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HomeMy Public PortalAbout10/01/96 CCM143 MEDINA CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF OCTOBER 1, 1996 The City Council of Medina, Minnesota met in regular session on October 1, 1996, at 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers. Mayor Anne Theis presided. Members present: John Ferris, Jim Johnson, Ann Thies, Phil Zietlow, and Mayor Theis. Members absent: None. Also present: Public Works Director Jim Dillman, Police Chief Rick Rabenort, City Engineer Shawn Gustafson, Zoning Administrator Loren Kohnen, City Attorney Ron Batty, and City Clerk -Treasurer Paul Robinson. 1. Adoption of the Agenda Moved by Thies, seconded by Johnson, to adopt the published agenda with the following additions: Spring Clean -Up and Tree Sale, Metropolitan Council Affordable Communities Letter. Motion passed unanimously. 2. Minutes Moved by Johnson, seconded by Mayor Theis, to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of September 17, 1996, with the following subtraction: Removal of the last sentence in the fourth paragraph on page two. Motion passed unanimously. 3. Consent Agenda Moved by Thies, seconded by Johnson, to approve the consent agenda, as follows: A. Resolution Requesting Conveyance of Tax Forfeited Property of Outlot A Cherry Hill Farm. B. Appointment of Additional Election Judges for the General Election. Motion passed unanimously. 4. Presentation by Jim Strommen on the Suburban Rate Authority(SRA) Mayor Theis introduced Jim Strommen and stated that he was in attendance to tell us why the Suburban Rate Authority would be beneficial to the City of Medina. Strommen started his presentation with a brief outline of the history of the SRA. The SRA was organized in 1963 for the purpose of providing collective strength in negotiating franchises with the Minneapolis Gas Company, which served the original SRA members. In 1974 the legislature adopted the Public Utilities Act to provide for state regulation of gas and electric utilities. This regulation takes place currently through the Public Utilities Commission. At this time the SRA's focus changes from regulatory to becoming a watch dog for utility rates and issues. In 1979 the SRA issues expanded to include sewage disposal rates and again in 1980 to include telecommunications issues. 144 At several occasions the SRA lobbied on the behalf of the member cities to reduced utility rates and to end the tiered pricing structure. Without the SRA suburbs would not have a voice at the Public Utilities Commission. More recently the SRA has begun working on right of way issues. With deregulation of gas and electric utilities Strommen believes the SRA will be in a good position to advocate for cities in negotiating gas and electric franchise agreements as well as other right of way issues. Strommen asked if there were any questions. There were some questions from Johnson and Zietlow about the role of the SRA and the LMC and if they worked together or if the LMC actually paid the SRA to lobby on their behalf. Strommen responded that the LMC and the SRA work together on several issues but they are sperate organizations. The SRA does not lobby directly at the legislature as does the LMC. They do, however, monitor very closely any legislation affecting the member cities. The SRA is an advocate for the metropolitan suburbs, while the LMC advocates for all cities in the state. SRA has begun to get involved with right of way issues and will be expanding it role in this area. Zietlow asked when the SRA meets and Strommen responded that they meet quarterly and next meeting will be on October 16. He stated that if the City wishes to take advantage of the SRA's free trial membership offer, Median would be able to be a voting member through June 30, 1997 without any financial obligation. The City Clerk was directed to add the issue of whether or not to take advantage of this offer to the next agenda. 5. Park Commission Comments No Park Commissioners were in attendance. Jim Johnson did ask about the relocation of the snowmobile trail. There was some discussion on this issue. The exact location of the trial was not known. Phil Zietlow stated that he would ask the Park Commission the exact location of the snowmobile trail and get back to the City Council. 6. Planning Commission Comments - There were none. 145 OLD BUSINESSS 7. Discussion on Pool Fences/Covers Loren Kohnen said that he had read Ron Batty's letter and agreed with his recommendation to change the existing ordinance to increase the height of fences required around private swimming pools and to require self -latching gates. Loren also mention that the reason this was being addressed was because a resident wanted the City to allow pool covers in lieu of fences. Loren stated he went to inspect this pool cover and it was not covering the pool. This illustrates one of the problems with a pool cover. Mayor Theis agreed that there a pool cover does not allow for human error. Some additional examples were discussed. Ron Batty stated that Loren basically summarized his letter and that his recommendation came about from the holes in the City's ordinance pointed out by the resident who requested that the City allow pool covers in lieu of fencing. John Ferris agreed that four feet was too low and that the height should be raised. The overall consensus was to make the changes as suggested. Moved by