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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014/05/19 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Regular IIISt.N Louis Park OFFICIAL MINUTES M I N E OTA ,, • CITY COUNCIL MEETING ST. LOUIS PARK,MINNESOTA • • MAY 19, 2014 1. Call to Order Mayor Pro Tern Anne Mavity called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. Councilmembers present: Mayor Pro Tern Anne Mavity, Tim Brausen, Steve Hallfin, Gregg Lindberg, Susan Sanger, and Jake Spano. Councilmembers absent: Mayor Jeff Jacobs. Staff present: City Manager (Mr. Harmening), City Attorney (Mr. Scott), Fire Chief (Mr. Koering), Director of Community Development (Mr. Locke), Director of Operations and Recreation (Ms. Walsh), Director of Engineering (Ms. Heiser), Planning and Zoning Supervisor (Ms. McMonigal), Marketing & Communications Coordinator (Mr. Zwilling), and Recording Secretary(Ms. Hughes). Guests: Mr. Victor Pechaty (Hammel, Green and Abrahamson) and Mr. Jim Alexander (Met Council Southwest LRT Project Office). la. Pledge of Allegiance lb. Roll Call 2. Presentations 2a. SLP Parktacular Ambassador Introduction & Recap of Year Mayor Pro Tern Mavity introduced Ms. Marti Biegler from the St. Louis Park and Parktacular Ambassador Program. Ms. Biegler stated that last year, the ambassadors traveled all over Minnesota and western Wisconsin, and they received an award at the LaCrosse Oktoberfest and have received first place in the Hopkins Raspberry Festival parade for many years. She invited residents to attend this year's Parktacular event on June 12-15. The ambassadors then introduced themselves. Mayor Pro Tern Mavity thanked the ambassadors for representing the community. 2b. Retirement Recognition Resolution for Firefighter Phil Robinson Mayor Pro Tern Mavity recited the resolution recognizing the contributions of and expressing appreciation to firefighter Phil Robinson and presented a plaque to Mr. Robinson in recognition of his years of service to the City. Mr. Robinson stated it has been a privilege and an honor to serve the community for 27 years and expressed appreciation for all the support given to the Fire Department by the City Council and citizens. Mr. Koering thanked Mr. Robinson for his many years of service. City Council Meeting -2- May 19, 2014 3. Approval of Minutes 3a. Study Session Minutes April 28, 2014 The minutes were approved as presented. 3b: Special Study Session Minutes May 5, 2014 • The minutes were approved as presented. 3c. City Council Meeting Minutes May 5,2014 The minutes were approved as presented. 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. Designate Valley Paving Inc. the lowest responsible bidder and authorize execution of a contract with the firm in the amount of $3,115,051.04 for the 2014 Local Street Rehabilitation Project (Area 2) - Project No. 2013-1000. 4b. Designate Valley Paving, Inc. the lowest responsible bidder and authorize execution of a contract with the firm in the amount of$683,050.21 for the 2014 MSA Street Rehab (Pennsylvania Avenue)Project- Project#2016-1100. 4c. Approve the Amendment to the Bassett Creek Watershed Management Commission Joint Powers Agreement. 4d. Adopt Resolution No. 14-067 to recognize Firefighter Phil Robinson for his 27 years of service to the City of St. Louis Park. 4e. Approve a three month extension for the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) and Variance for Auto Motion (Resolution No. 11-133-1) for renovations to the existing motor vehicle service station and construction of a new carwash. 4f. Adopt Resolution No. 14-068 authorizing the submission of a grant application to the Metropolitan Council Livable Communities Transit Onented Development Program for pre-development activities for PLACE. 4g. Approve premises amendment to the on sale brewer's Taproom liquor license for Steel Toe Brewing, LLC, located at 4848 35th Street West. 4h. Adopt Resolution No. 14-069 accepting the project report, establishing Improvement Project No. 4014-3000, approving plans and specifications and authorizing invitation for bids for Improvement Project No. 4014-3000. City Council Meeting -3- May 19, 2014 4i. Adopt: • Resolution No. 14-070 approving the Cooperative Construction Agreement • Resolution No. 14-071 approving Trunk Highway 7 Detour Agreement • Resolution No. 14-071 approving Traffic Control Signal Agreement w/MnDOT for reconstruction of Trunk Highway 100. 4j. Accept for filing Telecommunications Minutes December 11, 2013 4k. Accept for filing Environment and Sustainability Commission Minutes April 2, 2014 41. Accept for filing Planning Commission Minutes April 23, 2014 It was moved by Councilmember Spano, seconded by Councilmember Hallfin, to approve the Agenda and items listed on the Consent Calendar; and to waive reading of all resolutions and ordinances. The motion passed 6-0 (Mayor Jacobs absent). 