examples but they are on railroad property, not in the conservation areas. One is on railroad property near this area, and the other one is west of there, fairly close to Duck Lake Trail. He said when he sees a parking lot he sees it as inviting people to come and use what is there. A lot of people who use a conservation area are using it for what it should be and that deters nuisance behavior. He said he would concur with the task force that it is a good benefit to have something up there if we want to promote it as a usable space. The FBIW want people to make positive use of the area. Duckstad asked if he was suggesting going ahead with the plan as originally intended without any modifications. Lotthammer said that is correct. We see this as a well-thought out plan that had a lot of citizen input. It was reconfirmed in 2006, and it is similar to what we do in other conservation areas. The feedback he gets from the public is when is it going to happen, not why are we doing it. Nelson said she was concerned about how far back the parking is. At the Richard T. Anderson area you can see into the parking lot from the road. She didn't think you will be able to see into this one. She didn't understand why we can't put it out closer to the road and then turn the road we planned into a trail. Lotthammer said we could look at that in terms of how much we could pull it back. Even with the buckthorn there you would be able to see vehicles in the parking lot from the road. Once the buckthorn is removed it would be even easier to see the parking lot. Nelson said the parking lot curves off the road and with the curve she didn't see how you could see into the parking lot. Lotthammer said there are not that many big trees between the road and the parking lot, and once the buckthorn is removed you will be able to see back in there quite easily. Nelson said the distance reminds her of the parking lot in the Anderson Lakes parking area where you can't see the lot from the road. Lotthammer said this area is at grade with the roadway and is less than half the distance off the road as the Anderson Lakes parking area. Nelson said she would feel a lot better if it was a bit closer to the road, and she thought that would mean wider use of the park. She thought there are some common sense rules about what you do and she was not sure this parking lot meets a common sense rule. Young said he was hard pressed to visualize the slopes so he was not in a position to second guess the recommended location. He had a bias to not reopen the results of the task force's well thought out plan, and noted the same issues could have been brought up in opposition to the plan when it was developed. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES October 5, 2010 Page 8 Aho asked if we have any lighting planned for the parking area. Lotthammer said we do not, and that is consistent with other conservation areas. Aho asked if the gate we plan to install will potentially keep people from parking there late at night. Lotthammer said it would, and prior to the last Council meeting we were about to put the gate in for construction purposes. Aho asked if there are any concerns with the alternate plan shown in terms of safety for people using the area. Lotthammer said he has only seen the alternate plan tonight,but he did notice that cars move fairly quickly on the road. It would be hard to build near the road without damaging some of the trees near the road, and we were trying to find the least invasive method of doing the parking lot. He was not even sure if that would meet our code for doing on-street parking. He said he knew of no other place in our park system where we do something like that. Aho noted he has used the parking around the Minneapolis lakes, and it is a little disconcerting to be so close to traffic on the roads around the lakes. He asked if the FBIW have indicated their support for this current plan. Lotthammer said he received an email last week from an FBIW board member indicating the plan Mr. Strate presented to the City Council at the last meeting did not reflect the thoughts or intentions of FBIW and stating they unanimously support the current plan. He said the FBIW offered their help with such things as interpretation signs on the trails and the restoration plantings. Aho said, while he does understand the concerns of Mr. Strate and others,he would support moving forward with the current plan. Dietz said the traffic counts on Indian Chief Road will be more important in the future, and they are estimating 4000 trips per day in the future. He didn't think parking along the edge of that road is a good solution. Looking at the sketch of the current plan, it appears that we are not talking about a long distance to the parking lot from Indian Chief Road. Case said he has great respect for Mr. Strate and his efforts for environmental issues in this city,but he also has a deep respect for the citizens' review process. This project has come through a detailed review process twice. It seems staff is solidly behind this, so he would support the staff plan. Duckstad asked if going forward with the plans to proceed means next year, the year after or immediately. He was not interested in proceeding with the plan immediately because of the problems with the economy and our budget constraints. Young asked where the plans stand and what staff is asking from the City Council this evening. Lotthammer said prior to the last meeting we were moving forward following the CIP. Staff is asking for direction to go ahead with the process or divert to another plan. We are in a position right now that we can do the project this fall. There is a lot of work going on CITY COUNCIL MINUTES October 5, 2010 Page 9 with the Watershed District for the permit process and when that is completed we are able to go in with in-house crews to put in the parking lot. We would put in the rainwater garden and parking area in November of 2010. He said in 2003 funding was suggested to come out of the park development fund, so this will not be taken from the general fund. He said the cost of materials will be about$25-30,000, and we will use in-house labor. E. REPORT OF PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR F. REPORT OF POLICE CHIEF G. REPORT OF FIRE CHIEF H. REPORT OF CITY ATTORNEY 1. Update On Discussions With The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) Rosow gave an update on discussions with the MAC regarding the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for development at the