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HomeMy Public PortalAbout08/01/00 CCM151 MEDINA CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 1, 2000 The City Council of Medina, Minnesota met in regular session on August 1, 2000 at 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall Chambers. Mayor John Ferris presided. Members present: Ferris, Zietlow, Hamilton, Johnson, and Smith. 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, Administrator - Clerk -Treasurer Paul Robinson. 1. Additions to the Agenda A. Approval of the final plat for Enge/Frizzel. B. Update on the Watershed District Rule proposal. C. Update from the Maple Plain Fire Department on the purchase of a vehicle. D. Recognition for John Hamilton's last meeting as Council member. E. Issue on update on weeds from the weed inspector. Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion passed unanimously. 2. Minutes from July 5, 2000 There were three corrections. The Gubbins Subdivision should be called Covey Run, Apfelbaum's was misspelled, and there is typo, "a" should be "at" on page 8. Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Jim Johnson, to approve the minutes of July 5, 2000 as amended. 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 Loren Kohnen said next week the Planning Commission may include an easement for the Ducharme lot split, otherwise, there will be no items. He said that there have been a number of sewer requests and some interest in commercial buildings, as well as requests for development in the MR area. 6. Willow Drive Assessment Hearing Moved by Jim Johnson, seconded by John Hamilton, to open the assessment hearing. Motion passed unanimously. Jim Dillman showed an overhead with a map of assessment units. He said that the assessment per unit is $2,159.00. The road is basically done, but needs some additional grading. Todd Hilde asked about truck routes and what the City was going to be doing about that. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes August 1, 2000 152 John Ferris said that at this time nothing has been decided. Hilde asked if there was a plan. Ferris said that they are still working on it and that they will deal with that issue at a separate meeting that this is the not an issue for the assessment hearing. Reynold Swanson of 2520 Willow said that he was the only property owner that was being assessed for three units. He would just like an additional explanation for why that is the case and if this would have a direct bearing on any future subdivision of his property. Loren Kohnen said that assessment units were based on the number of acres of certain types of soils allowable for septic systems. He said in order to subdivide your property, you need 5 acres of suitable soils. In your particular case, you have 15 acres of good contiguous soil which would allow for a subdivision into three lots. Bob Etem wanted to thank the City Council and the Mayor for a wonderful road and to thank Jim Dillman for a very good job on construction of the road. He said he would like zealous enforcement of the traffic and a solution to be found for limiting the amount of truck traffic on the road. Additionally, he wished he had enough contiguous soil for three lots on this property. Margaret Ward asked why she was being assessed for Willow when she lives on Chestnut. Jim Dillman said, basically, that has been the policy since 1984, when they paved Tamarack. He said there has been a per unit charge for anybody that directly or indirectly accesses the road. She asked if she would be assessed for Chestnut. Jim Dillman said probably not since they would probably use a recycled asphalt to pave the road. Carolyn Smith asked if there was a formal written policy. Ron Batty said that he was not aware of any written policy. John Ferris said that we have been consistent over the past few years on how we are doing assessments. Carolyn Smith said that it would be a good idea to write this up into a formal policy. There was some discussion about the striping of the road. Jim Dillman said that it will be two white edges with a double yellow down the middle. He said the striping was included in the cost of the assessment. There was some discussion about the impact of truck traffic on the road. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes August 1, 2000 153 Betty Goodman said she may not be willing to pay for the road if truck traffic is not reduced. Right now, she believed paving of the road increased the amount of truck traffic and diminished her quality of life. John Ferris said he is separating the issues. He said the assessment hearing is a separate issue from the truck traffic. He said that they are serious about working on the issue of truck traffic and they would like to find a way to reduce the amount of truck traffic on Willow. However, at this time, the assessment hearing needs to be taken care of and then at a future point, the City will be dealing with the truck traffic. Ron Batty reminded those who want to object to the assessment that they need to file that objection in writing with the Mayor at tonight's meeting. He said what this does is reserve the right to appeal the assessment within the next 30 days. To appeal the assessment, homeowners need to file a lawsuit against the City appealing the assessment. Jim Johnson said the truck issue is not just an issue of Willow, but it is a City wide issue. He does not want to eliminate truck traffic on one road right now without realizing what impact it may have on other roads. Conrad Miller said that a year ago