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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08.15.05 Council Minutes COUNCIL MINUTES PRE-MEETING August 15, 2005 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Mayor Soderberg at 6:30 p.m. Members Present: Members Absent: Also Present: Soderberg, Fogarty, McKnight, Pritzlaff, Wilson None Joel Jamnik, City Attorney; David Urbia, City Administrator; Robin Roland, Finance Director; Kevin Carroll, Community Development Director; Dan Siebenaler, Police Chief; Randy Distad, Parks and Recreation Director; Lisa Shadick, Administrative Services Director; Brenda Wendlandt, Human Resources Director; Cynthia Muller, Executive Assistant 2. APPROVE AGENDA MOTION by Wilson, second by Pritzlaffto approve the Agenda. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 3. CITIZEN COMMENTS 4. COUNCIL REVIEW OF AGENDA Councilmember Fogarty asked ifthe Cataract Relief Association was asking for additional funds for 2005 or 2006. City Administrator Urbia replied 2006. After speaking with the Cataract Relief members they would like to meet with the Council at a workshop to present additional information. Councilmember Fogarty agreed as their request is for a 9% increase which is a big increase. Council had discussed 3%. Mayor Soderberg asked if action needed to be taken on the $60,000 contribution so it remains in the budget. City Administrator Urbia replied that is included in the budget so it would not have to be separate. The $60,000 is part of the past agreement. City Attorney Jamnik stated it is part ofthe budget so it does not have to be approved tonight. Councilmember McKnight asked about the Joint Dispatch Joint Powers Agreement and noted the first year's funding is 4.83% and asked what it is based on. City Administrator Urbia stated it is the call percentage. Councilmember McKnight noted the agreement states what it will be based on in the future and asked if staff was comfortable with that. City Administrator Urbia replied we are comfortable and the group has the ability in the future to review it. 5. STAFF COMMENTS City Administrator Urbia advised Council that Executive Assistant Muller will contact Council to set up the workshop for the Cataract Relief Pension for sometime in September. Council Minutes (Pre-Meeting) August 15,2005 Page 2 6. ADJOURN MOTION by Pritzlaff, second by McKnight to adjourn at 6:36 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, ;;-~~ /Y?~~ Cynthia Muller Executive Assistant COUNCIL MINUTES REGULAR August 15, 2005 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Mayor Soderberg at 7:00 p.m. Mayor Soderberg called for a moment of silence for former Mayor Pat Akin who passed away on August 14,2005. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Soderberg led the audience and Council in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. ROLL CALL Members Present: Members Absent: Also Present: Audience: Soderberg, Fogarty, McKnight, Pritzlaff, Wilson None Joel Jamnik, City Attorney; David Urbia, City Administrator; Robin Roland, Finance Director; Kevin Carroll, Community Development Director; Dan Siebenaler, Police Chief; Randy Distad, Parks and Recreation Director; Lisa Shadick, Administrative Services Director; Brenda Wendlandt, Human Resources Director; Cynthia Muller, Executive Assistant Monica Kittock-Sargent, Cheryl Haan, Jay & Pat Christensen, Kevin Littman, Bill Toninato, Doug Bonar, Theresa Wolfe, Kris Akin, Mike & Laura Pierce, Kari Doffing, Tom Ford, Terry Donnelly, Brad Meeks, Griff Davenport, Gary Johnson, Brian & Barbara Bollon, Todd Arey, Fred Last, John Gilbertson, Mark Hinks, Karen Bergman, Karen Neal, Terrie Pearson 4. APPROVE AGENDA Councilmember Fogarty pulled item lIb) Cataract Fire Relief Association 2006 Pension Request for a future workshop. MOTION by Pritzlaff, second by McKnight to approve the Agenda. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS 6. CITIZEN COMMENTS 7. CONSENT AGENDA MOTION by McKnight, second by Wilson to approve the Consent Agenda as follows: a) Approved Council Minutes (8/1/05 Regular) (8/8/05 Special) b) Approved Temporary On-Sale Liquor License - Administration c) Authorized Disposal of City Property - Police Council Minutes (Regular) August 15, 2005 Page 2 d) Authorized School and Conference - Police e) Authorized School and Conference - Police f) Approved School and Conference - Parks and Recreation g) Approved Appointment Recommendation - Human Resources h) Approved Solid Waste Exemptions - Parks andRecreation i) Received Information Capital Outlay - Parks and Recreation j) Approved Extension of Time for Approval of Final Plat - Executive Estates- Community Development k) Approved Bills APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 8. PUBLIC HEARINGS a) Adopt Resolution - Transfer of HRA to EDA - Community Development In 2004 the HRA began discussing changing the format ofthe board. A number of people felt the HRA should change its focus and deal less with redevelopment and housing and more with the broader topic of economic development. The HRA members were provided information on the difference between HRA's and EDA's. The HRA recommended to the Council that they consider converting the HRA to an EDA. The main difference is in the state statutes HRA's are defined as organizations responsible for determining blighted land areas for preventing the spread of blight including substandard building structures. The HRA may provide for improvements of these areas through a redevelopment plan. The HRA's main area of operation is housing program development, etc. The primary purpose of an EDA is defined as promoting economic