Zietlow, seconded by Ferris to modify the city's pool ordinance to require self closing and self latching gates and a fence at least five feet to enclose pool areas. Motion passed unanimously. NEW BUSINESS - Planning and Zoning 8. Subdivision of Rita Juberts Property at 1182 Highway 55 Loren Kohnen explained that Rita Jubert was requesting to subdivide her property into two parcels. Parcel A would be 10 acres in size and parcel B would be 62.12 acres. Both parcels meet the soil type and quantity requirements. The septic system is working fine and there is more than one site available as an alternate. Parcel A is zoned RC/RI and the front section of Parcel B is zoned RC/RIU and the rear section is zoned RR. On Parcel A are six assessory buildings. These exceed the number and size permitted by ordinance. Lastly, Parcel A is a legal non -conforming use. If any structures are destroyed beyond 50% of their value, they may not be rebuilt without conforming to the City's zoning ordinance. The Planning Commission and staff recommend approval with the following conditions: 146 1. Drainage and utility easements per city engineer. 2. Acknowledge that Parcel A is a legal non -conforming lot and if any of the buildings are destroyed or damaged beyond 50% of their value, they cannot be rebuilt. 3. Acknowledge that Parcel A has six(6) accessory structures which exceed the number and size allowed by ordinance. 4. Recognize that approximately 50' of additional easement will be going to Highway 55 and will not affect this plat. During the discussion on the proposed subdivision Loren Kohnen mentioned that Hennepin County, as a part of widening Trunk Highway 55, proposed, in a concept drawing, a frontage road through the property in question. Phil Zietlow asked if this frontage road was in the City's Comprehensive Plan. Jim Dillman and Shawn Gustafson said it was not and pointed out that there were several issues in this area that were not included in the City's current Comprehensive Plan. Some concern was raised that the Hennepin County was proposing a frontage road along Trunk Highway 55 and that the City Council was not notified. Jim Dillman mentioned that the county did talk with city staff about this concept. Phil Zietlow said it was difficult to make a decision on this property when there are future plans in this area that the City Council does not know about. Shawn Gustafson reiterated that the frontage road was a concept and that the issue here is access to Trunk Highway 55 for these parcels. There were some questions about the soils and the impact of the flood plain on these properties. Shawn Gustafson pointed out that a majority of the flood plain affected Parcel B. Based on this information Jim Johnson stated that there was no access to Parcel B from Trunk Highway 55 except through the flood plain. Shawn Gustafson stated that the property owner would probably access the parcel through the flood plain and that it would be a very expensive project. Ann Thies asked if the City Council could approve a sub -division of a land locked parcel. Ron Batty pointed out that the parcel was not land locked but that the property owner would be better served if there was an alternate access to Parcel B than through the flood plain. He suggested moving the proposed lot line between Parcels A and B slightly to the west to provide access to the northern portion of Parcel B. 147 Shawn Gustafson stated that if the lot line was moved Parcel A would not meet the soil requirements. Jim Johnson stated that it would seem responsible to require right of way for the extension of Tamarack Drive. Loren Kohnen agreed that there would be no problem to require a 33 ft easement for the west side of the road but the property owners of Parcel B would need the adjacent property to develop in order to have a complete road right of way. Jim Johnson asked if the City Council was going to address the issues of the county's right of way for Trunk Highway 55. Phil Zietlow asked what the county's timeline was for acquisition. Loren Kohnen replied in 1997. There was some discussion about the amount of right of way that would be required and about the way the City had handled similar issues. Shawn Gustafson then stated that the City's subdivision ordinance did require the City to obtain right of way. In this case it would up to the standard for an arterial highway. There was some discussion about the amount of feet required. Shawn Gustafson went to look up the ordinance. The City Council moved on to the next issue. When they resumed, Gustafson noted that for arterials the City's subdivision regulations require a right of way 250' in width. This would result in needing an easement 125' in width on either side of the centerline of T.H. 55. This would mean Mrs. Jubert would be required to dedicate additional right of way was less than 125' from the centerline of T.H. 55. Since the county was going the buy the property within the next year Mayor Theis asked if the property owners would rather wait with their sub -division request until the county purchased this property. The property owners present said that they would rather wait. Ron Batty stated that the City is required to act on this proposal within 60 days. In order to delay further than that the City would need the owners to withdraw their proposal or to give the City a waiver to the 60 day requirement. The owners agreed to sign a waiver of the 60 day requirement. Moved by Ferris seconded by Thies to table this proposal. Motion passed unanimously. 