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HomeMy Public PortalAbout02/20/01 CCM41 MEDINA CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 20, 2001 The City Council of Medina, Minnesota met in regular session on February 20, 2001 at 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall Chambers. Mayor John Ferris presided. Members present: Ferris, Zietlow, Workman, Smith. Lane arrived at 9:40 p.m. Members absent: None. Also present: Police Chief Ed Belland, Attorney Ron Batty, Public Works Director Jim Dillman, City Engineer Tom Kellogg, Planning & Zoning Administrator Loren Kohnen, and Administrator -Clerk - Treasurer Paul Robinson. 1. Additions to the Agenda A. Changed Cates Plat from Consent Agenda Item to Public Hearing. B. The TH 55 and Willow Intersection Improvement Item was combined with the Tax Increment Financing Item under Administration. C. Update from the Planning & Zoning Administrator. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Bruce Workman, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion passed unanimously. 2. Approval of the Minutes from the February 6, 2001 City Council Meeting Jim Lane had E-mailed his comments. He would like the third paragraph from the bottom on page 1 deleted. On page 5, fifth paragraph under Business Park - Loading Dock, he would like deleted as well. On Page 9, the motion under Industrial Park Building Material, those that opposed the motion were Lane, Zietlow and Smith, not Workman, Zietlow and Smith. Moved by Bruce Workman, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve the February 6, 2001 minutes as corrected. Motion passed unanimously. 3. Comments from Residents in Attendance on Items Not on the Agenda There were none. 4. Park Commission Comments There were none. 5. Planning Commission Comments There were none. 6. Planning Commission Appointments Paul Robinson said there were five applicants for the one open seat. He said that one of the five applicants was Jerry Brost who was requesting to be reappointed to the Planning Commission. Robinson said that in the City's Ordinance, the Planning Commission's size was still considered to be nine members. He said recently the Council has been keeping the Commission at seven members. Robinson said it would still, however, be possible for the Council to appoint up to three Commissioners. There was some discussion by the Council about whether or not to appoint three Commissioners and bring the Planning Commission back to nine members. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2001 42 Some Council Members spoke in favor of this. There were some concerns raised by other Council Members that the reason that they had been keeping the Planning Commission at seven was because of problems the Commission had with attaining quorums for certain meetings. Loren Kohnen felt that when there were nine members there wasn't a significant problem. He said there were a couple of meetings when applicants items were not able to be considered. However, if the Council wanted to go back to nine members, they would probably not have many problems. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Bruce Workman, to bring the Planning Commission back to nine members. Motion passed unanimously. The Council heard from the residents who had applied to be on the Planning Commission and were in attendance. Sharon Johnson said she was a homeowner, and had recently renovated an old farm house in the City of Medina. She felt that she had good background in corporate planning and bookkeeping and would be a very devoted Planning Commissioner. Ron Johnson was not in attendance. Mary Verbick said that she did not have a lot of experience with planning issues. However, she felt that Medina was a very unique City and would like to preserve and protect its uniqueness and be more involved in the City. She said if the City Council was trying to keep a geographical representation of Planning Commissioners on the Commission, then they may want to consider someone from the area of Medina where she lives which does not, currently, have any representation. Jerry Brost was not in attendance, but had submitted a letter, as had Mark Metzger. The City Council voted on ballots for the Planning Commissioners, and the three chosen were Mary Verbick, Sharon Johnson and Jerry Brost. 7. Business Park, Industrial Park, and Urban Commercial Ordinances Bill Thibault said he would go through the draft and see if there were any additional changes to those made from the previous meeting. Thibault briefly reviewed the changes, and then Council began their review of the Business Park Ordinance. Carolyn Smith said she thought that "products produced on site" should be eliminated from the definition of retail sales. The Council agreed. The next item, Carolyn Smith said that on Page 8 and Page 10 there were two references to requirements that would be 600 feet away from residential. She thought that they had agreed 720 feet. The Council agreed to change these references to 720 feet. The next item discussed was the screening of the loading docks. There was a significant amount of discussion and a variety of opinions about how to actually implement the language completely screened. Some Council Members thought that it was completely screened at the property line. Some felt that it was completely screened from anywhere in the residential zones. Ultimately it was understood that if the language "completely screened" were used, many loading docks would need to be covered with a roof in order not to be seen from residential zones. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2001 43 The Council felt that completely may be too onerous or too strict and decided to replace it with a requirement for screening to the fullest extent possible between 300 and 720 feet from residential zones. The next item concerned the wetland setback. Phil Zietlow said the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District was proposing a new rule regulating setbacks from wetlands. Ron Batty clarified that this was actually not a setback from the wetland, but a buffer area and that the watershed did allow encroachments into that area for decks and other items. There was some discussion by the City Council. Phil Zietlow said that the watershed's rule require a buffer or setback of 25 feet to any wetland one acre or less in size, and a 50 foot setback to any wetland over an acre. After some discussion, the Council agreed to incorporate the 25 to 50 foot setback language into the wetland setback. Bill Thibault said there were some other small grammatical errors that would be taken care of and Figure 1 would be updated to accommodate the changes in the wetland setback. The next item discussed was the building appearance when adjacent to residential section. There was a significant amount of discussion about whether or not this accomplished the ultimate goal. In the end it was decided to add to the title "building appearance when adjacent to residential districts" and to strike the two words at the end of the last sentence "and dwellings". Thibault said an appeal section was added to the ordinance. There were no concerns about this addition. The last modification was in Subdivision 2 under the review and approval process dealing with major changes. Ron Batty said that staff was currently bringing forward to the Planning Commission a new site plan review process to be included in the zoning ordinance. He recommended language that would reference this proposed section of the zoning ordinance and delete all of the items currently under subdivision 2. Moved by Bruce Workman, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve Ordinance # 325 Business Park District as amended. Motion passed unanimously. 8. Industrial Park Ordinance It was agreed that retail sales of products be modified the same way as the Business Park, eliminating "produced on site from the definition. They also agreed to include the same wetland setback provision as in the Business Park, 25 feet to one acre of wetland or less, and 50 feet to wetland over an acre. The loading dock section was also to be modified the same way as the Business Park as were the 600 foot references on Page 8 and Page 10, to be changed to 720 feet. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2001 44 There was some discussion about modifying the building addition section to clarify the language. In the last sentence, "to a building that does meet the architectural standards" was to be deleted, and in the last sentence "Architectural" was added to before "Standards". Bill Thibault said the performance standards for warehouses as an accessory use on Page 23 were deleted since warehouses were added to the conditional use section. The same changes as made in the Business Park Section under review and approval process section would be made in this ordinance as well. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve Ordinance # 326 Industrial Park District. Motion passed unanimously. Lane arrived at 9:40 p.m. 9. Urban Commercial Ordinance Bill Thibault said in addition to the changes at the previous meeting, staff has highlighted some additional modifications for the Council to consider. Loren Kohnen said that at one time the Planning Commission discussed reducing the side yard setback in the Urban Commercial district to better accommodate development on the existing smaller lots and limit the number of variances requested. He said a 10 foot side yard setback would better accommodate these existing situations. Kohnen said that this would not reduce the setback for larger buildings since buildings over 20,000 square feet (ask Loren) are required to have a 20-foot fire lane around the building. The consensus of the Council was to go ahead and reduce the side yard setback to 10 feet. Bill Thibault said the Council would also have to change the reference on Page 6 requiring 12 feet of landscaping. He recommended reducing that to 10 feet. The Council agreed to make that change as well. Carolyn Smith questioned why the Urban Commercial area