5. Boards and Commissions -None 6. Public Hearings 6a. Public Hearing for Southwest LRT Municipal Consent Plans Mayor Pro Tem Mavity acknowledged and welcomed newly elected Hennepin County Commissioner Marion Greene and thanked her for attending tonight's meeting. Ms. McMonigal presented the staff report and explained this public hearing is part of the official procedure required under the municipal consent process for Southwest LRT and all cities as well as Hennepin County and the Met Council are required to hold public hearings prior to taking action on the municipal consent plans. She stated that Council action on the municipal consent plans is required by July 14, 2014, and the purpose of tonight's public hearing is to receive comments on the municipal consent plans. Action by Council will take place at a future meeting in late June or early July. She pointed out that the municipal consent plans are the subject of ongoing discussion among City staff and the Southwest LRT Project Office as well as the City Council. Those discussions include grade separating the regional trail, additional roadway configurations, and improving circulation around the station areas. She stated that additional comments may be submitted in writing or via email to nsells@stlouispark.org by June 2"d. She then introduced Mr. Jim Alexander, Director of Design and Engineering for Southwest LRT. Mr. Alexander thanked the City for holding the open house and public hearing and stated that St. Louis Park is the first city to hold its open house and public hearing as part of the municipal consent process: He presented a map of the Southwest LRT alignment and explained that Minn. Stat. Sec. 473.3994 governs local jurisdictional review and approval of the physical design component of the preliminary design plans and local jurisdiction options include approving the preliminary design plans or disapproving the plans with required changes. He stated that next steps in the municipal consent process include station design and public art, streetscape design, utility relocation design, and design advancement including light rail track features, roadway details, bridges and tunnels, and City Council Meeting -4- May 19, 2014 freight rail track features. He added that further information is available online at www.swlrt.org or via email at swlrt@metrotransit.org Mayor Pro Tern Mavity opened the public hearing. Mr. Brian Zachek, 6108 Minnetonka Boulevard, expressed support for light rail and asked Council to deny municipal consent unless the freight rail reroute issue is taken off the table for good in order to give residents peace of mind and to move forward with Southwest LRT in the most beneficial way for St. Louis Park. Mr. Dan Salmon, 3106 Inglewood Avenue South, stated he owns the building located near the Beltline station and all the apartments in that area are currently able to cross over the existing tracks onto the trail. He stated it was his understanding that fencing will be installed in this area requinng people to travel more than one-third of a mile to access the trails and asked Council to consider safe access to the trail from this neighborhood either through back trails or via the frontage road along Highway 7. Ms. Sara Bergen, 2939 Princeton, thanked Councilmember Spano for his work on the CMC and representing St. Louis Park. She encouraged Council to approve municipal consent but to continue working with Met Council on grade separation at Beltline, particularly with the proposed 500+ vehicle park and ride, which is going to increase traffic in this area especially if there is no grade separation. She encouraged residents to attend a meeting on May 20th at 6:00 p.m. regarding form-based code at the Beltline station. Ms. Diane Steen-Hinderlie, 2829 Yosemite, stated that Mr. T.D. Walker was a co- founder of St. Louis Park and a champion for arts and culture. She stated that Walker Street in the center of St. Louis Park is named after Mr. Walker and this area is the true downtown of St. Louis Park and includes several small businesses and indicated it would be nice to preserve this area. Mr. Joe LaPray, 3256 Blackstone Avenue, asked Council to give municipal consent for Southwest LRT and stated the region needs light rail and the region does not need any more confusion or acrimony regarding freight rail reroutes. He stated if there were a freight rail derailment in Kemlworth, Minneapolis would again raise the reroute issue. He stated the only reroute that works is the Brunswick Central option and this would put a wall up in the community. He felt that St. Louis Park needs a clear, strong resolution that none of the plans put forth