148 9. Request from Gladys Schlosser/APT at 4001 Highway 55 for a Conditional Use Permit and Height Variance for Antenna Tower Loren stated that American Portable Telecom(APT) was requesting a conditional use permit and height variance to construct a 165' cellular antenna tower on the Galdys Schlosser property. The tower would be located on the south side of Highway 55 just east of County Road 19 northeast of the existing 275' tower also located on the Schlosser property. Mayor Theis asked if this would impact the 900 MHz tower. Loren Kohnen stated that it would not. Mayor Theis asked if this tower will have an impact of the development around this property. Loren stated that it would limit any other development within the fall zone. Charles Wendle, representing APT said that they tried to use as little land as possible by overlapping the fall zone with the existing tower. Phil Zietlow asked if they were renting the land and if the property owner could kick them off. Wendle, said that they had a long term lease agreement. There was some concern raised by the City Council about the number of potential towers that could be built in the City. Ron Batty stated that is a real possibility that there will be lots of towers. Ann Thies stated that she thought the City Council addressed these concerns. Ron Batty said that they were being looked at but that the City Council had not specifically dealt with this issue. Loren Kohnen suggested that the City require any new requests for towers to have allow other companies to co -exist on their towers. Wendle said they anticipate working with other vendors. Moved by Thies, seconded by Johnson to approve a conditional use permit and a height variance to permit construction of a tower 150' in height. Motion passed unanimously . 1. Tower per plans submitted. 2. Egress to be on the present driveway with no additional cuts to Highway #55. 3. There shall be no strobe lights attached to the tower. 149 4. There shall be no guy wires installed on the tower. 5. The 48 foot by 48 foot base area must be entirely enclosed by an 8 foot high chain link fence. 6. American Portable Telecom shall execute a contract to make annual payments in lieu of taxes to the City for public services provided by the City to the broadcast facility, such as police protection, fire protection and protective inspections. Said payments shall be equal to the amount of real estate taxes that would actually be received by the City in each year if the antenna structure itself were taxed as real estate under the laws of the State of Minnesota, using the initial cost as the market value of the antenna structure. 7. No development shall be permitted in an area 165 feet in any direction from the tower. 8. The City does not recognize the 48 foot by 48 foot parcel, described above, leased to American Portable Telecom as a separate parcel. 9. The Applicants shall pay to the City a fee in the amount determined by the staff to represent the actual cost to the City of reviewing this conditional use permit application. 10. Any violation of the terms and conditions of this conditional use permit or of any related section of the City's ordinance code shall be grounds for revocation of this conditional use permit. 10. Rear Yard Variance from Dawn Crawford/Ross Lewis at 4600 Pine Street Loren Kohnen described that Dawn Crawford and Ross Lewis requested a rear yard set -back variance to construct a 16'x14' deck. The deck proposed is of modest size and as stated no other homes can be constructed on the rear of the applicants' house. In addition no other variances were required. The hardships for granting this variance is the depth of the lot and that the lot to the rear of this property is un-buildable thereby creating a natural barrier between land uses. Moved by Johnson, seconded by Mayor Theis to grant a 8.3' foot variance to the rear yard set back with the depth of the lot and that the lot to the rear of this property is un- buildable thereby creating a natural barrier between land uses. Motion passed unanimously. 11. Extension of Interim Ordinance Ron Batty stated that last year the City placed a moratorium restricting movement of large amounts of fill across City streets and the creation of ponds within certain wetlands. This moratorium will expire on October 3`d. Minnesota Statues section 462.355, subd. 4 allows a moratorium to be extended for up to an additional 18 months. Phil Zietlow stated that it would be O.K. to extend the moratorium. Ron Batty mentioned that this may affect the county's public works facility project. 150 Loren Kohnen stated that the county would be keeping fill on their property. There was some discussion about how long to extend the moratorium and the consensus was to extend it 6 months. Moved by Ferris, seconded by Zietlow to pass a resolution extending an interim ordinance regulating development activity within the City of Medina and directing a study to be conducted thereon. Motion passed unanimously. 12. Ordinance Pertaining to Unclaimed Property; Abandoned, Unauthorized and Junk Vehicles; and Forfeited Property This issue was postponed until the City Prosecutor's review. 