airport. He said Mr. Neal and he have had a number of discussions with Dennis Probst and Tom Anderson regarding the authority of the City to zone for non- aeronautical uses. At the last meeting we suggested to them a way to avoid conflict over this by entering into a cooperative process to pre-zone some parcels the MAC would identify for commercial or office use. We would do that through the City's normal process so they are not in doubt whether it will get through the City's process when they go to a developer. Rosow said as part of that process we asked them to identify for us the development parcels that they thought could potentially be developed. He showed a view of the airport property with potential development parcels marked. He said he is not asking tonight for any approval of this type of approach,but we will be approaching the MAC with some details about this. We have reworked the MOU to say that we will initiate a process to go through our formal process with input from them as to how some of the parcels would be zoned. We would create two new zones for airport commercial and airport office and at the end of the process the Council would have an ordinance for consideration. Duckstad asked if the MAC accepts the fact that the City of Eden Prairie has the power to enforce any zoning restrictions over them. Rosow said they do not,but the entire intent here is to avoid that argument and instead proceed on a different path where we voluntarily undertake on our own to do the rezoning in cooperation with them. Aho asked if Mr. Rosow saw any pitfalls in setting this up and pre- determining these zoning areas. He asked how we would go about CITY COUNCIL MINUTES October 5, 2010 Page 10 determining which area would be zoned in which way. Rosow said he worked with the Community Development staff to review this and we would anticipate bringing forward a specific zoning with specific regulations just as there are with our other districts with respect to each parcel identified. In the past we have required a real development and that gave us control over the nature and design of what goes onto a parcel. With this process we will give up a little control in order to have some control. He noted other communities typically pre-zone properties. Aho asked if he sees any pitfalls in doing this. Rosow said he was comfortable with it because it is a reasonable compromise, and we should keep in mind the location we are dealing with. He said we are building in the kinds of controls the City Council is most interested in. Nelson asked if they have agreed to go with our standard building requirements. Rosow said there is no agreement at this point,but in the MOU they proposed to us they said they would follow the City's performance standards. Nelson said she likes the idea of being able to have some say about what goes where. She was concerned about the piece closest to Hennepin Village, and asked if there is any way of guaranteeing those performance standards and the sort of things that face the neighborhoods. She wanted as much control as we can get our hands on for those buildings that are immediately adjacent to residential neighborhoods. Rosow said what we are contemplating would meet that requirement because we are not changing the application of the performance standards. Nelson asked if we would also include the number of trees and amount of green space required. Rosow said we would. Nelson said she would rather do zoning beforehand than not be able to do it at all. Case asked if it would be possible to go through all this only to have the FAA weigh in and nix the whole thing. Rosow said he didn't believe this is a topic on which the FAA would weigh in. The FAA would just tell the MAC they can't use the property in a manner that violates the Federal diversion of funds policy. Duckstad asked if we are talking about zoning where we will be required to make an amendment to our zoning code to permit this. Rosow said that was correct. Duckstad asked if we will be changing our zoning code as it pertains to property owned by the MAC. Rosow said we are proposing we amend the text of the code to provide for two new zones, and we would go through a property rezoning process to rezone the property into one of those two zones. He said the zoning code won't say property owned by the MAC but that is the practical implication. Duckstad asked if he visualized we have the authority to create a commercial zone over property owned by the MAC when their permission to operate comes from a Minnesota statute that says they have to use their property for aeronautical purposes. Rosow said they have the authority to use excess property for non- aeronautical uses. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES October 5, 2010 Page 11 Nelson asked if this will also allow us to make sure the area where the ball fields are will be zoned as open space. Rosow said he cautioned against doing that because he did not want them to perceive this as an attempt to side-step the three-year/one year limitation. Nelson asked if there would be any commercial or office zoning on any of the places where the ball fields sit. Rosow said this proposal would not call for the rezoning of those fields. Neal said we will run this by our peers at the MAC and bring it back to the respective governing bodies. 2. Obligations Under The Bearpath Development Agreement Rosow said the 1993 development agreement with Bearpath called for construction of a trail. The City and Bearpath voluntarily put off construction of the trail until the road was completed. Recently we have had many discussions with representatives of the Bearpath Limited Partnership about the construction of the trail. We said it was now time, and we thought we had a proposal that was acceptable to them that would call for the special assessing of limited partnership property,but not homeowner property nor homeowner association property. That proposal was put on the table in late spring, and we have not had a response. We have drafted a complaint seeking to force through the legal process the construction of the trail as required in the development agreement. He said he wanted to advise the Council we were undertaking that action and to request a motion to authorize the bringing of such an action. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Aho, to authorize beginning the legal process to force the construction of the trail as required in the development agreement. Motion carried 5-0. 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 8:15 PM.