Loading...
City Council - 02/03/2009 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE CITY COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2009 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Council Chamber 8080 Mitchell Road CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Phil Young, Council Members Brad Aho, Ron Case, Jon Duckstad and Kathy Nelson CITY STAFF: City Manager Scott Neal, Parks & Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer, Public Works Director Eugene Dietz, City Attorney Ric Rosow and Council Recorder Jan Curielli I. ROLL CALL/CALL THE MEETING TO ORDER Mayor Young called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. All Council Members were present. II. COLOR GUARD/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Young thanked Boy Scout Troop 695, sponsored by Prairie Lutheran Church, for presenting the colors tonight. III. COUNCIL FORUM INVITATION IV. PROCLAMATIONS /PRESENTATIONS V. APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND OTHER ITEMS OF BUSINESS Case added Item XIV.A.1. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 5-0. VI. MINUTES A. COUNCIL WORKSHOP HELD TUESDAY,JANUARY 20, 2009 MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Duckstad, to approve the minutes of the Council Workshop held Tuesday, January 20, 2009, as published. Motion carried 5-0. B. CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD TUESDAY,JANUARY 20, 2009 MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Nelson, to approve the minutes of the City Council Meeting held Tuesday, January 20, 2009, as published. Motion carried 5- 0. VII. REPORTS OF ADVISORY BOARDS & COMMISSIONS A. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION Chair King said the Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission submitted their CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 3, 2009 Page 2 report and work plan for the coming year at tonight's Council Workshop. He said in 2009 they plan to continue the education items and continue to monitor the final agreement between Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) and the City of Eden Prairie. The Commission also plans to increase their monitoring and vigilance of airport noise, especially at nighttime noise, and also to improve the airport aesthetics. He said the Commission appreciates the support they receive from MAC and from the City. Mayor Young thanked Chair King for his report. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to receive the Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission 2008 report and approve its 2009 goals and work plan. Motion carried 5-0. VIII. CONSENT CALENDAR A. CLERK'S LICENSE LIST B. APPROVE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH HTPO FOR FLYING CLOUD TRAIL IMPROVEMENTS, I.C. 09-5749 C. ACCEPT THE MAJOR CENTER AREA STREETSCAPE MASTER PLAN REPORT SUBJECT TO FURTHER CONSIDERATION MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Duckstad, to approve Items A-C on the Consent Calendar. Motion carried 5-0. IX. PUBLIC HEARINGS /MEETINGS A. FIRST READING OF ORDINANCE AMENDING CITY CODE CHAPTER 11 RELATING TO HOME BASED BUSINESSES Neal said official notice of this public hearing was published in the January 22, 2009, Eden Prairie News and sent to property owners. There are policies in the 2008 Guide Plan Update relating to business growth and reducing peak hour demand on roads. One way to help the City move forward in these areas is to revisit the City's current rules on home occupations. He said the home occupation ordinance (home based business) should be revisited for the following reasons: 1. To help reduce the energy consumed going to and from work and reduce the number of cars on the roads especially during peak hours by allowing people to work from home. 2. To help create and/or grow new businesses. 3. To determine if the current rules minimize disruptive effects in a residential setting. 4. To provide the homeowner with the clearest information so an informed decision can be made prior to starting a business. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 3, 2009 Page 3 Jeremiah noted there have been some questions with regard to the prohibition on the home occupation having a separate entrance. She discussed that with the City Planner, the Inspection Department, and the City Attorney, and they do not have a problem with removing that prohibition under Section 2.C., provided the home occupation would retain its residential character. Young asked if the ordinance as proposed to the Council tonight includes that change. Jeremiah replied currently the ordinance prohibits a separate entrance to the home based business,but staff would be comfortable with removing that and bringing the amended ordinance back for second reading. Neal noted he had a discussion with Council Member Nelson about this item earlier today. He told her we could prepare an amended version of this ordinance responsive to that. The Council could act on first reading tonight, staff could process changes in time for second reading, and then bring back the whole ordinance for second reading at the next meeting. Young noted we have not yet held a Public Hearing on this, so Council discussion at this time should be limited to questions. Nelson said Section A of the ordinance says the home based businesses are not permitted in an accessory building or a detached garage. She asked if items such as storage for the business would be prohibited. She thought most people don't use a garage except for a workbench process or for storage. Jeremiah said the intent is not to prohibit