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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/22/2007MINUTES OF THE LAUDERDALE CITY COUNCIL TUESDAY, MAY22, 2007 7.30 p.m. Lauderdale City Hall, 1891 Walnut Street Mayor Dains called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. and asked Administrator Heck to take the roll. Members present: Council members Karen Gill -Gerbig, Denise Hawkinson, Karen Doherty, Clay Christensen, and Jeff Dains. Also present were staff members Jim Bownik, Assistant to the City Administrator and Heather Butkowski, Deputy Clerk. Mayor Dains asked if there were any additions or deletions to the agenda. Mayor Dains asked to add discussion on June meetings. There being no further additions or deletions, council member Christensen moved approval of the agenda as amended. Council member Hawkinson seconded the motion and it carried. Mayor Dains asked if there were any additions or corrections to the minutes of the May 8, 2007, City Council minutes. There being no amendments to the minutes, council member Gill -Gerbig moved approval. Council member Doherty seconded the motion and it carried. Mayor Dains asked if there were any questions on the claims. Council members discussed payment to the Roseville Review. The payment withheld during the previous meeting was approved for payment in light of some delivery improvements. There being no further comments on the claims, Council member Gill -Gerbig moved to approve the claims in the amount of $34,014.07 plus $733.60 previously withheld to the Roseville Review. Council member Hawkinson seconded the motion and it carried. Mayor Dains asked if anyone present wished to address the Council on issues not on the agenda. There being none, the Council took up consideration of the consent agenda. Council member Hawkinson moved approval of the consent agenda approving rental housing license applications. Council member Christensen seconded the motion and it carried. Mayor Dains introduced the use of city equipment by residents as the first item for the Council to discuss and take action. Heck stated residents have inquired about the possibility of using city tables and chairs. He said these requests are generally in conjunction with a city event such as National Night Out or the garage sale. He added Lauderdale does not have a policy or fee structure in place to address these requests. Heck presented a draft policy for the Council to review and comment on including suggested fees. Council member Gill -Gerbig provided suggestions to clarify the policy - 1 - Council member Hawkinson moved to adopt the policy as amended by Council member Gill -Gerbig and to set the deposit at $100.00 per table and $20.00 per chair. Council member Doherty seconded the motion and it carried on a roll call vote with Christensen, Doherty, Hawkinson, Gill -Gerbig, and Mayor Dains all voting yes. Heck asked Butkowski to provide background on the next issue, the street light at Fulham and Summer streets. Butkowski said the street light was moved last fail from the southwest corner of Summer and Fulham Streets to the northwest corner as planned during the street improvement projects. Since the installation of the light, the Hawkinson's at 1855 Fulham, have asked that measures be taken to limit the light entering their home and yard. Previously Xcel was contacted and the fixture was shielded and black paint sprayed on the side of the light that faces the house. Butkowski stated these measures have not resulted in significant improvement. Council member Hawkinson presented the Council with a letter from her husband, Mark Hawkinson, addressing the issue. She stated they are not opposed to a street light at this location; they just want the light to be similar to the one that existed before the light was moved. They are suggesting the light be put back where it was originally located with the same type of shielding. Council member Gill -Gerbig made a motion to move the street light back to the original location and to require it be completed within 30 days. Motion seconded by Council member Doherty and carried with members Doherty, Christensen, Gill - Gerbig, and Mayor Dains voting yes. Council member Hawkinson abstained. Heck discussed the issue of identifying the boundaries of park property, specifically the community park. Heck went on to say Lauderdale spent several years in litigation over the community park boundary and now that the case is settled, the council should consider what, if any, separation to place to mark public from private property. Mayor Dains said he feels a fence is needed in the community park and suggested a split rail or similar type fence and suggested signs at the other parks. Council member Gill -Gerbig stated she is concerned about the maintenance required with a fence, but concurred something is needed. Mayor Dains asked if the PCIC discussed this issue. Bownik said the PCIC didn't discuss this as a separate issue, but as part of an overall concept for the park and other open space. He stated the PCIC supports some type of fence but did not recommend or suggest any specific type. Mayor Dains then suggested that staff and PCIC provide a recommendation to the council for consideration. Council member Doherty suggested staff work up some suggestions and bring