Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004/10/04 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Regular ffCTY F OFFICIAL MINUTES T.ILoucTs CITY COUNCIL MEETING RK ST. LOUIS PARK, MINNESOTA October 4, 2004 1. Call to Order Mayor Jacobs called the meeting to order at 7:32 pm Council members present: Mayor Jeff Jacobs, John Basil!, Phil Finkelstein, Paul Omodt, Susan Sanger, Sue Santa, and Sally Velick Staff present. City Manager (Mr. Harmening), City Attorney (Mr. Scott), Community Development Director (Mr. Locke), Economic Development Coordinator (Mr. Hunt), Planning/Zoning Supervisor(Ms. McGonigal) and Recording Secretary (Ms. Stegora-Peterson). 2. Presentations - None 3. Approval of Minutes 3a. City Council Minutes of September 20, 2004 Councilmember Velick noted on page 10 in the last paragraph of communications, the second sentence should begin "Councilmember Velick". The last sentence of the paragraph should read, "The resident wanted to say that she supported the program." The minutes were approved as corrected 3b. City Council Special Meeting Minutes of September 20, 2004 The minutes were approved as presented. 3c. City Council Study Session Minutes of September 13, 2004 Councilmember Basil indicated on page 5, in the second paragraph of communication after ". Highway 100" the following should be inserted "; however, parking concerns are still an issue " He also noted that the adjournment time should be 7.00 PM The minutes were approved as corrected. 4. Approval of Agenda and Items on Consent Calendar NOTE The Consent Calendar lists those items of business which are considered to be routine and/or which need no discussion Consent items are acted upon by one motion If discussion is desired by either a Councilmember or a member of the audience,that item may be moved to an appropriate section of the regular agenda for discussion 4a Adopt the Resolution No. 04-118 which creates a partnership to benefit Minnehaha Creek 4b Approve second reading of Ordinance No. 2279-04 amending zoning map to change the zoning designation from R2 - Single Family Residential to R4 - Multi Family Residential for a portion of property located at 4100 Vernon Avenue South and 4135 Webster City Council Minutes -2- October 4, 2004 Avenue South subject to review of the Comprehensive Plan amendments by the Metropolitan Council, to approve summary and authorize publication Case No 04-30-Z 4c Bid Tabulation: Purchase of Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) Supply Contract Motion to authorize execution of a contract with Calgon Carbon Corporation for the purchase of GAC in the amount of$51,440 4d Bid Tabulation: Designate Lametti & Sons, Inc the lowest responsible bidder and authorize execution of a contract with the firm in the amount of$302,700.00 for the Lamplighter Pond Lift Station Improvement Project— City Project No. 00-18A 4e Adopt Resolution No. 04-121 that accepts this report considering major equipment replacement scheduled and budgeted for 2005 4f Approve a contract with SRF Consulting Group for Professional Design Services related to the Excelsior Boulevard Street Improvement Project, Project No. 2004-0400 4g Adopt Resolution No. 04-122 authorizing installation and special assessment of a fire sprinkler system at 1342 Colorado Avenue and directing the Mayor and City Manager to execute a special assessment agreement with the property owner 4h Approve extension of Park Nicollet Health System's Minor Amendment to Planned Unit Development for the construction of an interim parking lot in an open area south of the medical building at 3900 Park Nicollet Blvd. until October 4, 2005. Case No 03-49-PUD (originally approved October 7, 2003) 4i Receive Vendor Claim Report (Supplement) It was motioned by Councilmember Santa, seconded by Councilmember Velick, to approve the Agenda and items listed on the Consent Calendar. The motion passed 7-0. 6. Public Hearings 6a. Public Hearing to consider petition to vacate an easement to construct slopes and erect and maintain temporary snow fences created in Document No. 2826324 on June 11, 1953 at Cedar Lake Road and Park Place Blvd. Ms McGonigal presented the staff report. Councilmember Sanger stated she didn't have a problem vacating the easement, but wondered if the request was due to the property owner wishing to construct an additional building9 Ms. McGonigal replied it was her understanding that they did not, they simply wanted to clear the title on the property It was motioned by Councilmember Sanger, seconded by Councilmember Finkelstein to approve first reading of ordinance vacating slope and snow fence easement and set second reading for October 20, 2004. The motion passed 7-0 City Council Minutes -3- October 4, 2004 7. Requests,Petitions,and Communications from the Public—None 8. Resolutions, Ordinances, Motions 8a Resolution supporting an Operating Levy Renewal and Bond Referendum for Independent School District#283 (St. Louis Park Public Schools) Resolution No. 04-118 Mayor Jacobs clarified that the resolution was in support of the two questions that would be on the ballot in November for an operating levy renewal and an additional bond referendum. Keith Broady, School Board Chair, stated that the School Board was unanimously behind