Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-07-10 - Council Minutes - Part 1CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MEETING July 10, 2008 CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Call to Order The Corcoran City Council met on July 10, 2008, at City Hall in Corcoran, Roll Call Minnesota. Present were Mayor Guenthner, Councilor Jacobs, Councilor Hudok Councilor Thomas and Councilor Grabowski. Also present were Interim City Administrator Bodem, City Planner Gartner, City Engineer Rhein, Police Chief Gormley, City Attorney Langel, and Building Inspector Qualle. Mayor Guenthner called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. AGENDA APPROVAL Add to Open Forum: Resident Bill Stifle about setbacks Mayor Guenther suggested that we add to the agenda outline, after open forum, Presentations. If we have materials and it's scheduled and there is no action taken it should be put under Presentations. The open forum should be used for any citizen who shows up and wishes to discuss with council any non - agenda scheduled items. MOTION made by Thomas, seconded by Guenthner to approve the agenda. Voting Aye: Guenthner, Hudok, Jacobs, Grabowski, and Thomas (Motion carried 5:0) 4. OPEN FORUM 4a. Preschool in Hope Community Church Resident Nancy Stanford wants to put up a sign on the corner of County Rd 116 and 30 to help people find her preschool in which she is renting space at Hope Community Church. City Planner Gartner stated that it is an off - premise directional sign. It is an issue because as the property gets developed, how do they get their customers to the site. Under the sign ordinance, directional signage are allowed. Since she is a renter, the ordinance does not allow signage. Mayor Guenthner stated that a updated draft sign ordinance is ready for presentation to the council and suggested that this be added to the July 24 Council Meeting. City Planner Gartner asked that the council allow her to set up a temporary sign to attach to the existing Hope Community Church sign so that she can start advertising her preschool which starts in September. Mayor Guenthner stated that he would go out of prejudice to the city's rights. The agreement in this instance, so that we ordinance that gets approved. Councilor Jacobs stated the ordinance may need to be changed to give the flexibility that people need for businesses. The staff needs to be given guidance so that they can handle the signage instead of having to go to the council every time. along with this as long as it is not done city needs to put together a contractual can protect the city against the final Agenda Approval Open Forum Page -1- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MEETING July 10, 2008 Resident Bill Stifle addressed the council about setbacks. Stifle is planning an addition but was denied a building permit because he cannot build within the 25 ft side -yard setback. Inquiries a couple years ago to the city it was said that the setback was less than 25 ft and this is what the plans were based on in 2005. Stifle has been developing his plans since and now finds that they are in violation of the 25 foot setback. Stifle feels he could get by with a 20 foot setback, if this is possible. Mayor Guenthner raised the question can we look at setback requirements over the years to see what they were at the time the plans were started. City Planner Gartner stated that there are 37 homes on Jackie Lane. Eleven of the homes have setbacks less than 25 feet and two have had setback at 20 feet back in 1996. The change occurred somewhere in the Last 10 -12 years. Mayor Guenthner stated that he would like to see what the ordinance said. If the current legal requirement is a 25 feet setback, the council either has to hear why the property can't be used in the fashion it was intended without a variance or we need to reexamine the ordinance itself. The city needs to either comply with the laws surrounding variances or they need to have a policy discussion on why we have a 25 foot setback. 5. PLANNING — NORM GARTNER Nothing on planning agenda. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 6a. Corcoran Business Park Presentation/lbledina Agreement The Mayor commented on status of Medina agreement and timing. The Medina City Council received a copy of the agreement at the last meeting. They have added new features and the agreement is updated as of today. Kendra Lindahl from Landform gave a presentation on the Corcoran Business Park project. The property is on Pioneer and Hwy 55 and is 54 acres. The total project is 544,000 sq. ft. of office and industrial warehouse. United Properties is continuing to plan Phase 1 and future Phases 2 & 3. United Properties is anxious to get going and are talking to future tenants who are interested in the site. The City of Corcoran is continuing to work with Medina to finalize infrastructure plans and joint powers