will be acceptable for a reroute and he urged Council to vote to keep the ill conceived reroute plans buried deep. Ms. Deb McMillan, TwinWest Chamber of Commerce Director of Government Affairs, stated the TwinWest Chamber sent a letter last month to Met Council Chair Susan Haigh expressing support for Southwest LRT. She stated the benefits of Southwest LRT are extensive and provide a catalyst for economic growth and Twin West Chamber's support has not wavered throughout the process. She asked Council to continue to support Southwest LRT by granting municipal consent, adding that the project's impact is far- reaching and vital to the continued growth and competitiveness of the region. Ms. Kathryn Kottke, 2712 Brunswick Avenue, stated she has been a resident of St. Louis Park for 19 years and has been going to train meetings for more than four years. She City Council Meeting -5- May 19, 2014 stated she loves St. Louis Park and does not want to move but wondered if they are going to have to move because they cannot send their kids to a school with a train going through its campus. She stated she does not believe the community is safe from the possibility of a reroute until a demand is made that any reroute be removed from consideration and urged Council to take measures now to protect St. Louis Park from these unsafe ideas that are serving to protect a few in the Kenilworth corridor and now is the time to act to deny municipal consent until a reroute is removed from this decision. Ms. Jami LaPray, 3256 Blackstone Avenue, stated that over the past four years many people believed that a freight rail reroute was either inevitable or a good idea. She stated the delays caused by the additional studies not only added to the project's cost but has also caused many residents to lose trust and wonder if they can ever see an end to the relocation nightmare. She stated that Senator Latz was originally in favor of the reroute but voted against the bonding bill in order to make a statement and the Senator's stand is a step forward in rebuilding trust, however, outside St. Louis Park this stubborn denial continues and adds to the concern that St. Louis Park residents may never be out from the threat of a reroute. She stated that Safety in the Park received an email from Mr. Frank Pafko referencing Minnesota Administrative Rule 4410.3100 (Prohibition on Final Governmental Decisions) and stated that Met Council may be rushing municipal consent in relation to the Supplemental DEIS and this could leave the door open to moving freight rail to St. Louis Park. She stated she recently learned the Kenilworth Preservation Society has decided to file a lawsuit and it appears there are ample grounds including the Administrative Rule mentioned earlier. She felt that despite this lawsuit she had no doubt that Southwest LRT will move forward but her concern is not about light rail or the reroute returning as a part of Southwest LRT, rather, her concern is about the possibility that the lawsuit is an attempt to get Hennepin County to live up to undocumented promises to get freight rail moved to St. Louis Park. She stated that residents should never again have to endure a PMT process, endless hearings, or having one area pitted against another. She encouraged Council to hear their frustration and urged Council to find a way to do whatever it takes to end the reroute nightmare forever. Mr. Thom Miller, 2900 Yosemite Avenue, thanked Council for its hard work on Southwest LRT and for listening to residents. He stated the issue of using the MN&S line for something it was not built for has been studied and all the reports indicated there was no reasonable way to safely reroute freight rail traffic onto the MN&S and urged Council to ask Met Council not to study rerouting at any time in the future. He referenced action taken in 2002 by the City of Edina that no further study could be done on the MN&S for passenger service. He felt this was the time to get ahead of the reroute issue, adding that as long as MN&S is on a map there will be some who will push to get freight rail rerouted, adding that Minneapolis is currently working on some language that freight rail should not be considered permanent and may be considered again in the future. He stated Senator Latz recently voted against the bonding bill and defended his vote by stating that he had a quarrel with the way Minneapolis has treated St. Louis Park during the course of the Southwest LRT routing matter. He asked Council to stand up for its residents by granting municipal consent with a clause prohibiting future discussion of the reroute. Mr. Larry Jones, 3000 Highway 100 South, urged Council to move ahead with municipal consent as proposed by the Met Council. He stated he does not want to see the region