he brought a petition of 99% of the residents on Holy Name Drive about reducing truck traffic on that road and nothing had been done. Carolyn Smith wanted to table the assessment hearing until the City has an answer about what it is going to do about truck traffic. There was some additional discussion about whether or not the meeting would be tabled. There was some discussion by Council about truck issues being an overall issue of the City, and that some roads may be better suited to trucks than others. John Ferris said that in his personal view, truck traffic is a separate issue. He would like to see the truck traffic reduced, but does not see that changing anything with the assessment. Glen Jeffrey said that it seemed that the main culprits for truck traffic were DMJ and the county, and if somebody talked to those folks, maybe they could reduce the amount of truck traffic or go elsewhere. Jim Dillman said that he did talk with DMJ. He said Dale Johnson sent out a memo to his drivers to not use Willow, unless absolutely necessary, or unless they have a project within that area. There was some additional discussion about truck traffic. Moved by Carolyn Smith, seconded by Jim Johnson, to continue the public hearing to the second meeting in September where a report would be presented on how the City could deal with the truck traffic. There was some discussion about whether or not to continue the hearing. Phil Zietlow thought that these issues were not tied, that he would also like to deal with the truck traffic issue, but felt that it would take some time to deal with. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes August 1, 2000 154 There was some concern by the residents that if this issue was not dealt with before the assessment was approved that it would never would get dealt with. A vote was called. John Hamilton, Phil Zietlow, and John Ferris opposed. Jim Johnson and Carolyn Smith were in favor. Motion failed. Moved by John Hamilton, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to close the public hearing. John Hamilton, Phil Zietlow, and John Ferris were in favor. Jim Johnson and Carolyn Smith were opposed. Motion passed. John Ferris said that at the second meeting in September there will be a discussion on truck traffic where the Council will come to some kind of resolution on how to reduce or route truck traffic within the City. 7. Resolution 00-36 Adopting the Assessment Role for the Willow Drive Project Moved by John Hamilton, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve Resolution 00-36 adopting the Willow Dive North assessment role. Those in favor: John Hamilton, Phil Zietlow, John Ferris. Those opposed: Jim Johnson and Carolyn Smith. Motion passed. 8. Update from the Maple Plain Fire Department Dave Eisinger, the Chief of the fire department, and several other fire members were at the meeting in attendance. They described their current fire truck situation and their rationale for purchasing a new truck. They asked the City Council for approval to go forward with the purchase of their new truck which would cost $530,000, $120,000 they have for a down payment, and the remainder would be financed over 10 years with a 10 year lease to purchase agreement. This would end up costing the City of Medina around $500 per year for 10 years, or $5,000. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to approve the purchase and the annual addition to the City's contract with Maple Plain of $500 starting in 2002. Motion passed unanimously. 9. Gregor Farm John Hamilton outlined the meetings they have had with Gregor and the options before the Council. He said the initial meeting with Gregor outlined the problem concerning items being sold at the Gregor Farm that are not produced on his property. The goal was to be fair to both the business and the residents, and come up with a solution that minimizes the impact of their business on the residents. At the first meeting they had no solution. They met again on July 10 at the site. Gregor had done some things to reduce the amount of exposure of items for sale, not produced on his property. Mr. Gregor requested that future discussions concerning the Gregor Farm be held at the City Council level and that no more side meetings be held between individual Council members and himself. John Hamilton outlined four options. 1. Change the ordinance. 2. Enact a CUP. 3. Rezone the property. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes August 1, 2000 155 4. Do nothing. He asked the City Council what they would like to do. Phil Zietlow said he wanted to reiterate that Gregor did make some changes already to minimize the amount of items that were visible from the road. He said that Mr. Gregor does not want to be offensive. He thought that it might be worthwhile to find out what the City of Plymouth is trying to do with Busch Rose Greenhouse. He said that might be a similar issue where they are selling things that are actually not grown on the property. There was some discussion about Busch Greenhouse and the differences between the Busch Greenhouse example and this one. There was some reference to the State constitution that allows for property owners to sell produce or agricultural goods that are produced on their property. It was said that a large percentage of what Gregor is doing meets that constitutional compliance. Carolyn Smith said that she would like to find a way to make it legal now and come up with a solution that best protects both the business and the residents. Several options were discussed. Ron Batty said that