agreement to provide utilities to the site. Municipal water and sewer would be provided to site which is a condition of approval. Joe Rhein from Bonestroo gave a presentation about the infrastructure improvement project. Rhein mentioned what needs to be installed in order to serve the business park area is along alignment and extended through the surrounding properties as well. Since than their have been difficulties with adjacent properties in getting the easement agreement to allow roads all the way through. The agreement has since been revised; the road will come off pioneer trail. We still need to get agreements to have water mains to come though properties. Southwest Corcoran has 12 properties that will ultimately be serviced by existing sanitary sewer along Hwy 55. Area L is the concerned area. For the business park to be developed, a lift station would have to be installed along with forced main. This Planning — Norm Gartner Unfinished Business Page -2- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MEETING July 10, 2008 should happen in Phase 1 improvements. Also, in the first phase, a parallel pipe to get past the existing 10" bottleneck. As soon as the Area L starts to develop, then the Phase II parallel pipe can be installed addressed in the Medina Agreement. Paul Donna from Northland Securities gave a summary of the financing/IPA. A large portion of the project will be covered by developer funds. Water and Sewer infrastructure costs, 80% is covered up -front upon final Plat approval and 20% will be collected overtime as different parcels are developed. Mayor Guenther stated that there are three components in a sequence of events. One is the agreement with the City of Medina. The second is the United Properties commitment to do certain things and pay a certain amount of money in order to participate in the project. The third is the commitment the city makes when it approved the issuance of bonds. Mayor recommended approving the Medina Agreement at the next meeting due to receiving the revision just today and need to have time to review and react to the agreement. Mayor Guenther summarized the Medina Utility Agreement. The contract establishes that Medina will allow Corcoran to construct pipe within the City of Medina. Medina makes a commitment to maintain the pipes in the future and provides us with utilities on an ongoing basis. We will charge, collect, and pay Medina any connection fees as area owners connect to pipe. A new concept is the termination clause. They were concerned that if Corcoran developed its own water treatment capability, we may terminate the agreement. If Corcoran terminates its agreement after the agreed time and have remaining infrastructure is not paid, Corcoran will reimburse Medina for unrecovered costs. At the next meeting, Council will go line -by -line over the contract. Medina wants the agreement to be made with zero risk involved. 6b. City Administrator Ranking/Schedule Council received a packet with 15 -16 resumes that were submitted by the May 15 deadline for the City Administrator position. Council was asked to review applicants and rank them. The Mayor suggested doing a tally of everyone's rankings. Councilor Thomas suggested moving the Interim City Administrator automatically to the interviewing stage without the ranking. The Council determined that they will interview the top 4 resumes plus the Interim City Administrator. Council took a 5 minute recess to tally the resumes to determine who they will be interviewing. Council chooses to interview Bodem, Lafond, Levins, Parker, and Donahue. The interviews will be conducted by Mayor Guenthner and Council Member Hudok. Also included will be Chief Gormley and Planning Chair Milbrandt. MOTION made by Hudok, seconded by Grabowski to authorize the Mayor Guenther, Councilor Hudok, Chief Gormley, Planning Chair Milbrandt to conduct interview for Bodem, Donahue, Levins, Lafond, and Parker. Voting Aye: Guenthner, Hudok, Jacobs, Grabowski, and Thomas (Motion carried 5:0) Page -3- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MEETING July 10, 2008 6c. Comprehensive Land Use Plan — Infrastructure Council by vote determines whether to continue discussion without any of the following record of final vote. Below is the action taken by Council: (Natural Resources /Environmental/Parks 'Council , Staff, Planning Commission, & Citizens] City Council consensus of 4/5 vote to keep on discussion. 1. Give the discretion to the City Council to stop collecting Park dedication fees and allocated additional fees for transportation funding for roads and bridges Add a bullet point to state continuing consideration of park dedication fees amounts and allocation. 2. Create large Central Park Complex a. Sport Fields, Picnic, Playground, & Trails b. Lg Building for Community Sport and Community gathering 3. The current Lions Park location is going to receive pressure from future development as it gets closer to it. The City should discuss potential alternatives for relocating the Lion's operation to a site which could be utilized better in the future. 