HomeMy Public PortalAbout03/20/01 CCM65
MEDINA CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF MARCH 20, 2001
The City Council of Medina, Minnesota met in regular session on March 20, 2001 at 7:42 p.m. in the
City Hall Chambers. Mayor John Ferris presided.
Members present: Ferris, Smith, and Zietlow. Lane 8:30 p.m. and Workman 7:45 p.m.
Members absent: None.
Also present: 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. Authorization to enter into an Electronic Data Sharing Agreement with Hennepin County.
B. Request for a Council Work Session on the 55 & Willow intersection improvement.
C. Update on the Long Lake Fire Station.
D. Discussion on Prairie Drive.
E. Discussion about a proclamation concerning family violence.
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion
passed unanimously.
2. Consent Agenda
A. Approval of a Gambling License for Uptown Hamel Business Group.
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve the consent agenda. Motion
passed unanimously.
3. Comments from Residents in Attendance on Items Not on the Agenda
There were none.
4. Park Commission Comments
Jim Dillman said the Natural Features inventory will be discussed as directed by the Park
Commission at their April meeting.
5. Planning Commission Comments
Loren Kohnen said there will be several items on the Planning Commission agenda; the lighting
ordinance, the rural commercial holding zone, and others.
Lenny Leuer, Planning Commission Chair, said the last meeting was the first time since Anne
Heideman was on the Commission that they had a full nine member Commission at a meeting.
6. Two Lot Subdivision and Lot Size Variance for 2182 Pinto Drive, Cy Ducharme
Loren Kohnen read the memo provided to the Planning Commission. He said basically this is a two
lot subdivision requiring a variance for the amount of suitable soils. He said the reason for the
variance is that the City is taking right of way for Pinto Drive. He said this right of way would not
necessarily be required as a part of this subdivision, but is being required by the City to solve a
number of associated issues in conjunction with this subdivision. Therefore, the recommendation
was to approve this subdivision with less than the suitable amount of soils.
He said the variance for lot 1 would be .638 acres and the variance for lot two would be .34 acres.
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Kohnen said there were two motions passed at the Planning Commission meeting. The first motion
was to recommend approval for the variance for both Tots 1 and 2 with the hardship being the City's
taking of the right of way.
The second motion was to recommend approval of the 2-lot subdivision with the following conditions:
a 30-foot road right of way be obtained on the west lot line of Lot 1, and on the north side of Lot 1
and Lot 2, a 225 turning radius in the northwest corner of Lot 1, easements over all wetlands and
drainageways be provided, and drainage and utility easements around all lot lines, 10 foot on the
west side of lot 1, 10 foot on the north side of both lots and five feet on all other lot lines.
Both motions were approved by the Planning Commission.
Tom Kellogg said the turning radius should be 275, feet not 225 feet.
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve the variance and lot subdivision as
recommended by the Planning Commission with one change: the radius be 275 feet, not 225.
Motion passed unanimously.
7. Two Lot Subdivision at 2662 Hamel Road, Christopher Dahl
Kohnen read his memo to the Planning Commission. He said this is a two -lot subdivision. Lot 1
would be 12.64 acres, lot 25.74 acres, an existing barn would be left on Lot 1 and Lot 2 will have an
existing home. He said there will be adequate area on both lots to allow for animal structures.
Kohnen said there was some discussion at the Planning Commission about requiring access being
to the rear parcel previously owned by Mr. Bradley, and passed a motion recommending the City
Council consider requiring such an easement.
Ron Batty said this access would be a private easement issue.
Kohnen said the Planning Commission recommended approval of the subdivision for Christopher
Dahl with three conditions: that an easement be in place for access for Lot 2 from Lot 1, that all
drainage and utility easements be included as per the engineer, and that a 30 foot road right of way
be obtained for Hamel Road.
Carolyn Smith thought that it would be good to at least put a note in the file about the access issues.
She said instead of having two driveways or roads on each side of the lot line, that at some point in
the future this access could be shared.
There was some discussion about a requirement to pave driveways once three homes were
accessing a single driveway.