development within a district. The EDA will have the same authority, powers, and duties of an HRA, but the emphasis will be on broader economic development issues and not so much on redevelopment of blighted areas and housing-type programs. The change requires approval of an ordinance and a resolution. Councilmember Fogarty noted there is a change in the appointments. The terms will be 6 years instead of 5 years. There will be two Councilmembers on the board and terms will run concurrent with their term. Community Development Director Carroll added this will also change the composition of the HRA. Currently there is one elected official and four residents. The HRA recommends there be seven members on the board, which would involve two Councilmembers and five residents. Mayor Soderberg had some questions regarding the ordinance for Attorney Jamnik. City Attorney Jamnik stated the enabling resolution specifies the powers and duties. The EDA has the authority to set their own compensation, as did the HRA. Council can change the enabling resolution following a public hearing and Council sees the annual budget and approves it. There are also provisions in the resolution for additional limitations on the EDA's authority. As with the HRA, the EDA still remains a separate governmental body with powers to contract and buy and sell property. Council Minutes (Regular) August 15,2005 Page 3 MOTION by Pritzlaff, second by Wilson to close the public hearing. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. MOTION by McKnight, second by Pritzlaff adopting ORDINANCE 005-541 establishing an Economic Development Authority, and RESOLUTION RI04-05 enabling the creation of an Economic Development Authority. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 9. AWARD OF CONTRACT 10. PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS a) Distribute Draft 2006 Budget Document - Finance Finance Director Roland provided Council with the proposed 2006 Budget. A budget document must be provided to Council one month before the preliminary levy is certified to the County. The levy will be certified on or before September 15. Staff will provide a presentation on the preliminary levy at the next Council meeting. A truth-in-taxation hearing will be set and also a budget workshop. b) Update Joint Dispatch Joint Powers Agreement - Administration City Administrator Urbia presented a draft Joint Powers Agreement for the 800 MHz issue. A final document and resolution will be brought to Council at the next meeting. c) Request for Authorization to Update System Plans - Community Development For the Engineering Department there are system plans that provide guidance with regard to when and how various City infrastructure services will be extended. There are three different system plans. There is a Surface Water Management Plan adopted in September 1997, a Sewer Policy Plan adopted in May 1996, and a Water Supply and Distribution Plan adopted in July 1996 and updated in March 1997. The plans need to be updated to include areas proposed for development. The plans will be updated citywide in phases. Staff wanted to make sure Council was in support of initiating this process. Specifics will be provided at a later time. MOTION by Pritzlaff, second by Wilson to authorize City staff to initiate the updating of the three system plans referred to above. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. It. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a) Adopt Resolution and Ordinance - Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Rezoning Christensen Property - Community Development On May 20, 2005 staff received an application from ISD 192 to amend the Comp Plan for the Christensen property. The Comp Plan currently shows that property and nearby properties as urban reserve. The plan does not envision development until 2020 or later. In order to build anything in the urban reserve area it would be necessary to amend the Comp Plan from urban reserve to another designation. The school has requested the Comp Plan be changed to public/semi-public which would allow the construction of a school. There was also a request to rezone the Council Minutes (Regular) August 15,2005 Page 4 property from agricultural to R-l (low density residential). Ifthat were done, the school would need to apply for a conditional use permit to construct a school. Since the July 18, 2005 Council meeting there have been a number of meetings between the school and the City. It was hoped that a mutual agreement could have been reached, but that has not happened. Council can either approve the Comp Plan amendment and rezoning, deny it, or table it. Cities have 60 days to make decisions on land use applications and that can be extended for 120 days. The 120 days would end around the second meeting in December. The school has requested that the Council take action tonight. Mayor Soderberg noted there has been a public hearing and there was public comment at the last two meetings. He did not think any new information could be provided, therefore, the discussion will remain at the Council table. Councilmember Fogarty stated she spent hours and hours in meetings. On November 15,2004 Council approved MUSA for this site. On November 18, 2004 she and Mayor Soderberg met with Terry Donnelly, Dan Privette, and Dr. Meeks to express concerns they had with the site. The school has known for the better part of 9 months her concerns with this site. This is not a surprise or a secret to them. She has been trying to work out the issues with the school district and to make them understand the gravity of the decision they are asking Council to make. She