them back to the Council for consideration and review. After further discussion, council directed staff to discuss the issue and bring their recommendation(s) to the council for consideration. -2- Butkowski presented the issue of "Children at Play" signs to the council for discussion and consideration. She said that a few residents have called to request some type of signage be placed on Eustis north of Roselawn as well as on Malvern telling drivers there are children present. She researched the costs and provided options to the council. Mayor Dains stated he witnessed two vehicles going through stop signs on his way to the meeting and felt the speed limit on Lauderdale streets should be lowered to 25 mph. He feels 30 mph is just too fast for our streets. Council member Doherty stated drivers come off of Ryan and turn onto Eustis pretty fast. She also asked when Ryan will be posted "No Parking". Paul Winkler of 1747 Malvern addressed the Council on the issue. He said he proposed the idea of speed bumps in the street to deter speeding. He said there are at least 11 children on his block and vehicles travel too fast. He said he is willing to work with the council on the speed bumps and would like the council to consider speed bumps as an option in solving the problem. After additional discussion, the council directed staff to look in to the issue of reducing the speed limit, obtaining signs, issuing tickets, investigating speed bumps, and other options for addressing the issues. Council member Gill -Gerbig requested staff look at other options for street signs such as Raider Grafix. The Council recessed at 8:35 p.m. and reconvened in the work session at 8:43 p.m. The Council met with Jessica Cook and Stacie Kvilvang of Ehlers and Associates to discuss the process and procedure to work on redevelopment of the southwest quadrant of Eustis Street and Larpenteur Avenue. Mayor Dains provided Jessica and Stacie a brief update and background on the history of the area starting with the southeast quadrant and the recent developments with the southwest quadrant. Stacie introduced herself and said she spent ten years in the community development department in Brooklyn Park where she worked on planning for the redevelopment of housing and retail. She said for the past several years, she has worked for Ehlers helping communities plan redevelopment projects. She indicated she worked with St. Anthony on their recent project as well as New Brighton. Stacie told the Council the most important thing in redevelopment is creating a vision for the area. She stated the general process is to have a planner look at what can go into a location, then conduct market analysis, and finally, find a developer who can help bring the vision to reality. She said that most development includes providing some financial incentive. -3- She said when developers approach a city, two questions are generally asked: 1) does the city have a plan, and 2) what resources does the city have to offer. She said to make a project work; the city needs to market what it has; to generate interest in the area and possible projects. Jessica suggested conducting a "mini -process". She said we have several components at our disposal including some site information from NewMech, information from our comprehensive plan steering committee and survey information. She suggested we pull together this information and then bring in a few developers to discuss with them what might be feasible and marketable for the area. She indicated this would take about 4 to 6 weeks to pull together. After a bit more discussion, the council directed staff to provide Jessica and Stacie the information necessary to arrange for some meetings with developers and have information ready for council discussion the last meeting in July. Heck then moved the council to the discussion on park planning and project prioritization. He outlined the process thus far and asked for council input and suggestions. All council members indicated identifying public and private property is a high priority. Mayor Dains suggested each park have a purpose rather than just a label of active or passive recreation. Having a purpose will make it easier to identify future projects in each area. Council member Doherty suggested the list of potential projects be broken out by park area. The council can then go work down the lists comparing the needs of the parks and open space areas relative to the available funds. Council member Hawkinson agreed and added the PCIC should be included in the process. After additional discussion, council directed staff to assemble the projects by park area and invite the PCIC members to the June 6th council meeting. Mayor Dains wanted to discuss Lauderdale's position on Fulham Street issues for the joint meeting with Falcon Heights. Heck provided the council with information on the discussions he had with Justin Miller, Falcon Heights Administrator. Heck said the discussion centered on Lauderdale becoming responsible for Fulham north of Larpenteur Avenue. He said the response from Justin was that this seemed reasonable. There being no further items for Council consideration, Gill -Gerbig moved to adjourn the meeting. Hawkinson seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Meeting adjourned at 10:08 p.m.