Jim Dillman said that was not the City's policy, nor was it in any City ordinance.
Tom Kellogg said that he thought that it was in the ordinance. He said if it is not, then this issue is
resolved.
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve the subdivision as per the Planning
Commission's recommendation. Motion passed unanimously.
8. Set Date for the Trunk Highway 55 and Willow Assessment Hearing
Ron Batty said initially they believed the timing of this assessment hearing was critical to allowing
the City to get this project done. However, he was told by the City Engineer that they do have some
additional time in order to resolve some of the issues with the assessment.
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Staff was requesting the Council to set a special work session for next Tuesday night to address
some of the issues with the Trunk Highway 55 and Willow assessment.
Some Council members could not make that meeting and requested that the TH 55 and Willow
assessment hearing be placed on the next Council agenda. The Council decided not to set a date
for the assessment hearing at this time. It was, however, understood that one would probably be
scheduled for the first or second meeting in May. That will be determined at the next Council
meeting.
9. Prairie Drive Frontage Road
Carolyn Smith said she and Jim Lane wanted get an update and some clarification about how DMJ's
property will be using this road. She said the County, at a recent meeting, said they were planning
on paving this road, to the County's property line next year, and that the plans were to be submitted
to City Hall.
Jim Dillman said it is in the County's capital improvement plan for this year.
10. Consideration of the Rezonings to Business Park, Industrial Park, and Urban Commercial
Paul Robinson said approval of this rezoning is the culmination of several years of work. He said
this began with the creation of the Comprehensive Plan that guided a large portion of the area to
Urban Commercial 1 and to Urban Commercial. The second step was the development of new
ordinances which was done over the past several year and adopted by the Council last month. He
said the last step is approving a map rezoning the properties to Business Park, Industrial Park, and
Urban Commercial.
Robinson said there were a number of comments from the people at the public hearing summarized
in his memo. He said the Planning Commission did approve the rezoning as presented.
Phil Zietlow said if the City Council was going to make any modifications to the proposed rezoning
that he would be more supportive of areas on the corners or edges, of these districts.
He said if property owners and others believe some properties should be left in rural residential and
not in the business park or in urban commercial on the edges he would consider that.
Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Bruce Workman, to approve the Business Park zoning as
presented.
Bill Cavanaugh owns a large property on the north side of Highway 55 between Mohawk and
Arrowhead. He said they have owned the property for over 30 years and have always expected to
use it as urban commercial property. He said they are not in favor of the Business Park zoning.
They don't like the large lots and would like to have more retail uses in that area. They believe that
the City is taking away their ability to develop the property and reducing the value of their property.
Phil Zietlow said that right now the current zoning is Rural Commercial/Rural Industrial, which does
not allow sewer and also has a five -acre lot size minimum or five acres of contiguous good soils.
Bill Cavanaugh said that it is still a change in use in their minds. They were able to use it for more
things previously and now they are being more restricted.
Mr. Cavanaugh said that Forester Meats would like to move out to Medina, that Dundee Nursery
would like to move out to Medina, and now the City is saying that they don't want those uses out
here in Medina.
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Bill Cavanaugh said that he does not understand why this change is taking place. He said they have
followed this process from the beginning and are still confused and have been confused the whole
way through.
Bruce Workman said that he was sorry that Mr. Cavanaugh did not understand, however, he cannot
see how this particular rezoning hurts his property value.
Bill Cavanaugh said that he believed that the City was switching what his property could be used for.
Carolyn Smith thought that maybe Mr. Cavanaugh may not understand that his property would be
going from unsewered Rural Commercial/Industrial property to sewered Business Park property.
Joe Cavanaugh shared his brother's concems. He said he has owned his property for 44 years. He
thought that Urban Commercial 1 was Urban Commercial and he wanted to maintain Urban
Commercial zoning, not Business Park zoning. He was also opposed to this rezoning. He
suggested that the back part of his property be zoned Rural Residential instead of going Business
Park.