4. Create a Memorial Garden on the City Hall property to honor Citizens and create an educational area for City History and environmental assets 8. Encourage or provide incentives for developers to use "Green" design, materials, and techniques when building all new construction. Change "provide incentives" to "discuss incentives': 10. Review and encourage the use of the "Open Space" development ordinance in rural areas. 11. Provide incentives for developers and home owners to protect natural resources. 12. Review the need for neighborhood parks and possible locations. 13. Consider purchasing the Rockford land adjacent to the City Park or other land suitable for Park expansion. City Council consensus to take off discussion Page -4- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MEETING July 10, 2008 5. Protect our wetlands from polluted septic systems by bring sanitary sewer through Corcoran. Covered in comp. plan already 6. Consider requiring some Open Space in high density areas. Covered in comp. plan already 7. Pay attention to light Pollution in our ordinances in all zones so we can still see the stars. Standard item 9. Update Parks and Trails Map and provide community access so progress can be followed by the community. Next meeting need to make an action item. Chad Robrand will have report for next meeting on the plan trial easement issues. June 26th Comp Plan Meeting Added Wall Board Notes 1. Please support parks use of park money. Please support efforts to keep and develop parks for us and future generations. Please support setting aside land NOW for parks and trails before it is too late. Please consider the need for nature to be preserved on every level — through parks and through maintaining wetlands and open space. Please plan ahead now for Parks and Trails and support the Commission efforts. Discussion Topic Transportation /Traffic [Council , Staff, Planning Commission, & Citizens] City Council consensus of 4/5 vote to keep on discussion. 1. Future routing of Hwy117 2. County Rd. 117 extension - Impacts on population, transportation, etc. projections and outcomes 4. Evaluate potential alignments for the extension of CR 117 between CR's 116 and 101. Due to existing development and wetlands, we believe that the west half will have to be constructed in Hassan Township and the east half will have to be constructed in Corcoran. Same as item 1 and 2 5. Evaluate the City's development fees such as area charges, so that they cover the City's actual needs and not become so onerous that they discourage growth. A detailed Capital Improvement Plan will be required for this. 6. The Transportation Charge in the affected districts needs to Page -5- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MEETING July 10, 2008 be substantiated. 7. Area charges need to be based on a per unit basis rather than acreage. 8. How does 610 fit into our Comp Plan? City Council consensus to take off discussion 3. Realignment of County Roads (specifically Co Rd 10 & 50), other major transportation routes and the impact that his has on projections. Evaluate current projections to update. Any changes forecasted by Hennepin County DOT? Mayor Guenthner requested that a list be made of all the discussion items that have achieved consensus collected and reproduced in a single document. Mayor would like to talk how to go about analysis and discussion on each item. This could take a lot of research on different items. 6d. Postage Meter /table Top Folding Office Machine June 12th Council Meeting, Council tabled a staff recommendation to lease a table and postage machine due to additional questions of cost consideration. After further review the staff recommends purchasing the equipment instead of leasing. This would be more cost effective. Having the machine will create opportunities for the staff to work on other things. The Mayor questioned the amount of mass mailings a year. Thomas stated that he is not in support of the folding machine until we have a handle on our expenses and budget. Interim City Administrator Bodem stated that there is money left in the CIP and can find the money in other areas within the CT already approved for upfront purchase. Mayor requested a new proposal of the machine with a justification workup. 