sat through two full days at the end of July looking at different options with the school district. When she received the letter from Dr. Meeks which he presented to the school board she was devastated. She felt they had made great progress and that there were some sites that showed promise. Some of the things in his letter are confusing to her. He talks about how the Fountain Valley property is a narrowly defined area. They do not know that for sure, because the school district will not authorize soil borings out there to see what kind of soil there is. The narrowly defined area is nearly 100 acres. He talks about traffic and how it could flow and how hwy 50 and 3 are big concerns. In that same meeting the Police Chief said of the three sites it was the best traffic flow he had seen. She was not sure how she was supposed to take the opinion of a Superintendent on traffic over a Police Chief who has more knowledge in the area. This has been very frustrating for her. Of all the elected officials, both Council and school board, she has sat through more joint meetings and hours than anyone else. She has been through hours and hours of meetings. This is the wrong place to start developing. She cannot support it on the Christensen property. There are other options that can be even better. Councilmember McKnight stated everyone has heard his comments over the last 8 months. It is time to act tonight to approve this site. Mayor Soderberg stated the question is whether to approve the Comp Plan amendment. The state prescribes that it takes 4 of 5 Councilmembers to change it. It is a very serious document and it sets the tone and direction for development Council Minutes (Regular) August 15,2005 Page 5 in the City. Once that is set it takes a super majority to change it. It is a very serious decision. Had this request for development come from anyone else, it would never have made it as far as it did. It would have been turned down flatly at the beginning. All due consideration has been given to the school district to consider this as well as look at alternatives. It was presented that there were no other alternatives. After going through two days of charrettes and looking at possibilities there are other alternatives that exist. Those alternatives have the potential of saving the district and taxpayers a significant amount of money as well. It would be his intention to vote in the negative on the amendment. MOTION by Pritzlaff, second by Fogarty to deny the Comprehensive Plan Amendment and rezoning. City Attorney Jamnik stated he has prepared Findings of Fact and Decision supporting the denial. The Findings of Fact should be reviewed and adopted with the motion. He asked Council to review them and see if there are any changes needed and incorporate these Findings into the motion. The Findings are based on materials and statements made at previous Council meetings, Planning Commission meetings and staff reports regarding the application, the nature of the Comp Plan in the affected areas and the basis and rationale for the decision to deny. The motion and second should be for the Comp Plan and rezone at the same time. Council agreed with the Findings of Fact and Councilmember Pritzlaff amended his motion to include adopting the Findings of Fact and Decision, second by Fogarty. Councilmember McKnight stated it is disappointing that the first negative vote from the Council comes in August 2005. We have moved this along to this point. Councilmember Wilson stated he has been as frustrated as anyone. The placement of the school is not consistent with the Comp Plan or with the planned development towards the east. When he evaluated what has happened with this issue, it is disappointing we have gotten to August before making the first no vote. Looking back to November 3, 2004 when the MUSA Review Committee was making recommendations it did not seem that there was any necessity to identify the Christensen property on the MUSA phasing plan for 2005 and beyond, but it was. On November 15, 2004 the Council unanimously approved the MUSA Committee's recommendations which included the high school only upon removal of ag preserve which was accomplished on February 28, 2005. When you are a City and you are providing direction to a developer, which in this case is the school district, to now change course is quite shocking. Ifwe are not going to adhere to the recommendations of our own MUSA Review Committee at a future meeting it would be wise to disband that process. It was clearly identified as a property that would be used as a high school site upon removal from ag preserve status and that occurred. It is probably not the best location, but it is the site the City has been moving along up until today. He has received hundreds of e-mails with comments as to whose responsibility it is. It is the residents that are planning for development. Weare the responsible unit to work with housing development, etc. The school district is in charge of educating kids. The one lesson that is Council Minutes (Regular) August 15, 2005 Page 6 productive is that when we have a building project with the school district, there has to be immediate discussion from the beginning with the City. We have a City Planner and Community Development Director that are extremely talented, that study the Comp Plan day in and day out and talk with developers. He did not think the discussion occurred frequently enough or early enough. Here we are after approvals have been granted, in the middle of August turning this down. He would vote to approve the amendment. Councilmember Pritzlaff said he stated his position a long time ago. There are rumors