Joe Cavanaugh said he did not understand why from Minneapolis all the way out to the edge of
Medina there is urban commercial property along Highway 55 and why now, all of a sudden, there
would be a change along the highway in Medina to this Business Park type zoning.
In the end the Council understood that the Cavanaughs would like to have Urban Commercial
zoning on their property, however, the City Council decided to continue the Business Park zoning
along the Highway 55 corridor as was guided for in the Comprehensive Plan.
Jim Lane said at the Planning & Zoning public hearing, as well as at the Willow and TH 55
Improvement hearing, the Laurents had talked about not including their property within the Business
Park. He said he was not sure if they were convinced about what type of zoning they would like to
be in, however, he believed that these properties were good candidates for being taken out of the
Business Park and placed into Rural Residential. He also thought that Mr. Botnan's property would
be a candidate for being taken out of the Business Park and placed into Rural Residential. He
believed these properties were not, at this time, suited for commercial development.
Phil Zietlow agreed that south of Prairie Drive, Rural Residential seemed to make more sense at this
time. But that north of Prairie Drive would remain in the Business Park.
Carolyn Smith was opposed to changing the zoning district. She said that this has been in the
Comprehensive Plan for a great deal of time, that the Hennepin County Public Works Facility
property runs adjacent to the Laurent property and could be developed commercially at some in the
future at which time it would not be compatible residential property to the west.
Jim Lane said that maybe in the future, however, today it seems to make more sense to have these
properties zoned Rural Residential.
Phil Zietlow said the Laurent property seemed to be pretty straightforward. He is not so sure about
the Botnan property since that has always been in some type of commercial zoning and is adjacent
to the Business Park on both sides.
Loren Kohnen said the properties being discussed have been zoned Rural Industrial/Rural
Commercial for over 22 years.
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Jim Lane thought that the old zoning did not necessarily make sense at this time. He would like the
three properties to be pulled out of the Business Park and placed into Rural Residential.
There was some discussion about the motion on the table. The motion on the table was to approve
the zoning as it is.
The mayor called for a vote. Those in favor: Carolyn Smith. Those opposed: Ferris, Lane,
Workman and Zietlow. Motion failed.
Moved by Jim Lane, seconded by Bruce Workman, to approve Ordinance #329 rezoning the TH 55
corridor as designated to Business Park, without the Laurent and Botnan properties.
Ron Batty said that currently those properties are zoned Rural Commercial/Rural Industrial and
would probably need to be included in the moratorium until a rezoning hearing could take place for
those properties rezoning to Rural Residential.
A representative of the DMJ business said that they were opposed to the rezoning to Business Park.
She said they are now a conforming use within the PUD-I zoning district and would become non-
conforming within the Business Park district. They are very opposed to this change. She said they
have been in business in Medina for over 30 years and have a lot at stake. They have a number of
employees and have been good business owners in the community. They have donated to the park
and now it seems that the City wants to shut them down and get them out of the City.
The mayor called for a vote on the rezoning.
Those in favor: Ferris, Lane, Workman and Zietlow. Those opposed: Smith. Motion passed.
11. Rezoning of the Industrial Park
Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve Ordinance #330 rezoning the area
designated as Industrial Park. Motion passed unanimously.
12. Rezoning of the Urban Commercial Area
There was some discussion about the properties owned by DesLaurier, Anderson and the City of
Medina, on the north side of Hamel Road next to the Uptown Hamel district. These properties have
been zoned Industrial for quite some time. At this point the Council was okay with rezoning these
properties to Urban Commercial. However, they would like to keep those properties within the
moratorium to consider rezoning them either a multi -family residential or some type of residential use
or Uptown Hamel Use.
Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve Ordinance #331 rezoning the UC
area as presented. Motion passed unanimously.
13. Site Plan Review
Ron Batty said the City has talked about creating a site plan review for quite some time. He said he
recommended that this being included in the zoning ordinance in the administration section. He said
practically site plan reviews were a part of the conditional use process and since there were no
allowed uses, a site plan review process was not as critical.