6e. Road Transportation Fee — City Planner City Planner Gartner addressed the Council with the questions asked at the December 13, 2007 meeting regarding the Transportation Area Charge. Can the city assess 19% of the cost and hold a public bond referendum on the balance of the construction cost? The city can do this. Minnesota Statute 429.091 states that "an election shall be required for bonds if less than 20 percent of the cost of the improvement to the municipality is to be assessed against benefited property ". If the city wishes to assess more than 20 %, there is no requirement for a public bond referendum. Look at the Phase 1(Trailhaven & Willow) corridor and determine how many units would be created, if the building rights were increase by 50% to 1.5 units per 10- acres on a paved road. Based upon a minimum lot size of 10 -acres being allowed to be split, approximately 112 additional building rights would be created. The quantity of additional building rights generated is not large enough to change the Transportation Area Charge significantly. Page -6- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MEETING July 10, 2008 Can additional building rights be sold to properties to pave a road in lieu of assessments? Yes, however, a simpler method may be to create an ordinance that allows the developer to obtain additional building rights for every 1/4 mile of collector road which they pave as part of their project. This would put the financial obligation upon the developer. Councilor Thomas asked if we can legally get money for '/a mile road and put this into a fund to use when we decide. Gartner stated the original plan was to setup corridors for the collection of funds and designate to specific corridors for use. Mayor Guenthner stated his understanding was that we would create an operating policy, entering into contractual agreements with individual developers. Can the City do some of the work or does it have to be bid? The City can do some of the work. Minnesota Statute 429.041, Subd.4, allows for the city to utilize its own equipment to perform the work on a street improvement project. The cost this work could be either assessed following the requirements of Minnesota Statute 429 or paid through the city's normal budget process. Councilor Thomas asked if under Minnesota Statute 429 does all of the assessed properties owners have to sign on the petition. Gartner stated the it is not a requirement. Politically, most cities want at least 70% or better to make this work. The Mayor requested going through the City Planner's recommendations. 1. Change the ordinance to allow for additional building rights to be given for every '' /z mile or collector road that is paved. 2. Assess 30% of the proposed improvement cost to the benefitting properties that currently exist or have pending building rights. 3. Charge a Transportation Area charge in the amount of $3000/building unit for all lots created after the date of council adoption of the approving resolution. These funds are to be designated for specific road improvement zones. 4. The balance for the improvement costs are to be paid for by the city as a whole, utilizing the Ad Valorem property tax system. 5. The city shall use its own equipment for performing as much of the work as feasible. The Mayor agrees conceptually with Recommendation 1, doing deals with developers that benefit both parties. He feels that the numbers presented were set too low. It does not make sense that you would pave ''/ mile and achieve 7 additional building rights. The Mayor agrees with concept, not with the numbers One approach that the City can take would be to look at creating an ordinance that gives flexibility to negotiate with the developer and let them come in and make a proposal. The Mayor asked if it would be possible to create the ordinance stating that the City consider granting up to "x" additional rights per acre on properties accessing these roads. Councilor Jacobs stated that the City set a standard model for if it is a normal road with certain criteria cost and lots are normal for the City then, state what the number should be. This wouldn't apply city wide without being modified. If you're in a place where the roads are terrible or the lots are highly valuable then Page -7- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MEETING July 10, 2008 there's the incentive. The Mayor stated that if we thought about a program identifying roads to be paved and been willing to offer additional rights on those acreages, we would have to know how many additional rights to offer and what the impact of offering those rights would be. This is going to contribute to the overall picture, The Mayor suggested that Gartner go back to the first corridor and look at the number of rights and think about some of the impacts of specific parcels that were increased. The Mayor stated Recommendations 2 and 4 go together. The Mayor agrees that assessments should be at the higher number. Also, the benefited properties need to be reexamined. The City Engineer recommends keeping the assessment from project to project consistent with the policy so that the City does not have the situation where your assessment values are bouncing up and down. Keep the assessment policy as standard as possible through all projects. Recommendation 2 is consistent with past practices and recommendation 5 is