in the community that because he does not have kids that he is against this. He voted for this, to pay taxes out of his pocket. He will benefit zero from it. For anyone that wants to think this is not important to him, they are dead wrong. He knows we need a school. He talked with Dr. Meeks in January and ever since. On February 28, 2005 there was a joint Council/Planning Commission/School Board meeting regarding the ag preserve issue. At that time he said he did not support the Comp Plan amendment. With three new Councilmembers a red flag should have gone off and we should see how everyone feels about this. The school district did not. They went down a dead end road and spent half a million dollars of taxpayer's money and then come to Council on May 22, 2005 with an application for a Comp Plan amendment. He finds that to be ludicrous to wait that long. He has stated before that he thought it was premature to close on the property until the school knew exactly what they had in place and what they could do with it. In the charrettes he received updates from Council and staff and he also thought there was progress made, but to no avail. Faces and bodies may have shown up just to say they did it, but in the end it is the same answer. It is all assumptions. There are no concrete facts that alternative sites will not be the same or better than the Christensen site. He talked to someone this morning and said it comes down to timelines. He has heard this over and over again from the school district. Ifthis were to pass tonight the school wanted to dig in October ofthis year. He told that person to call the school and ask them if it was approved could they dig in October. The answer is no. There are a lot ofthings the school should have started a lot earlier than to throw this back in his face that the timelines are his issue. They are not. He does not believe this is the first school that was built by this school district and things should have gone differently. He asked that the school district in the future come to the City before they even get close to going down this road again and not to deceive the public and make it more open and not just have 14% of the people involved in this. The 2360 people that voted yes for this, there are a lot more people than that paying for it. He asked the school district to work with the City in the future before we get to this stage. Mayor Soderberg stated we have a motion to deny the Comprehensive Plan and rezoning and include Findings of Fact. Voting for: Soderberg, Fogarty, Pritzlaff. Voting against: McKnight, Wilson. MOTION CARRIED. 12. NEWBUSINESS Council Minutes (Regular) August 15,2005 Page 7 13. COUNCIL ROUNDTABLE a) City Administrator Update Coffee with Council is Thursday. Councilmembers Fogarty and Wilson will attend. Ehlers and Associates will have a 50th Anniversary Open House on August 25,2005. At the last meeting it was discussed to start the September 19 meeting at 6:00 p.m. to receive an update regarding transit from Dakota County. Instead the county would like to hold an open house. The Northern Dakota County Chambers of Commerce will hold their annual meeting on September 30, 2005. A date needs to be set for the Vermillion River Crossings groundbreaking. Council suggested Monday, August 22,2005. City Administrator Urbia will contact the developer. Councilmember Fogarty: Noted the Fair went very well. Councilmember Pritzlaff: He also participated in National Night Out and thanked the residents for the organized parties in their neighborhoods. He attended the Cedar Group Transit meetings and provided a copy of the action plan to Council. He worked at the Village Hall at the Fair. He also attended the AMM transportation meeting. Councilmember Wilson: National Night Out was a phenomenal night. He could not give enough credit to the Police and Fire Departments for their dedication. He appreciated the patience of the Ash Street residents with the Fair. Community Development Director Carroll: Mr. Chris Motes, the Sector Representative for the Met Council has done an excellent job, however he has resigned his position. When a new person is appointed he will set up a workshop with Council. Police Chief Siebenaler: He appreciated Council's participation in National Night Out. It sends a terrific message to the residents that those types of activities are important to Council. Two months ago Council approved a Joint Powers Agreement authorizing a Traffic Safety Group. The first saturation campaign of that program occurred in Farmington Saturday night. It was hugely successful. He will provide an update with actual numbers and statistics in the near future. Parks and Recreation Director Distad: The second public input Open House will be held for the Park Master Plan on Wednesday. They will be reviewing the first draft of the Meadow Creek Park 3rd Addition, the Depot Way Arts Park, and Evergreen Knoll Park plans. There will also be a meeting for the Community Center Study Committee on Thursday. They will begin looking at sites and partnerships for a Community Center. Mayor Soderberg: He also participated in National Night Out by sitting on a dunk tank. They raised $75 for the cub scouts. He also attended a number of block Council Minutes (Regular) August 15, 2005 Page 8 parties with Police Chief Siebenaler and he had a blast. He would do that again anytime. He received an e-mail stating Diane Nitti has received the Girl Scout Gold Award which is the highest award in Girl Scouting. 14. ADJOURN MOTION by Fogarty, second by McKnight to adjourn at 8:01 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, ~;r7?~ Cynthia Muller Executive Assistant