However, now with a number of allowed uses and for other reasons a separate site plan review will
need to be done. There are some instances when certain requests may go through an
administrative process where staff would review the site plan and approve it without going to the
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Planning Commission and City Council. Stafrs decisions can be appealed to the Council and
Planning Commission.
Loren Kohnen asked if the CUP review and site plan review would run simultaneously.
Ron Batty said in most cases they would be reviewed simultaneously.
Tom Kellogg asked why in the first section of the site plan were 5 ft. contours required and in the
section part 2 ft. contours. He believed that 2 ft. would be more helpful. He also believed that it
would be helpful to have the contours extend at least 100 feet beyond the property lines.
The Council accepted those changes.
Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Jim Lane, to approve Ordinance #322 with the two changes
requiring a two foot contour and that the contours extend 100 feet beyond the property lines.
Motion passed unanimously.
14. Willow Drive Assessment
Paul Robinson said at the last meeting he had brought to the Council a request to extend the due
date for the Willow Drive assessments to May 15. The Council approved that request. He said the
information that he presented to the Council has changed somewhat since the last meeting. He said
he thought he had only sent out an improvement hearing notice which would not have been
satisfactory and would have been confusing, however, he also sent out an assessment notice which
stated the amount of the assessment owed and when the assessment had to be paid by.
Robinson said that he agreed in the future that it would be nice to send out a formal invoice to the
property owners letting them know when they have to pay by. However, he said he did not do that
and it has not been his practice to do that over the past few years. He said he did notice that Donna
Roehl had done that in previous years.
Celia Glenn and Vern Spangrud both spoke to the Council. They both were confused by the notice
and felt that an invoice would have been helpful. They both wanted to pay off the assessment and
were waiting for some formal invoice from the City.
Carolyn Smith agreed that it could be confusing and that the City should send out an invoice in the
future.
The Council did not change their previous motion so the due date of May 15 was still the due date.
Paul Robinson said that within the next two weeks he would send out a letter to the property owners
on Willow Drive notifying them of this extension.
15. Appointment of Mark Metzger to the Elm Creek Watershed District
Moved by John Ferris, seconded by Bruce Workman, to appoint Mark Metzger of 4065 Shorewood
Trail to the Elm Creek Watershed District. Motion passed unanimously.
16. Electronic Data Base Agreement
Paul Robinson said that every year he has sought and received approval to enter into a contract with
Hennepin County for their tax records and map data. He said he would like permission to get this
data for 2001-2002.
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Moved by Bruce Workman, seconded by Jim Lane, to authorize the Administrator Clerk -Treasurer
to enter into this agreement. Motion passed unanimously.
17. Fire Station Update
John Ferris gave a quick update on the fire station. There was some discussion. Basically the City
of Orono had altered their position from trying to get the fire station completed for the amount that
MnDOT was providing to allow for up to $680,000 in additional funding.
Robinson wanted to know if the City of Medina wanted to go along with Orono on that particular
request. Orono was also looking for some ownership stake in the fire station.
At this time the consensus of the Council was to stay with their previous request to keep the fire
station within the $2.5 million as designated by MnDOT and, at this time, not volunteer additional
funding or seek ownership in the fire station.
18. Proclamation for a Violence Free Families
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve the proclamation. Motion passed
unanimously.
19. Pay the Bills
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve the bills, order check numbers
22167-22222 for $301,071.50, and payroll check numbers 16997-17013 for $18,297.33. Motion
passed unanimously.
20. Adjournment
Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to adjourn the meeting at 10:15 p.m. Motion
passed unanimously.