renewing their operating levy and doing a bond referendum for$10 million They had mailed information to residents explaining the details. The operating levy equaled$7 million (18%) of a $40 million operating budget The pnmary use of the operating budget was payment of salary and benefits for staff(teachers, aides, administrators, custodians, etc.). It was a major impact. Not to renew the operating levy in place in St. Louis Park would be devastating to the schools. They needed to renew it for ten years and law allowed for an inflationary increase, which would add to the $7 million, between $350-400,000 of additional money to the operating budget for the next fiscal year. It was critical and they appreciated support from the City Council. Mayor Jacobs asked if there was a web site where people could find additional information9 Mr Broady replied there was information at slpschools org, which included information on tax impacts and the Circuit Breaker property tax program Mayor Jacobs stated that this community had a long history of supporting its schools and kids. He assumed that this wasn't just for the K-12 program, but for early childhood and pre-K. Mr. Broady replied that the operating budget was primarily K-12, but there were things in the operating budget that supported other programs. Mayor Jacobs indicated his question went to the bond referendum, which had to do with some capital expenditures for the school buildings and that would not just cover K-12 buildings, it would cover all the district buildings? Mr Broady responded it would cover all of the buildings where there were various things needed, such as routine repairs and maintenance (roofs, pavement, boilers, etc.). In the School Finance law, school districts are allowed a per pupil amount for capital expenditures for those type of items, but they also compete with such items as textbooks and other capital equipment. The capital budget per pupil amount had been frozen for about twelve years and given the competing dollars, there was not enough to do some of the major items. For example on the senior high building, they had 26 bays to the roof. They had a 20-year roofing plan and constantly had to do some of the bays on the senior high. There were similar stones with the other buildings There was never enough money to get caught up Councilmember Velick asked if they would see some improvements on Elliot when the referendum passed? Mr. Broady replied they had not designated that as a use. They knew that the Elliot site could use some sprucing up. District 287 had indicated they would be vacating it sometime this year, but approved a lease and would stay with their existing program for this school year. Elliot would probably remain as-is for this school City Council Minutes -4- October 4, 2004 year. During calendar year 2005, they would have to look more seriously at what would happen with Elliot. He didn't anticipate any major action. Some of the money was geared toward roofing for Elliot. Councilmember Basill stated that the schools are our community and they are a children first community. It was something they needed. When residents looked at the housing values and the long-term stability, this was something they needed to pass Councilmember Finkelstein added that there are two separate bond questions and they needed to vote in the affirmative for both of them The first one was for the operating levy, which accounted for 18% of the current operating budget for the school district. With the loss of that, they could be looking at significant classroom size increases or closure of a building. The second was dealing with the change of a bond referendum to deal with some construction needs and replacement needs It was his understanding that the average age of the school building was approximately 45 years. This was something that was very important for their school district, for the children and for all of the property owners. A good school district leads to good property values. Councilmember Sanger agreed that it was important to support this, not just parents of school-age children, but by the entire community. Without a good school system, the community would totally fizzle Mayor Jacobs also agreed. It was one of the unique features about St. Louis Park that the municipal boundaries were virtually the same as the school district boundaries. He was very pleased with the education his children had gotten. There was a very close tie between the health of the schools, the perception that the community has not only within, but outside of it and property values. This was something that the community needed to support for all of those reasons. Donald Perwien, 3200 Virginia Av S #214, stated he had been a resident of St Louis Park for 25 years. He received a lot of mailing from the City of St. Louis Park that all related to the school distnct. He believed the information was overlapping and didn't understand why they spent so much money on this. Mayor Jacobs replied that the City of St. Louis Park puts out the Park Perspective, on a quarterly basis pertaining to things happening in town There may also be special mailings having to do with special projects The Lenox is community education which is separate. There are also private entities that may send information as well. It was motioned by Councilmember Sanger, seconded by Councilmember Omodt, to adopt Resolution No. 04-118 in support of the Independent School District#283 Operating Levy Renewal and Bond Referendum. The motion passed 7-0. 