standard. Mayor suggests having a discussion on Recommendation 4 for input by the Council. The Mayor questioned how serious the Council is about ordering a project for $4 million and bonding for it. If we bond for it, should we do a referendum or do we order the project ourselves. These topics need discussion. Councilor Jacobs stated that there has to be a city wide benefit and cannot be just one local area. It has to be a bigger concept. MOTION by Thomas, seconded by Grabowski to recind the transportation area charge and authorize the return of associated letters of credit and fees the city collected. Voting Aye: Guenthner, Hudok, Grabowski, and Thomas. Voting Nay: Jacobs (Motion carried 4:1) 6f. Resolution 2008 -28 RJ Corner — Conditional Use Permit -- City Planner MOTION made by Grabowski, seconded by Hudok to discuss Resolution 2008 -28 RJ Corner — Condition Use Permit. Councilor Grabowski stated that part of the memo is adding to building. All other commercial building has done this. In recent memory they would bring buildings up to some standard. Why was this not done then? City Planner Gartner states that in the ordinance it allows for difference for Council to approve a different standard. The reason for not doing this is because a majority of the building is metal facing already and the cost is not justified. He is not against requesting a new building. It's not possible to make the building architecturally attractive because of the metal facing. Voting Aye: Guenthner, Hudok, Jacobs, and Thomas. Voting Nay: Grabowski (Motion carried 4:1) 6g. Animal Ordinance Recommendation — City Planner There was extensive discussion about the animal ordinance as it relates to the Deming's and Lynch family dispute. It was determined that Councilor Hudok and Thomas would work off -line and come back with a recommendation. Page -8- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MEETING July 10, 2008 7. NEW BUSINESS 7a. Parks & Trails Development of Memorial Park — Chad Robrand MOTION made by Grabowski, seconded by Thomas granting the Parks & Trails commission $2000 use for Memorial Garden. Voting Aye: Guenthner, Hudok, Jacobs, Grabowski and Thomas. (Motion carried 5:0) 8. CLAIMS AS PRESENTED 8a. Escrow Claims (Fund 500) MOTION made by Thomas, seconded by Grabowski to approve the Escrow Claims (Fund 500). Voting Aye: Thomas, Grabowski, Hudok, Jacobs, and Guenthner. (Motion carried 5:0) 8b. Building Inspection Claims MOTION made by Thomas, seconded by Grabowski to approve the Building Inspection Claims. Voting Aye: Thomas, Grabowski, Hudok, Jacobs, and Guenthner (Motions carried 5:0). 8c. All Other Claims as Presented MOTION made by Thomas, seconded by Grabowski to approve all other claims as presented. Voting Aye: Thomas, Grabowski, Hudok, Jacobs, and Guenthner. (Motion carried 5:0) 9. CONSENT AGENDA 9a. June 12, 2008 Draft Council Meeting Minutes 9b. June 26, 2008 Draft Special council Meeting Minutes MOTION made by Thomas, seconded by Grabowski to approve agenda items 9a and 9b. Voting Aye: Thomas, Grabowski, Hudok, Jacobs, and Guenthner. (Motion carried 5:0) 9c. June 26, 2008 Draft Council Meeting Minutes Page 5, Paragraph 1 under agenda item 6b, 5th line — should state safety inspections was "not" followed. Page 5, Paragraph 1 under agenda item 6b., 11th line — change "enforced equally" to "enforced against equally ". Page 5, Paragraph 2 under agenda item 6b, 2nd line — change "aggressive" to "aggressively ". MOTION made by Thomas, seconded by Grabowski to approve agenda items 9c. Voting Aye: Thomas, Grabowski, Hudok, Jacobs, and Guenthner. (Motion carried 5:0) 9d. Resolution 2008 -29 Rosalyn Milbrandt donation A resolution was received accepting a donation of cash from Rosalyn Milbrandt. 'WHEREAS, that Rosalyn Milbrandt has requested that said contribution be utilized to construct the memorial garden and walking path on City Hall property. New Business Claims as presented Consent Agenda Page -9- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MEETING July 10, 2008 MOTION made by Thomas, seconded by Hudok to approve the donation from Rosalyn Milbrandt. Voting Aye: Guenthner, Hudok, Jacobs, Grabowski, and Thomas (Motion carried 5 :0) 10. COUNCIL AND STAFF REPORTS 10a. Scott Qualle — Malenke letters / issues update Scott Qualie provided a copy of a letter dated June 30, 2008 to the City Council summarizing steps his company has taken to address Jesse Malenke's building code violation located at 7800 Maple Hill Road. Mr. Qualle has taken all the necessary steps and requests Council approval to take it to the final stages of enforcement. Council concurred. 11. UNSCHEDULED ITEMS No unscheduled items 12. ADJOURNMENT MOTION made by Hudok, seconded by Grabowski, to adjourn at 10:15 p.m. Voting Aye: Guenthner, Jacobs, Hudok, Thomas, and Grabowski (Motion carried 5:0) Kim Bachmeier, City Clerk Treasurer Council and Staff Reports Unscheduled Items Adjournment