allowed heavier vehicles to be stored outside than in the Business Park District. Paul Robinson said that he believed that was because trucks are allowed to be parked at loading docks in the Business Park, if screened. Therefore, there will not be as much of a need for additional vehicles to be parked or stored outside in the BP District. However, in the Urban Commercial District, many of the loading docks are already in existence and cannot be screened allowing, in many cases, only one vehicle, or one vehicle for every 5000 square feet of building. This change accommodates just one larger truck on the property. There were some concerns raised about this. Carolyn Smith was concerned that vehicles not just be stored. Thibault said that the definition required these vehicles to be actively used in the business and moved on a daily basis, not just stored on the site. Thibault suggested language modifications to clarify the intent of this section. The Council approved. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2001 45 There was some interest in incorporating the same wetland setback in this district as in the Business Park and Industrial Park Districts. However, there were some concems that existing businesses and lots, already allowed in this area under the no setback requirement, may be significantly impacted. Some Council Members were okay with leaving it with 10 feet. There was some discussion that there would be additional regulations from the wetlands based on the wetland ordinance and on the watershed districts regulations and those may be stricter. It was understood that the stricter of the two regulations would apply and would not be less than 10 feet. In the end, it was decided to leave the wetland setback at 10 feet. Bob Pepin, owner of one of the businesses in the urban commercial district, said his business would be negatively impacted by this ordinance. He said he has a light manufacturing facility that is within 200 feet of residential and he was concerned about the resale value of his building. Ron Batty said Mr. Pepin has a Type C non -conforming use. He said if another business took over his building that had the same use, they could probably operate under the same CUP as the current business. However, if a different manufacturing use took over the building, they would have to apply for a variance to allow for a lesser setback than what was required in the ordinance. Ron Batty said the City may want to formally clarify their policy on how to administer to type C non- conforming uses. Mr. Pepin believed that satisfied his question. He said it sounds like he would be able to sell his property, however, the new person may need to have a variance or may need to have some additional conditions added to his conditional use permit. Bill Thibault said that the review and approval process would be changed the same as in the other two ordinances. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Bruce Workman, to approve Urban Commercial Ordinance # 327. Motion passed unanimously. Ron Batty said he prepared title and summary resolutions, however, they had not yet been provided to you. He asked that this item be postponed to later in the evening when the Clerk could get them for their review. 10. Public Hearing Regarding the Cates Plat Ron Batty said over the past year the City has been working on a settlement agreement with Wallace Cates regarding the realignment of Chippewa Road, a portion of which will go through his property. At the last meeting there was a hearing vacating the existing easements along that road. He said now, as a part of the settlement agreement with Mr. Cates, the City was to proceed with replatting his property accommodating a slightly changed alignment of the road. Tom Kellogg said that MnDOT asked for some minor adjustments that they can make before filing the plat. Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Jim Lane, to open up the public hearing. Motion passed unanimously. There were no comments. Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to close the public hearing. Motion passed unanimously. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2001 46 Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve Resolution 01-12 Approving the Final Plat Cates Ranch Second Addition with the minor changes requested from MnDOT. Motion passed unanimously. 11. Roadside Mowing Jim Dillman said he would like approval of a roadside mowing bid from Ken's Lawn Service for $50 an hour. He said they mow two times a year and it takes around 40 hours each time. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve the roadside mowing bid. Motion passed unanimously. 12. Road Material and Equipment Bids Jim Dillman said the bids are very comparable to last years. Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded Phil Zietlow, to approve the bids as presented. Motion passed unanimously. 