he believed changing the ordinance and enacting a CUP were sort of tied, that the ordinance would need to be changed to add this type of use as a conditional use. However, that would allow other similar uses in others areas of the rural residential, and he asked if that is something the City Council wanted to add as a use that would be allowed in this rural residential area. The consensus was that the Council did not want to make this a conditional use that would be legal for someone to apply for in other areas. In the end, it was decided that the City Council would focus on the items that were not covered under the State constitutional exemption, but focus on the items sold that are not being grown on the property, and to try to come up with a way of regulating those. Ron Batty said one of the difficult parts of doing that is that you need to come up with a way of quantifying what is being done today. The recommendation was to designate this as a legal non -conforming use that would be allowed to continue, however, not to expand or change. If it did ever change or expand, then this use could be discontinued. He said that trying to quantify the non -conforming aspects of this use will be the hard part. Do you quantify the dollar amount of goods being sold, the types and the quantity.....this will be the difficult part. It was decided to invite Mr. Gregor to the next City Council meeting to discuss his use as a legal non -conforming use or exploring other options and solutions for protecting both his business and the residents around him. 10. Enqe/Frizzel Plat Moved by Jim Johnson, seconded by Carolyn Smith, to direct the City attorney to draft a resolution approving the final plat for the Enge/Frizzel plat. Motion passed unanimously. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes August 1, 2000 156 11. Mediacom Jim Dillman said a couple of meetings ago, he had described a request from Mediacom to build an 8 x 10 building in Hunter Farms Park. He said Ron Batty said it would be difficult to do this since the park was dedicated as a part of the plat . Instead Dillman said they would like to consider using the easement for old Navajo Road. Carolyn Smith was concerned that the people who live in Tuckburough may be opposed. Jim Dillman said he wanted to know whether or not he should explore this option. He said that there could be several items that would be required as a part of the City's approval. They would try to follow up on the franchise agreement that requires cable service to homes where there are 15 homes per mile. They were supposed to service City Hall and could possibly run cable up Tamarack and Oakview. Claudia Kelly said she called Media Com and they said she could not be provided with cable service. She said they told her that one of the determinations they make is they drive around and looked at the number of homes that have dishes and do not count these homes as potential subscribers to cable. She said that was a false assumption, especially with the possibility of hooking up to a cable modem. She said they were basing it on profitability, not on the number of homes per mile. Jim Dillman said that they are currently putting a fiber cable down Hunter Drive and need this station to boost the signal to allow for internet access and other features. He said he would not come forward for approval until they iron out some of the other issues with the franchise agreement. However, at this time, they were just looking for whether or not the City Council would be okay with the placing of the structure on that on Navajo. The consensus of the Council was that they would be, but they would like the public works director to notify the neighbors to make sure that they are okay with what is being proposed. 11. Watershed District Rules Phil Zietlow said he, Lenny, and others had been working with the City engineer to give some feedback on the rules proposed by both the Elm Creek Watershed and the Pioneer/Sarah Creek. He said that the letter has been included. There was no opposition. Moved by Jim Johnson, seconded by John Hamilton, to approve sending the letters as drafted to the watershed districts. Motion passed unanimously. 12. Cherry Hill Park Jim Dillman showed an overhead of the outlot in the Cherry Hill development. He said this was a stormwater area for Cherry Hill where there have been a number of problems over the years. He said several year ago they dug a kind of a moat around the wetland. He said this should be cleaned out. He said that part of the expense of cleaning would be removal of the material dredged out. He said that instead this material could be used for the park. He said he was just trying to explore whether or not to pursue the creation of this park. He said they could look for some DNR grants to do some wildlife enhancement and pay for a portion of the park through additional revenue raised from the Evergreen Road assessment. Tonight he was wondering if the City Council liked this idea. If they did, he would move forward to see if it was feasible to apply for and get DNR grants, and see if he could make the financing work for the park, and then meet with Cherry Hill residents at a Park Commission meeting to see if there is any interest or opposition. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes August 1, 2000 157 There was discussion about adding trails. There was no consensus on this issue. The consensus of the Council was for Jim Dillman to move forward with this issue. 