8b. Request by Stonebridge Development and Acquisition, LLC. for approval of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) for a residential senior housing cooperative known as Aquila Commons Case Nos. 04-24-PUD. 8200 33rd Street West Resolution No. 04-119 Ms. McGonigal presented the staff report. City Council Minutes -5- October 4, 2004 Ron Mehl, Stonebndge Development, described the previous plan. Through numerous meetings with the neighborhood, they came up with a new site plan. There were concerns from residents of the single-family homes that the building would be very close to them and people could potentially look into their backyards. The other concern was from the condominium owners at Windemere Condominiums about the four-story section. They also heard from neighbors who had concerns about the building height from the other side of 35. They tried to make revisions to the plans to address those concerns. They turned the building and on the end by the single-family homes, there would be no decks. In an attempt to help with concerns from some of the Windemere Condominium residents, they removed the fourth story section. The only four-story section was along the back. It allowed them to create an open area in the center and garden plots. There was 1:1 underground parking and a lot for guests and visitors. Traditionally senior co-ops didn't have parking problems. Gary Tushie, Tushie Montgomery Architects, reviewed the building elevations. An additional issue that came up that they were able to resolve with the two single-family homes closest to the building. They measured the garages and distance from the building and determined that two additional trees in their yard would help buffer the view. He showed a photo indicating the actual size of the trees that they would be planting. Councilmember Santa indicated that the traffic study done by SRF was done with the assumption of 122 units, was that correct? Ms McGonigal replied that was correct, but the numbers that she showed in the presentation were for 110 units. Councilmember Santa asked about the colors of the materials they would be using and the height of the buildings? Mr. Tushie replied that they would be using a brownish-red brick. The siding would be tan, it would be a little bit darker taupe color on the shakes The stone in the center was a natural stone color with white trim and brown shingles The buildings would be three-story and 33' to the parapet and 44' on the four-story. Councilmember Finkelstein complimented the people who had worked long and hard on this project including the staff that went to a lot of neighborhood meetings, the developers that kept an open mind and kept coming back to the table and meeting with the neighbors, the neighborhood associations including all of the affected neighbors and Councilmember Santa who attended virtually all of those meetings and worked very hard on this. When everyone worked together, you could see the results. He was hopeful that future developments, like Al's on Excelsior, and other proposed projects would take a lesson from this on what happens when everyone works together This was exactly the type of use they were looking for in this area, in terms of being a much lighter use than would be seen if they put in just another condominium. Many of the neighbors supported it. It followed and supported the goals of providing more housing in the neighborhood and in the City of St Louis Park and also provided moderate housing for seniors both now and in the future. It was motioned by Councilmember Finkelstein, seconded by Councilmember Santa, to approve Resolution No. 04-119 for a PUD for the property at 8200 33rd Street W. to allow a senior housing co-operative building. City Council Minutes -6- October 4, 2004 Councilmember Sanger clarified that she would be opposing this motion, but it was not really because of the site plan for the PUD, it was for the reasons that she had previously stated dealing with TIF financing and her disagreements with the limited equity co-op. Councilmember Omodt thanked Mr. Mehl and his group for bearing with them through the process. What they started with and what they ended up with were two different things. This seemed like a reasonable compromise and was better off than what they had Gene Storman, 3200 Virginia Av., stated that residents at Windemere were still concerned and disappointed that they hadn't been shown the courtesy of getting a simple question answered. There concern had always been loading Virginia with traffic. 