Joh`/. Ferris, Mayor
Attes
Paul Robirl on, Administrator Clerk -Treasurer
Medina City Council Meeting Minutes
March 20, 2001
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Medina City Council Meeting Minutes
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73
ORDER CHECKS - MARCH 20, 2001
22167 ORCHARD TRUST CO. AS $880.00
22168 P.E.R.A. $3,327.82
22169 A.T.& T $58.28
22170 AMERICAN EXPRESS $232.03
22171 AMERICAN PUBLIC WORKS ASSN $100.00
22172 AMERIPRIDE LINEN & APPAREL SVC $58.32
22173 ASPEN ENVIRONMENTAL $118.66
22174 BARCO MUNICIPAL PRODUCTS $221.72
22175 BONESTROO, ROSENE, ANDERLIK $14,840.43
22176 BUDGET PRINTING $206.81
22177 CHRISTENSON, JEREMY $1,000.00
22178 CIPHER LABORATORIES $537.08
22179 CONNELLY IND. ELECT. $990.34
22180 ERICKSON, ROLF ENT., INC. $3,509.92
22181 FIRSTAR BANK $227,660.00
22182 FORTIN HARDWARE $107.01
22183 GENUINE PARTS $345.84
22184 GLENWOOD INGLEWOOD $43.35
22185 GOVERNMENT TRAINING SERVICE $1,422.00
22186 HAWKINS WATER TREATMENT GROUP $55.00
22187 HENNEPIN CO.TREAS.,ACCTG.SVCS. $2,794.00
22188 HENNEPIN COUNTY TREASURER $261.85
22189 HENNEPIN COUNTY TREASURER $2,545.49
22190 IMPREST FUND $941.39
22191 INTERSTATE BATTERY SYSTEM $353.37
22192 KENNEDY & GRAVEN $9,202.98
22193 LARSON, SANDRA $18.49
22194 LITTLE FALLS MACHINE $90.66
22195 MEDICA $248.00
22196 METRO WEST INSPECTION $9,804.55
22197 METRO.COUNCIL ENVIRO. SERVICES $8,515.67
22198 MIDWEST AUTOMOTIVE $220.73
22199 MINN COMM $30.69
22200 MINNESOTA CONWAY $263.03
22201 MINNESOTA DEPT. OF PUB.SAFETY $40.00
22202 MINNESOTA, STATE OF $213.00
22203 MOBIL $17.04
22204 NAT'L ASSN.OF CHIEFS OF POLICE $50.00
22205 NEXTEL WEST CORP $551.25
22206 PERRY'S TRUCK REPAIR $322.03
22207 POMMER CO., INC. $315.43
22208 PROTOCOL COMMUNICATIONS, INC. $25.00
22209 PUBLIC SAFETY EQUIPMENT $175.00
22210 QWEST $789.99
22211 R.O.T.A. $100.00
Medina City Council Meeting Minutes
March 20, 2001
74
ORDER CHECKS - MARCH 20, 2001 (CONT'D)
22212 REYNOLDS WELDING $23.86
22213 ST. PAUL STAMP WORKS $24.98
22214 STREICHER'S $79.67
22215 TALLEN & BAERTSCHI $4,038.09
22216 THIBAULT ASSOCIATES $1,106.00
22217 TWIN CITY WATER CLINIC $20.00
22218 VALVOLINE FLEET SERVICES $54.56
22219-20 VERIZON WIRELESS $233.50
22221 WRIGHT-HENNEPIN ELECTRIC $72.69
22222 XCEL ENERGY $1,813.90
$301,071.50
PAYROLL CHECKS - MARCH 12, 2001
16997 ROBINSON, PAUL A. $1,306.05
16998 SCHERER, STEVEN T. $1,211.33
16999 MCGILL, CHRISTOPHER R. $1,172.13
17000 ROUILLARD, MICHAEL J $1,320.70
17001 DILLMAN, JAMES D. $1,533.21
17002 DRESSEL, ROBERT P. $1,123.30
17003 BELLAND, EDGAR J. $1,901.74
17004 VIEAU, CECILIA M. $1,036.35
17005 DINGMANN, IVAN W $120.05
17006 SULANDER, LAURA L. $1,075.51
17007 LARSON, SANDRA L. $988.66
17008 BOECKER, KEVIN D. $348.22
17009 PRIEM, JON D. $1,150.30
17010 CHRISTENSON, JEREMY L. $1,297.95
17011 NYSTROM, JAMES $1,079.57
17012 NELSON, JASON $1,043.42
017013 LARSON, TODD A $588.84
$18,297.33
Medina City Council Meeting Minutes
March 20, 2001