13. Weeds Phil Zietlow said that he just wanted to update the City Council on weeds. He said that this has been a particularly bad year for weeds. The Canadian thistle is quite aggressive this year. You see it in the ditches and the parks. It is everywhere. He said that when he became the weed inspector and went to training, they told him the original intent of the law, written in the 1940's and 1950's, was to protect agricultural land. He said if he sees that agricultural land is being infested with noxious weeds that then he steps in to try to work this problem out between the property owners. However, most of the complaints are not affecting agricultural areas and in those cases, he does not do anything, but advise them about the noxious weed and how they could potentially deal with them. 14. Hiring Update Ed Belland wanted to let the City Council know that they completed the first round of interviews. He said the top four candidates will be interviewed again next week Phil Zietlow asked how many applications there were. Ed Belland said that there were 34 applications. 15. Council Vacancy There was some discussion about how to move forward. Council members listed residents who were interested in being appointed. Phil Zietlow said that Elizabeth Weir and Jim Lane had both talked to him. Carolyn Smith said that Elizabeth Weir sent her a letter and had been the only one that had contacted her. John Ferris said that someone contacted him and said Dick Picard might be a good person to appoint. He said he was also contacted by Bruce Workman. The Council members decided to vote using paper ballots. Paul Robinson tallied the votes. He said that there were three votes for Jim Lane and one for Elizabeth Weir. Moved by Jim Johnson, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve Jim Lane. Motion passed unanimously. Ron Batty said that it was proposed at the last meeting to have a resolution accepting John Hamilton's resignation and appointing Jim Lane. Moved by Him Johnson, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to direct the City attorney to draft this resolution. Motion passed unanimously. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes August 1, 2000 1�8 Loren Kohnen asked if they should advertise for a new Planning Commission member. The direction was to proceed for advertising for a new Planning Commission member. 16. Recognition of John Hamilton Carolyn Smith and the Council recognized John Hamilton. There was a round of applause and thanks for his time on the City Council. 17. Approval of the Bills Moved by Jim Johnson, seconded by John Hamilton, to approve the bills, order check numbers 21299-21337 for $65,436.13 and payroll check numbers 16674-16694 for $23,176.30. Motion passed unanimously. 18. Executive Session - Holiday Lighting Moved by John Hamilton, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to close the regular meeting 10:16 p.m. and go into executive session for attorney/client privilege to discuss the Holiday lighting issue. Motion passed unanimously. Moved by John Ferris, seconded by John Hamilton, to reconvene the regular session at 10:54 p.m. Motion passed unanimously. 19. Adjournment Moved by John Hamilton, seconded by John Ferris, to adjourn the meeting at 10.55 p.m. Motion passed unanimously. B. Ferris, Mayor Paul Robinson, Administrator -Clerk -Treasurer Medina City Council Meeting Minutes August 1, 2000 159 ORDER CHECKS - AUGUST 1, 2000 21299 AMERIPRIDE LINEN & APPAREL SVC $48.75 21300 ANDERSON, EARL F. $333.16 21301 ASPEN ENVIRONMENTAL $235.77 21302 BONESTROO, ROSENE, ANDERLIK $10,019.09 21303 BRYAN ROCK PRODUCTS $6,959.42 21304 BUDGET PRINTING $169.35 21305 CLASSIC CLEANING $399.38 21306 DELTA DENTAL $778.85 21607 E-Z-RECYCLING $2,552.22 21308 FORTIS BENEFITS $246.76 21309 HATCH, JIM SALES $53.46 21310 HENNEPIN COUNTY SHERIFF $910.02 21311 INTERFAITH OUTREACH $3,000.00-' 21312 KENNEDY & GRAVEN $4,669.58 21313 LAERDAL MEDICAL CORP. $210.87 21314 LAKE BUSINESS SUPPLY $12.3 21315 MEDICA $226.30 21516 MEDICA CHOICE $6,296.55 21317 METRO WEST INSPECTION $9,387.85 21318 METROCALL $82.05 21319 METROPOLITAN COUNCIL WASTEWTR $1,089.00 21320 MINN. CHIEF'S OF POLICE ASSN. $15.31 21321 MINN.CITY/CO.MANAGEMENT ASSN $77.00 21322 MINNESOTA CHILD SUPP. PYT.CTR. $630.00 21323 MOTHERS MOTORS/LORETTO TOWING $14.00 21324 NORTHERN STATES POWER $3,765.09 21325 ORCHARD TRUST CO $980.00 21326 PRUDENTIAL INSURANCE CO. OF AM $222.50 21327 RANDY'S SANITATION $109.72 21328 STREHLER, JUDY $145.00 21329 THIBAULT ASSOCIATES $1,640.00/ 21330 TRUGREEN CHEMLAWN $122.461 21331 U.S. FILTER/WATERPRO $4,456.111 21332 VIEAU, CEC $88.88 21333 VOSS SIGNS $170.00 21334 WAYZATA, CITY OF $38.50 21335 WRIGHT-HENNEPIN ELECTRIC $1,450.00 21336 XEROX CORPORATION $534.50 21337 P.E. R.A. $3,296.33 Total Checks $65,436.13 Medina City Council Meeting Minutes August 1, 2000 160 PAYROLL CHECKS — JULY 31, 2000 16674 HAMILTON, JOHN A. $69.26 16675 SMITH, CAROLYN A. $138.52 16676 FERRIS, JOHN B $207.79 16677 ZIETLOW, PHILIP K. $138.52 16678 JOHNSON, JAMES R. $138.52 16679 ROBINSON, PAUL A. $1,103.30 16680 SCHERER, STEVEN T. $1,049.37 16681 MCGILL, CHRISTOPHER R. $1,221.71 16682 ROUILLARD, MICHAEL J $1,296.27 16683 KROEGER, SCOTT W. $814.78 16684 DILLMAN, JAMES D. $1,544.26 16685 DRESSEL, ROBERT P. $1,068.78 16686 BELLAND, EDGAR J. $1,880.62 16687 VIEAU, CECILIA M. $975.43 16688 SULANDER, LAURA L. $1,024.02 16689 LARSON, SANDRA L. $983.90 16690 BOECKER, KEVIN D. $362.35 16691 PRIEM, JON D $1,593.71 16692 CHRISTENSON, JEREMY L. $1,265.09 16693 NYSTROM, JAMES $1,214.62 16694 KROEGER, SCOTT W. $1,789.15 Total Checks It. I4,819.91 Medina City Council Meeting Minutes August 1, 2000