33rd Street has a stoplight on Texas and would seem to be a natural. No one had given him a logical reason. The architect stated when the Planning Commission approved this that was their first design solution. Traffic could enter on the end of any wing the way the underground parking was set up He thought it would benefit the project to go onto 33rd Ms. McGonigal replied that part of the idea was to split the traffic to have the underground parking come in from one side and the visitor parking come in from the other side. That way it distributed traffic throughout the area. The numbers shown for trips in and out were very minimal. Mr. Harmening noted another reason that an access point onto Virginia Avenue wouldn't be different than what had been there in the past was that there had been an access from Virginia Avenue in the past to the Talmud Torah site This was maintaining an access to the property that had existed before Mr Storman stated when the school was in operation there would be times when Virginia from 32"d to the cul-de-sac was packed with parents waiting to get in and out. Mayor Jacobs indicated that they wouldn't see anything like that here Over the course of 12 hours with 383 tnps, that was about 30-32 trips an hour. Councilmember Velick believed there would be far less traffic on Virginia than there ever was when Talmud Torah was a school. The traffic study would explain that. She went there with three children and knew of the back ups and believed this would be a lot less. Mr. Storman asked that if the traffic study proved to be wrong, that they stipulate in the approval that the stop light on 33rd would be either moved to 32°d or there would be another stop sign added. Nobody knew why the stoplight was there. Traffic staff had recommended it be removed. Mayor Jacobs noted that the neighborhood was very concerned and very much opposed to removing it. Councilmember Santa indicated that stoplight had been there for many years and 33rd had become a sidewalk extension between Aquila Park and the Oak Hill park and those recreational areas and was part of the trail network. Neighbors on both sides of Texas really opposed the removal of that stoplight, not only because of the bamer that Texas was perceived for pedestrians, but also because it was a major bus route If you take the bus, at least once a day you will have to cross Texas either to catch your bus or to get home. Having Stonebridge support and assistance maintaining that traffic light was in tune with having a senior project where many of the residents could be expected to use public transportation City Council Minutes -7- October 4, 2004 Mr Stormari noted he was convinced that the traffic light would stay, regardless of recommendations from the Traffic Department. His point was why not give the new co- op owners a better way of getting onto Texas. He didn't see the rationale of dumping everything onto a dead-end street, and hadn't heard the rationale from Planning. Mr. Harmening believed that they tried to answer the question. What they were trying to do was to create a site that disseminated the traffic in more than one direction. Part of the traffic was moved to 33`d Street and part of the traffic was moved to Virginia It was a matter of splitting the traffic up so it wasn't all going onto one street and intersection Another reason for the design was that it made sense from a site planning perspective and from the perspective of the grade and topography of the project. Lastly, having an access from Virginia to this site was not unusual There had been an access to this site in the past, apparently Virginia was very busy when there was a school use on the site. They didn't see anything like that happening with this particular proposal, and it had been verified by the traffic consultant. The AM and PM trip counts were very nominal given that this was a senior housing co-op and not a market rate housing project. All of those reasons combined led to their comfort with this layout. It was a public street and the property had a right to access that street, provided there were no negative consequences or impacts to how the intersections worked near this site and how the street worked. From everything they had obtained from the consultants, it would work just fine. He was hard pressed to find a reason not to allow access to the street. Mr. Storman thought if there was an interest to try to even it up, there would be a garage access off of Virginia and off of 33`d into the underground parking. The developer said that there experience had been between .75 and 1.25 cars per unit for this type of elderly housing They were high on the surface parking. He didn't know how many staff and visitors would be at the building, but didn't believe all of the surface parking would be used Mayor Jacobs understood the concerns from Windemere that most of the traffic would exit onto Virginia, but when it was a school it was a great deal worse It hadn't been used as a school for a couple of years and the residents had gotten used to that and had the perception that the low levels of traffic, because it was not being used, was the normal way the site had been used, when in fact it was very high at times. As a senior building, most of the traffic would go in and out of the building between the hours of 9 AM and 4 PM. The speeds were likely to be lower, the trips were likely to be much fewer than it would be at a market rate building. He heard what they were saying, but was not convinced there would be a problem putting the parking there. Mr Storman asked if they would be willing to consider some changes if the traffic study turned out to be incorrect'? Councilmember Santa thought it was fair to say that with as much activity on Texas, no