City Council - 11/20/1990 - Special Meeting SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
APPROVED MINUTES
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1990 6:00 PM,CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBER
7600 Executive Drive
COUNCILMEMBERS: Mayor Gary Peterson, Richard Anderson, Jean
Harris, Patricia Pidcock and Douglas Tenpas
CITY COUNCIL STAFF: City Manager Carl J. Jullie, Assistant to the
City Manager Craig Dawson, City Attorney
Roger Pauly, Recording Secretary Roberta
Wick.
ROLL CALL ALL COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT
Meeting was called to order at 6:05 PM by Mayor Peterson.
Jullie called attention to the November 16, 1990 memo from Craig Dawson in
response to the Council's request of October 9, 1990 directing staff to investigate
options for a new City Hall site.
Bud Andrus presented a status report of his investigations as follows:
1. Carmody Property: Andrus reported that he had checked into this
property as requested and found the owner to be asking $4 million for the
whole piec.:e. The owners were interested in selling only the whole piece,
not just a portion of it.
2. Edenvale Corporate Park: The land surrounding the building now leased
by the City is still available. The owners have a tentative offer with a
developer to purchase the property and they were negotiating at the
present time.
3. Teman Site: Andrus reported that he had been unable to contact Mr.
Teman but he said the property was for sale. He was not sure of the
price, but according to an agent, it was $4.00 per square foot. Pidcock
said that Mr. Teman had told her that he had not had an agent for a long
time so there was some confusion about whether or not this price was
correct. Andrus said he will speak with Mr. Teman when he returns to the
City.
MTS Site: Andrus said he met with MTS officials on November 19, 1990.
They were willing to sell property to the City as they believed the City
would be a good neighbor.
5. Hartford Site (east side of Prairie Center Drive): Andrus said Homart had
plans to come to the City with a proposal for this site and the Council
would be asked to consider how this would affect the City.
6. C.H. Robinson Property: Andrus said he talked with the C. H. Robinson
representatives. This site was not necessarily for sale but they would
entertain an offer and respond to it. The site is 5.93 acres.
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Special Council Meeting 2 November 20, 1990
7. Ann Kispert Property on Highway 5 (west of County Road 4): This consists
of a little over three acres and she would like to have the City consider
purchasing her property. This aarea could be expanded to five or six acres
by purchasing adjacent property.
8. Lee Johnson Property: This consists of 2.6 acres on Franlo Road, south
of Lunds. T here are three or four homes on the property at present and
the property could be put together into a package. This was the least
expensive option.
Harris said she believed City Hall should be in a commercial area and for this
reason she favored the Tetuan site with her second choice being the MTS site.
She questioned how much it would cost to make the ground corrections on some
of the sites, for example on the Johnson site. Andrus said the Teman and MTS
properties would be the best sites for construction. Harris said her third choice
would be Edenvale.
Pidcock said she thought the Teman site was attractive because it was close to
a commercial area. The MTS site would be a good site also. She said cost would
be a factor in her decision.
Peterson said he had a strong first preference for the Teman property provided
the price was reasonable. He said he would like an agreement giving the City
management over development of the adjoining properties. If there were no
management control it would be risky to choose this site without knowing what
( else might occur there. This provision would give leverage to the City in
attracting the kind of development desirable in this area. Peterson said his
distant second choice would be the MTS site.
Pidcock said she did not believe that the City could control adjoining properties
unless it purchased the whole parcel and resold parts of it.
Anderson said the Council should consider the image it wanted for City Hall. The
Teman property would be a good choice if City Hall were to be part of downtown.
If the plan was to have City Hall in ae campus setting, the MTS site would be
best.
Tenpas said he believed City Hall did not have to be downtown or in a commercial
area. He said his preference would b�* to combine City Hall with a park area.
He believed this plan to be more representative of the community and for this
reason his preference would be the MTS site.
Harris said she believed City Hall should be (1) accessible; (2) functional; and (3)
people-friendly. She believed the City Hall should be separate fromm the park in
that the park is a destination, and she would be concerned about combining the
park and a City hall. She said that the community could view such a plan to be
the same as the one that was turned down several years ago. For this reason
the MTS site would be her second choice.
Dick Feerick spoke regarding the issue, and said that Homart would be coming
to the City with a proposal on the Hartford site. Cub Foods was looking at this
site also and there were several other large business that may come into Eden
Special Council Meeting 3 November 20, 19W
Prairie Center. He pointed out that the Teman and Bermel sites were under
financial stress and needed too be sold. He believed Teman and Bermel sites to
be good choices and the Berwel site was also good.
Don Brauer recommended the City stimulate a focal point in the community with
the City Hall. This could be a center with a Post Office, Hennepin County
Service Center, as well as City Hall. He said the City needed this kind of a
center because people neede-d to identify with downtown Eden Prairie and he
urged the Council to considex this in its planning. He believed the Teman and
Bermel properties were both possibilities. He said both sites will require some
backfill and grading.
Anderson said that he believed the City needed to have something to attract
people to the western area of the city. Without something there, it would not be
developed.
Brauer said he met with own:�mers of the property in the western portion of the
Purgatory Creek Recreation area and they were concerned about signing over
their land if the City was not going to invest in the area.
Peterson said the choices had been narrowed down to two sites. He suggested
that because Tenpas's view -was different from Harris's view, that these two
persons be appointed to represent the Council on a committee, along with Mr.
Jullie, the property owners, and Mr. A:ldrus. He said his reason for this
recommendation was that he believed the five Councilmembers sitting together
were too many to negotiate price and philosophical issues and this could be
accomplished better by two pe-rsons representing the Council. He encouraged the
Council to keep the process shoving.
_MOTION
Peterson moved to nominate .Anderson and Harris to represent the Council in
discussions and negotiations on the puchase of property.
Pidcock expressed concern over this arrangement because she believed the
remainder of Council members would be excluded from the process. She said she
would like some communcation Immediately as to what had transpired during each
the meeting.
Peterson suggested that Julbe could be the person to communicate with the rest
of the Council as to the progress of the meetings. p
Motion approved 5-0.
MTJO
Harris moved, seconded by An derson, that the meeting be adjourned at 7:15 PM.
Motion approved 5-0.
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