reasonable storage within the garage. We require any vehicle related to the home based business to be inside a building. The intent is to eliminate noise and activity close to the property line which is where most accessory buildings are located, so our concern is that the active part of the business use not be done in a detached structure. Nelson asked if a workbench operation would be allowed as she didn't want to discourage new technology businesses in the City. Jeremiah said technically that would be disallowed,but only if there was a complaint in regard to noise. The preference would be that it was conducted in the primary structure so it is set back from the neighbors. Rosow said currently the code states that a home occupation shall not be conducted in an accessory structure, and there should be no storage of equipment or supplies in an accessory structure. Those activities have been prohibited before in accessory structures. He said with detached garages you get a different interpretation. The intent and manner it has been enforced has not been to apply it to the storage of materials either in an attached or detached structure. Enforcement could be possible on a complaint basis for activity arising out of the performance of the business that is bothersome to neighbors. He noted it is a balancing of interests. Young said we are not talking about implementing for the first time an ordinance that addresses home based businesses in Eden Prairie. We are trying to ease the CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 3, 2009 Page 4 restrictions to promote and make it easier for people to have home based businesses. Jeremiah said the changes are meant to clarify some of the provisions so it is clear when we want to enforce and when we want to allow it. Young asked how many complaints the City gets in a given year about home based businesses. Jeremiah said we get a handful of complaints,but it is not a huge issue. Case noted the newspapers reported a case in Minnetonka of an antique sale that was generating a lot of traffic and was perceived to violate their ordinance. We want to promote a climate encouraging for home based businesses,but we also have to be careful about protecting the integrity of neighborhoods. He said in Section 3, Subd. 1, it says the home based business shall have no adverse impact to building aesthetics and traffic volume. He thought the average home in Eden Prairie generates up to ten trips per day, so it wouldn't take much to double that number for a home based business. Aho noted Subparagraph I. does address that by limiting truck traffic to ten trips per day. Duckstad thought this update did a good job in that it is clear and provides a reasonable balance. Young opened the public hearing. There were no comments from the audience. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to close the Public Hearing, and to approve 1 sc Reading of the Ordinance amending City Code Chapter 11 relating to Home Based Businesses. Nelson said we did not have the discussion after closing the public hearing as she expected. Duckstad withdrew the motion with the approval of Aho. MOTION: Nelson moved, seconded by Duckstad, to close the Public Hearing. Motion carried 5-0. Nelson said in Section 2.C. she was prepared to make a motion to take out the language stating there shall be no separate entrance into the business area. She said 25% of the businesses in Eden Prairie are home based, and many of those have a separate entrance into the business area. She thought it would be more difficult for people to have businesses in their home if we don't change the language. She didn't think we want to say one of the doors cannot go into a home business area. Young said he agreed with Council Member Nelson's comments. Aho thought the edited version before the Council indicates it will be removed. Nelson said she wanted to be sure that the sentence "There shall be no separate entrance into the business area." was removed from Section 2.0 and that the first sentence of that section was changed to begin with the word "An," not"The." The other Council Members concurred. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 3, 2009 Page 5 Referring to the section that states only 25% of the dwelling can be devoted to a home based business, Aho asked if we want to get into stating how much space can be devoted to the home based business. Young thought at a certain level we have to. If there is not a restriction in there, you can turn zoning on its head and turn a home into something other than a single family home. As with any ordinance, it needs to be implemented by staff and enforced with a sense of reasonableness to it. Young agreed with Council Member Duckstad that the changes do strike a reasonable balance. Nelson asked if there could be a motion to take out the sentence regarding no separate entrance. Rosow said the norm there would be to have a motion to approve an ordinance and then have a motion to amend it before adopting the ordinance as amended. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to approve 1 sc Reading of the ordinance amending City Code Chapter 11 relating to Home Based Businesses. AMENDMENT TO THE MOTION: Nelson moved, seconded by Case, to amend Section 2.C. of the ordinance to take out the second sentence, "There shall be no separate entrance into the business area." and to change the first word of the first sentence to "An." Motion carried 5-0. VOTE ON THE MOTION AS AMENDED: Motion carried 5-0. Rosow said staff will change Subparagraph C accordingly and bring back the amended ordinance at second reading. X. PAYMENT OF CLAIMS MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, 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 XIV. REPORTS A. REPORTS OF COUNCILMEMBERS 1. Presentation by MAC Representative - Case Case said partly because of tonight's workshop meeting and partly because of some phone calls he received,he thought there is a lot of perception in the community that the airport expansion is not needed because of the economy and the reduction in the amount of air traffic. In a discussion this CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 3, 2009 Page 6 evening with Tim Anderson of MAC, he asked him if it would serve their interests to have Mr. Anderson or another representative of MAC come before the City Council to discuss the needs for the airport expansion. According to the Memorandum of Understanding of 2002 we can request updates on health, safety and expansion as it goes forward. He thought we could raise questions and ask for updates on air and water pollution now that the sewer and water has been put in. He asked if having someone from MAC give a briefing would be something the other Council Members would be amenable to. Young said we talked during the workshop about having some form of public event during the year much as we did last June. One of the drawbacks of having a MAC representative make a presentation at a Council meeting is that the Council Members are the only ones that can ask questions. He asked if we would want to have an earlier meeting for this sometime before the general public, or would we want to make sure we have them attend the general public meeting and be prepared to address the issue of expansion. Case suggested we do both, and noted the public event held last June at Hennepin Technical College was not a forum at which the Council Members could speak whereas this would be. It would be a chance to discuss the Memo of Understanding and ask some questions and would give MAC a chance to advocate for things as well. Young thought having both meetings is fine,but he was not inclined to change how we run Council meetings. Nelson said the other purpose of having it before us is that it is televised. There were a lot of questions from people at the June meeting about why and what. A lot of people would like to listen to this and then come to the public meeting to ask their questions. Duckstad thought it is a good idea to encourage public participation and asked Mr. Neal how we could handle this issue. Neal replied in order to have it on TV and pose questions to someone at the microphone it would have to be held in the City Council chambers but not be an open public hearing. He thought staff could put that together and he thought MAC would be willing to do it. He suggested we provide questions to them in advance. He said staff will begin to open a dialogue with them and develop a possible timeline for it. B. REPORT OF CITY MANAGER C. REPORT OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR D. REPORT OF PARKS AND RECREATION DIRECTOR CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 3, 2009 Page 7 1. Red Rock Lake Property Update Lotthammer said at the January 20, 2009 Council meeting, staff was directed to relook at the issue of selling parkland adjacent to Red Rock Lake. This item had previously been discussed with the City Council at the April 18, 2006 City Council Meeting, and, as a result of the meeting, a letter was sent from Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens indicating the City does not have authority to sell that land. He said Mr. Rosow and he have discussed this, and Mr. Rosow confirmed that a city does not have the authority to deed dedicated parkland to adjacent property owners. Further, even if the park property were vacated, through Minn. Stat. Section 505.14 or 412.851, title to the vacated property would vest in the original dedicators not the adjacent property owners. Because the Red Rock Lake park property is adjacent to the lake, an additional step would need to be initiated with the Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources. It is likely that the DNR would object to this action due to the current buffer value of the land adjacent to the lake. He said staff recommends maintaining the property as parkland and taking no additional action. Case found this to be good news in that people can rest assured parkland can never be sold. He noted last year the Council was talking about the possibility of the Cummins-Grill house being marketed even though it is situated on parkland. He asked if no parkland can ever be sold as private property. Rosow said the dedication of a property in a plat with the correct language in the plat acts as a deed to the property, and courts have said the statute means the City receives it in trust on behalf of the public interest. It is not possible for a City to sell park property dedicated in a plat because we don't receive the whole bundle of rights as does a property owner,rather we receive it in trust. He said vacating the land is a complicated process and in each case we need to look at how the property was obtained. Young noted the manner by which our interest in the property was acquired determines it. Nelson asked how this parkland is maintained. Lotthammer said it is a shore land buffer so it is a more natural buffer and is not heavily mowed. E. REPORT OF PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR F. REPORT OF POLICE CHIEF G. REPORT OF FIRE CHIEF H. REPORT OF CITY ATTORNEY XV. OTHER BUSINESS XVI. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Mayor Young adjourned the meeting at 7:42 PM.