one could predict the future, nor could they say that they were going to do one thing or another when they didn't know what the future would bring. Knollwood would be making changes that may or may not increase traffic on Texas. To say that they would not be watching the traffic on Texas would be foolish They will always be looking back at the traffic studies. They had traffic studies projecting out 2-10 years. As uses are added and subtracted,Texas will always be a busy street and they were going to have to keep an eye on it. City Council Minutes -8- October 4, 2004 Mr. Storman stated they were not asking anyone to predict the future traffic at that intersection, they were Just saying if the traffic study proved incorrect. That could be verified by future traffic counts. Commissioner Finkelstein stated that he thought the Council understood the position of Windemere Condominium Association and that they wished to look at this situation in the future, but he thought they had gone over it and understood their concern. They also understood that they would have to watch the traffic on Texas. There was a motion on the floor and he called the question Mayor Jacobs noted there were a few others wanting to speak. Bill Watson, 3200 Virginia Av., indicated when Talmud Torah was in operation they had access to their parking lot from both 33rd and Virginia There weren't that many cars through there all the time, but there were times when there were 20-30 cars tied up and they had complete gridlock on Virginia Avenue. Having an exit from the garage out to 33rd would be more practical as far as the amount of cars If they had 20-30 cars coming in from Virginia to pick up or drop off students and there was gridlock, what would happen when 100 cars had only one way in and out of the garage? Mayor Jacobs replied that they were talking about the difference between a senior co-op housing development and a school, which were very different uses. He always took traffic studies with a grain of salt, but if he believed that all 110 of those cars were going to come out of the parking lot at the same time, he couldn't possibly vote for this. He could not imagine that would happen. The traffic studies don't bear that out and practicality did not bear that out. He understood the concern that they would end up with gridlock on Virginia Avenue, but he didn't believe that would happen because they were two very different uses Mr. Tushie stated that they had gone over this at Planning Commission and neighborhood meetings with the condominium association and the Traffic Engineer. What she [the traffic engineer] was responding to was Engineering's request for the access to be on Virginia and to see if in fact dispersing the traffic in two different locations was better than it all coming onto 33`d. The traffic study showed that traffic coming out from the garage onto Virginia had several different options as to where to go rather than Just one route exiting They could take city roads to Minnetonka Boulevard or go back to Texas Avenue. There were more options for them exiting the site which was good for traffic dispersal so it wasn't all going in one location. When the Engineer was asked by one of the condominium owners what the traffic impact was, she said that the traffic counts were so minor she couldn't calculate the impact on the existing roads. Mayor Jacobs asked if that was based on the fact that this was a senior development versus other kinds of developments? Mr. Tushie replied yes, there were engineering numbers and calculations used in traffic studies all over the country and updated every year. The counts were substantially less than what the school was generating Mr Watson stated that all of that traffic, regardless of whether it was going to Minnetonka Blvd, Texas Av., or wherever, every bit of it must use that section of Virginia between 32°d and the cul-de-sac. All of these people wouldn't necessarily be retired. Seniors are 55 and up and there was a good possibility many people would still be working and there would be more traffic because of that. They didn't feel that had been fully evaluated and that an exit from the garage out to 33`d would be a big help in that area. City Council Minutes -9- October 4, 2004 Mr. Tushie stated that the average age in a co-op building was around 70 to 75 years old Richard Thies, 3236 Texas, indicated he was one of the six residents that lived on the East side of the complex. He thanked Councilmember Santa for listening to the neighborhood and giving them ideas on what to do to make this work for everyone. When this idea came up, he was opposed. They had numerous neighborhood meetings and the newest proposal came from listening to people that lived in those six homes. Through the use of unique landscaping and the latest proposal, he believed it was a good plan. The motion passed 6-1, with Councilmember Sanger opposed. 9. Communications Mayor Jacobs thanked the organizers of the Susan Lindgren walkathon and the Hero Day event at the Junior High School. There were parents, school administrators and kids involved and he apologized that he wasn't there 10. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p m. (— ___ ___-k-- -- ---(,–' --v?) g-0- --tf- -----)-- (PA Cit Clerk M or