lose out on the Federal funding and felt the project needs to move ahead. He expressed City Council Meeting -6- May 19, 2014 concern about the size of the park and ride at Beltline and referenced a blog from the Daily Planet regarding park and ride facilities that speaks about vacant parking spaces along the Northstar commuter rail line. Ms. Kay Drache, 3067 Zarthan, felt it was imperative that all parties acknowledge that relocation of freight rail will not be considered in the years to come and urged Council to insert a clause removing any rerouting before giving municipal consent. Ms. Renee Beltrand, 2805 Zarthan, agreed with the comments made by Mr. Tom Miller. Mr. Eric Hickstein, 2856 France Avenue, stated he is a freshman at the high school and the light rail would help him because he is planning to take college classes in Minneapolis and will not have a car'to drive to Minneapolis. Mr. Phil Freshman, 3912 Natchez, agreed with Ms. Jami LaPray and Mr. Tom Miller and others who want to make sure municipal consent includes a strong proviso that residents do not have to go through the nightmare again with a freight rail reroute. Mayor Pro Tern Mavity closed the public hearing. Mr. Harmening explained that the municipal consent process ends as of July 14th and if a community does not take action by that date, the law assumes that a community has approved the municipal consent plans. He stated that Council will take action sometime in the middle of June or early July and pointed out that a specific date for municipal consent has not yet been determined because of the City's desire to continue its conversations with Met Council. 7. Requests, Petitions, and Communications from the Public—None 8. Resolutions, Ordinances, Motions and Discussion Items 8a. Approve Community Center Project—Schematic Design Ms. Walsh presented the staff report and provided background on the City's earlier visioning process that identified the need for a community gathenng place and the establishment of a task force that presented findings and a recommendation to enter into a feasibility study for a community center. She explained that the schematic design phase would include soil and survey work as well as environmental testing and would include contracts with a number of different companies including a third party estimator. She then introduced Mr. Victor Pechaty from Hammel, Green and Abrahamson. Mr. Pechaty stated that the schematic design phase is intended to provide more detailed and accurate cost estimates for the project. He explained that since completion of the feasibility study, they have determined that the cost of a community center would be approximately $40 million for construction and approximately $10 million in soft costs and they propose to execute approximately 50% of the schematic design phase, which would include development of cost estimates for the preferred site and would be based on the market standard cost per square foot for this type of building. He pointed out that in order to achieve realistic cost estimates, they recommend producing a portion of the schematic design for the project which includes floor plans for the building, the three City Council Meeting -7- May 19, 2014 dimensional characteristics of the building, site plans as well as a preliminary engineering analysis. He stated that in order to complete the 50% schematic design plans they would use a team of architects and engineers with a portion of the work delegated to a consultant to produce cost estimates for the project. Mr. Larry Jones, 3000 Highway 100 South, approached the City Council and stated he is not opposed to a community center and would support it but was concerned about the process. He indicated that the last time this item was before the public was in 2011 and felt that was a long time for the public not to know what is going on. He was also concerned about spending $400,000 from the Park Improvement Fund and suggested holding a public information meeting before proceeding to the schematic design phase. Councilmember Spano stated that Council has previously expressed concern about the total cost of a community center and felt that $400,000 was a lot of money to spend on a project that has not yet been approved, especially given the unknown costs associated with Southwest LRT. He asked if there was any way for Council to demonstrate to the community what they would get for their money that does not require spending$400,000. Mr. Pechaty stated that they are flexible in balancing the scope of work and cost associated with getting the City to the next step of a community center project. He indicated that the schematic design process as an overall percentage of the project is typically 15% of the overall effort and they have recommended 