13. Computer System Upgrade Paul Robinson proposed upgrading the City's computer system this year instead of budgeting for the upgrade next year. One of the rationale used for this was the money that would be saved from not having a fifth officer for a majority of 1996. The main reasons for the request were, to upgrade the computers in the police department(which have 386 processors), to have everyone working with the same software and on the same operating system, and to prepare the City for conversions from DOS based applications to windows based applications. There was some discussion about the timing of this request and the rationale used. There was also some discussion about the details of the request. This allowed all computer literate folks in attendance to go hog wild about mega bites, RAM, Hard Drives, CD ROM drives, Windows 95 vs. Windows NT vs. Windows 3.11, etc.. From this discussion came some suggestions from the City Council that staff make sure the computers purchased included adequate backup capacity, that the City was practicing good backup procedures and that money was not wasted on unneeded labor for installation. Moved by Johnson, seconded by Ferris to approve the request to upgrade the City's computer system. Motion passed unanimously. 14. Resolution to Dissolve the Suburban Alliance Ron Batty stated that he would recommend the City Council vote to dissolve Suburban Alliance but that he was not ready to make a recommendation on the pay back of the Suburban Alliance's debt and other issues. Therefore, he would like to bring this back to the City Council in the first meeting in November. 151 Moved by Zietlow, seconded by Ferris to table this issue until the November 6, 1996 City Council meeting. Motion passed unanimously. 15. Speeding and Speed Limits on City Roads John Ferris had recently received calls that there were speeding problems in the City. Ferris stated that Ron Batty had reviewed the matter and agreed with the police chiefs often repeated statement that the City had little control over speed limits even on City streets. The City Council discussed this issue and agreed that, in general, people were speeding on all City roads. Rick Rabenort stated that they enforce the posted speed limits throughout the city and will work on increasing speeding enforcement. 16. Spring Clean -Up and Tree Sale Jim Dillman stated that based on the success of the tree sale during the City's Spring clean-up he would like the City Council to approve selling trees again at next years spring clean-up. Jim Johnson mention that he would like to like the City to increase the number of trees especially good trees such as oak , etc.. Johnson also asked if the City could sell its own fertilizer. Jim Dillman stated that they could. Moved by Johnson, seconded by Thies to approve ordering tree to be sold and spring clean-up in 1997. Motion passed unanimously. 17. Metropolitan Council Affordable Communities Letter Loren Kohnen stated that he was preparing a letter for the City Council on how the City was trying to encourage affordable housing. There was some discussion on this issue and Loren stated that he would have a draft of the letter for the next City Council meeting. 18. Pay the Bills Moved by Johnson, seconded Thies to pay the bills as submitted. Motion passed unanimously. 152 19. Adjourn Moved by Johnson, seconded by Mayor Theis, to adjourn the meeting at approximately 9:58 p.m.. Motion passed unanimously. Anne E. Theis, Mayor ATTEST: Paul Robinson, Acting Clerk -Treasurer October 1, 1996 153 ORDER CHECKS - OCTOBER 1, 1996 16332 B & B Products $ 730.93 16333 Bonestroo, Rosene, Anderlik 3,521.37 16334 Bryan Rock Products 47,490.7' 16335 Classic Cleaning 505. 16336 Commercial Life Inc. 71.60 16337 Commissioner of Revenue 835.09 16338 Delta Dental 581.95 'f ,`� 16339 E-Z-Recycling 2,132.58- ' 16340 ESS Bros. & Sons 582.56 16341 Farmers State Bank of Hamel 3,682.57 16342 Feed Rite Controls 1,557.06 16343 City of Golden Valley 10.00 16344 Grafix Shoppe 1,027.65 16345 Hamel Fire Dept. 16,080.00K- 16346 HDR Eng., Inc. 45.00 16347 HealthPartners 1,706.0 16348 Hennepin County Treas., Acctg.Svcs 710.0 16349 Hennepin County Sheriff 108.9 16350 Jude Wholesale/Advantage Paper 55.38 16351 Kustom Signals 1,039.64 16352 Leuer Farms 300.00 16353 Medica 2,881.46 16354 Metropolitan Council Wastewater (Treatment Chgs.) 7,803.00 16355 Metropolitan Council Wastewater (SAC Chgs.) 1,782.00 16356 Minneapolis Community College 285.00 16357 Minnegasco 39.60/ 16358 Minnesota Dept. of Revenue 1,181.0� 7�j 16359 Mothers Motors/Loretto Towing 12.00 ` d/ 16360 North Memorial Medical Center 8.00 16361 Northern States Power 2,477.85 16362 P.E.R.A. 2,276.97 16363 Randy's sanitation 154.73 16364 S.L.E.A. 15.00 16365 Schoell & Madson 91.25 16366 Total Office Products & Svcs 266.25 16367 U.S. West Communications 352.97 16368 Uniforms Unlimited 905.60 16369 Warning Lites 45.96 16370 Wright -Hennepin Electric 1,278.55 PAYROLL CHECKS - OCTOBER 1, 1996 14952 14953 14954 John B. Ferris 138.52 14955 Philip K. Zietlow 138.52 14956 James R. Johnson 138.5 14957 Paul A. Robinson 773.3 14958 Steven T. Scherer 951.5 14959 Richard R. Rabenort 1,191.60 14960 Michael J. Rouillard 1,012.79 14961 James D. Dillman 1,141,28 14962 Robert P. Dressel 1,137.50 14963 Edgar J. Belland 1,136.45 14964 Cecilia M. Vieau 644.94 14965 Laura L. Sulander 885.78 14966 Sandra L. Larson 742.34 14967 Joseph R. Heyman 861.95 14968 Jon D. Priem 799.66 14969 Jeff J. Weiler 236.07 $104,632.18 Anne E. Theis $ 207.79 Ann C. Thies 138.52 $12,271.07 154 (THIS PAGE LEFT BLANK INTENSIONALLY)