13. Long Lake Fire Station Paul Robinson said over the past year he has been representing the City on a committee working on the Long Lake Fire Station. He said he has tried to keep the Council up to date and recently told them about the committee's decision on a location for the station. He said at the last meeting the committee approved a preliminary size of the fire station of 23,000 sq. ft. and is now requesting feedback from each of the Councils. If possible, the committee would like approval to move forward with the design. Robinson said Shannon Sweeney, the former administrator, now contract employee for Long Lake, was here tonight representing Long Lake. Steve Persian, the Fire Chief, could not make it. Phil Zietlow said he had a problem with the size and the cost of the building. He said it seemed extreme. He said the Long Lake Fire Department has always been creative at saving money yet this building, an A+ building in the top five -percent for cost and size, seems very excessive. He said he believed the $3.5 million from the State ought to be enough to build a fine station. Shannon Sweeney said they looked at a number of issues including size and cost per square foot. He said that the $145 per square foot cost is not necessarily the actual cost, but the cost used in determining MnDOT's contribution. He said there was no doubt that this would be a high quality building. He said this is a big station, one that the committee modeled after other stations in the area, such as Plymouth's and Chaska's. He said it is not comparable to Watertown's Station or other out -state stations. He said the Council needs to do more comparisons with the metro area stations. He said that in comparison to the other metro area stations, this would probably not be the top five percent. Sweeney said volunteer firemen don't get paid a significant amount of money, they get around $20 per call. He said it's hard to find people who want to be volunteers. He said having pride in a building is part of maintaining a quality volunteer fire department over the long term. He said when they looked into providing service with a full-time fire department, the cost of service increased dramatically, far more than the additional cost of a nicer building for a volunteer fire department. There were some concems raised by several Council Members as to the size and the cost of the building and that it did not seem warranted. Council Members felt there were a lot of spaces that Medina City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2001 47 seem larger than they needed to be and felt that by re-evaluating the building's space, some meaningful reduction in the size of the building could be achieved. Shannon Sweeney described some of the reasons for different spaces within the fire department. These included the lounge area to accommodate children that need to be dropped off during fire calls, an additional bay to accommodate future equipment such as, jet skis, an additional boat, the larger kitchen for accommodating community events, and others. Phil Zietlow said that those are good options to include, however, the community events do not necessarily provide a direct benefit to the City of Medina. Shannon Sweeney said that Long Lake City Council has given its full support to this option. Other Council Members expressed concem about voting on a recommendation right now. They would like to hear what the City of Orono has to say about this since they are paying over 70% of the City's cost of this building. After some additional discussion, it was agreed that the City set a special City Council meeting for Monday, March 5th at the Long Lake City Hall at 4 p.m., to coincide with the next fire station committee meeting. Moved by Jim Lane, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to set up this special meeting. Motion passed unanimously. 14. Tax Increment Financing Update Ron Batty said we have talked about available Tax Increment a couple of times over the past year. He said that Paul Robinson has now determined that around $436,000 was available in Tax Increment Financing to be used for an authorized Tax Increment expenditure. He said that there is not as clear an authorization as he would like, however, there was authorization in several of the past budgets for intersection improvements, road improvements, as well as a reference to a signal improvement. Ron Batty said that the Council has a number of options. He said the City could return this money to the County and school district, they could use it for the intersection improvements at 55 and Willow, or spend it on another allowable use. After some additional discussion, the Council thought that it was a good idea to move forward with using this money for the signal and intersection improvements. Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to authorize using the $436,000 of Tax Increment Financing money for the signal. Motion passed unanimously. Paul Robinson said there were another couple of additional issues. He said there is another $487,000 that was in the TIF funds that can be used for non-TIF related purposes. He said a majority of this money came from interest that was not considered TIF until 1997. Robinson went through some of the potential uses of that money. In the end the consensus of the Council was to set aside these funds as designated for a future purpose in the general fund, fund balance. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Bruce Workman, to transfer $487,884 to the general fund and designate it for a future purpose. Motion passed unanimously. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2001 48 Robinson said that the last issue was a transfer of $122,475.00 from the debt service fund 303 to the TIF capital improvement fund. He said that the money remaining in the debt service fund is only there to pay off the debt and that other monies are available for use in the capital improvement fund for the signal. Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve transferring $122,475 from fund 303 to fund 405. Motion passed unanimously. 15. Updates from Loren Kohnen Loren Kohnen said today was the last day for Hays Drywall to comply with their conditional use permit. He said that they have done a significant amount of clean up on their property and only have two vehicles outside. Loren wanted to consider this good enough for now since it will be difficult for them to fully comply at this time of year. Update on the Metropolitan Council — Kohnen said that the Metropolitan Council was looking for the legislature to set up committees on affordable housing. He said they will be looking for members to take part in these committees and he has asked to be included. Kohnen believes that the Metropolitan Council is ultimately looking for more control over local jurisdiction's zoning. He thought the Council will need to keep a close watch on this legislation and on the potential committee process. 16. Pay the Bills Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Jim Lane, to approve the bills, order check numbers 22067- 22116 for $89,974.23, and payroll check numbers 16958-16974 for $18,820.17. Motion passed unanimously. 17. Adoption of Resolution 01-13, 01-14.01-15 Authorizing Publication of the Business Park, Industrial Park and Urban Commercial by Title and Summary Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve those resolutions. Motion passed unanimously. 18. Adjournment Moved by John Ferris, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to adjourn the meeting at 11:15 p.m. Motion passed unanimously. Ferris, Mayor Paul '' o •• inson, Administrator -Clerk -Treasurer Medina City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2001 49 ORDER CHECKS - FEBRUARY 20, 2001 22067 ORCHARD TRUST CO. AS $880.00 22068 P.E.R.A. $3,411.35 22069 A.T.& T $50.43 22070 AMERICAN EXPRESS $280.29 22071 ASPEN ENVIRONMENTAL $118.66 22072 BOELTER, MATT $30.00 22073 BRYAN ROCK PRODUCTS $1,071.29 22074 BUDGET PRINTING $674.29 22075 CASE CREDIT CORPORATION $13.48 22076 CENTRAL STORES $149.00 22077 CULLIGAN $75.72 22078 CY'S UNIFORMS $93.63 22079 ERICKSON, ROLF ENT., INC. $3,629.65 22080 FIRSTAR BANK $51,375.00 22081 FORTIN HARDWARE $84.83 22082 GARY'S DIESEL SERVICE $8.84 22083 GENUINE PARTS $83.08 22084 GLENWOOD INGLEWOOD $68.20 22085 GOPHER STATE ONE CALL $56.00 22086 HAMEL BUILDING CENTER $12.77 22087 HAWKINS WATER TREATMENT GROUP $534.32 22088 HENNEPIN CO.DEPT.OF GEN.SVC $394.61 22089 HENNEPIN COUNTY TREASURER $203.00 22090 HENNEPIN COUNTY TREASURER $5,801.14 22091 HOLIDAY $42.19 22092 KRAEMER, EDWARD & SONS, INC $850.14 22093 LAKE BUSINESS SUPPLY $484.75 22094 LAKESHORE WEEKLY NEWS $156.25 22095 MEDICA $248.00 22096 METRO.COUNCIL ENVIRO. SERVICES $8,118.40 22097 MIDWEST AUTOMOTIVE $428.66 22098 MINN COMM $30.69 22099 MINN COUNTIES INS.TRUST $50.00 22100 MINNESOTA DEPT. OF HEALTH $653.00 22101 NEXTEL WEST CORP $551.25 22102 NORTH AMERICAN FOODS $42.49 22103 NORTHSTAR REPRO PRODUCTS,INC. $316.96 22104 PERRY'S TRUCK REPAIR $26.63 22105 PRUDENTIAL INSURANCE CO. OF AM $43.55 22106 QWEST $104.00 22107 REYNOLDS WELDING $26.41 22108 STREICHER'S $47.77 22109 TALLEN & BAERTSCHI $4,814.32 Medina City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2001 50 ORDER CHECKS - FEBRUARY 20, 2001 22110 THIBAULT ASSOCIATES $2,158.00 22111 TRI STATE PUMP $243.15 22112 TWIN CITY WATER CLINIC $20.00 22113 U.S. FILTER/WATERPRO $74.55 22114-15 VERIZON WIRELESS $265.27 22116 XCEL ENERGY $1,078.22 Total Checks $89,974.23 PAYROLL CHECKS - FEBRUARY 12, 2001 016955-57 Void Checks 016958 ROBINSON, PAUL A. $1,306.05 016959 SCHERER, STEVEN T. $1,191.62 016960 MCGILL, CHRISTOPHER R. $1,338.55 016961 ROUILLARD, MICHAEL J $1,298.97 016962 DILLMAN, JAMES D. $1,535.09 016963 DRESSEL, ROBERT P. $1,143.74 016964 BELLAND, EDGAR J. $1,977.51 016965 VIEAU, CECILIA M. $1,036.35 016966 DINGMANN, IVAN W $156.99 016967 SULANDER, LAURA L $1,075.51 016968 LARSON, SANDRA L. $1,062.70 016969 BOECKER, KEVIN D. $355.38 016970 PRIEM, JON D. $1,182.11 016971 CHRISTENSON, JEREMY L. $1,239.65 016972 NYSTROM, JAMES $1,196.88 016973 NELSON, JASON $1,107.22 016974 LARSON, TODD A $615.85 $18,820.17 Medina City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2001