50% of that cost at this time. He stated their fee proposal was generated using industry standards for architect and engineering fees in the range of 6-8% of the total cost of construction or approximately $225,000 for their firm plus the specialty consultants for a maximum amount of$400,000, adding that this amount is intended to cover some of the unknown costs of exploring the soil contamination on the site. He stated the feasibility study did not test or account for the soils and it is their recommendation that any subsequent step in the process include a soil analysis of the site. He stated floor plans need to be done to inform the exterior look of the building and if the drawings are not substantiated by the floor plans, it compromises the accuracy of the costs associated with the project. Councilmember Sanger stated that the schematic design phase is needed and is part of Council's plan to go out to the public with all that detailed information, including the cost estimates, and without this information, the City will not have accurate information from which residents can base their feedback on the cost elements. She added the City has received a great deal of public comment supporting the concept of a community center and the schematic design phase will provide more detailed information for the community in order to obtain their input. Councilmember Lindberg expressed support for moving forward with schematic design and felt the City has done a good job of engaging the public in this process. He agreed with Councilmember Sanger that this represents a necessary next step in the process in order to go back out to the public to see if they want a community center to be built. Councilmember Spano stated he was not ready to move forward with schematic design, not because he does not believe the project has merit or that it would be a great addition to the community, but his ongoing concern is that this project could be done anytime whereas the City cannot control the timing of the Southwest LRT project. He stated he City Council Meeting -8- ' May 19, 2014 was not ready to move forward with spending this money on schematic design because he was not willing to move forward at this time on a community center project. Councilmember Sanger stated these are necessary steps even if Council later decides not to build a community center and it was her preference to go forward with schematic design and to have parallel ongoing discussions regarding additional expenses related to Southwest LRT. Councilmember Hallfin noted that Council decided to hold off on any decision on a community center because of the uncertainties related to Southwest LRT and unfortunately those uncertainties still exist. He stated he would like to again push off any decision on a community center until the City has more information about potential obligations related to Southwest LRT, including the possibility of grade separation at Beltline for the trails as well as vehicles. Councilmember Brausen spoke in favor of the schematic design phase and felt that a community center represented an essential community asset whether developed now or in the future. He stated that delaying this phase could cost the City a lot of money in increased interest rates and the only way to have an accurate picture of what is being proposed is to go forward with this preliminary work and then let the community decide. It was moved by Councilmember Sanger, seconded by Councilmember Lindberg, to direct staff to enter into contracts not to exceed$400,000 for the schematic design phase of a potential Community Center. Mayor Pro Tem Mavity expressed support for entering the schematic design phase and felt that Council needed this additional information to figure out whether a community center project is feasible, adding that she shares the concerns regarding costs associated with Southwest LRT. The motion passed 4-2 (Councilmembers Hal fin and Spano opposed; Mayor Jacobs absent). 9. Communications Mr. Harmening thanked residents for attending the Children First ice cream social on Sunday. He stated that the City hosted a slug fest over the weekend with approximately sixty teams in attendance. He thanked the City's Parks and Recreation staff for all the great work they did in supporting the slug fest. He also reported on the tree climbing event at Oak Hill Park over the weekend. Mayor Pro Tern Mavity encouraged residents to attend the Beltline Station Planning Session on Tuesday, May 20a', from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Rec Center and stated this will be a visioning session on how to use form based codes at the Beltline Station. 10. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:02 p.m. . _ _ �l ait/r Nancy Stroth,Cty Clerk Anne Mavity, Mayor Pro Tern