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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC MINUTES 08271985 Meeting Sheet IIIIIIVIIIVIIIVIIIVIIIVIIIIIIIIIII ioieos Box: 21 Folder. CC MINUTES AND AGENDAS 1985 Document: CC MINUTES 08271985 CITY OF ST. ANTHONY • COUNCIL MINUTES August 27, 1985 The meeting was opened at 7:.30 P.M. with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mayor Sundland. Present for roll call : Sundland, Marks, .Ranallo, Enrooth, and Makowske. Also present: David -Chil,ds,-,City Manager; and Larry. Hamer, Public Works .Director. During the consideration of: the' August T3th :Council minutes,'.�and' addendum to those minutes which had been distributed by the Manager, which directed him to have :a plaque made up which could. be presented to the Mayor which would indicate the City's recognition of the outstanding -,service =Mayor Sundland had provided the community. In presenting the plaque to the Mayor, Councilmember Ranallo reiterated many of the Council observations .made in the addendum in recognition of that service. The Councilmember also noted that Alderman'. Walter:Dziediic. had also.)pr-esented. Mayor Sundland with a plaque from the Minneapolis City Council , designating him as an "All Star Citizen" and Councilmember Marks reported a congratulatory letter had been sent from the Governor. The Councilmember then told those- present, who included Mayor Sundland-'.s wife, Ardelle, and young friend, Tim Pekarek, that the Mayor had received a standing ovation from people from all over the state when he • had been presented-- the Friend.of Education award, August 8th. Mayor. Sundland accepted the plaque from the City with a short speech in which he Tndicated that, although he -had been very gratified to receive recognition from outside the City, he perceived "to be recognized by your peers has to be very special . " Photos of the plaque presentation had been taken by representatives of the Bulletin and Northeaster. Motion by Councilmember Makowske and seconded by Councilmember Marks to approve with. the addendum the minutes' of the Council meeting Which had been held August 13, 1985. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Makowske to grant the following licenses as listed in the August 27th. Council agenda packet: Contractors H.R.D.C. Construction, Minneapolis Vieregge Construction, Inc. , Hudson, WI Hage Construction Co. , Edina Heating • St. Marie Sheet Metal , Inc. Advanced Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. Bergman Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. Commercial Air Conditioning / 1 -2- Motion carried unanimously. • Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Enrooth to approve payments of $1,825 to Edward J. Hance for St. Anthony prosecutions from July 5 through August 7, 1985, and $3,612 to Healy-Ruff for siren conversion to radio/tone activation. Motion carried unanimously. Jean Amundsen, 3424 H.ighcrest Road, and two other members of the Village Gardenettes, were present to discuss their organization's proposal to erect a fountain in Trillium Park which the garden club built and maintained for the past 10 years at the intersection of St. Anthony Boulevard and Highway 88. Mrs. Amundsen read a prepared statement which indicated the project would be funded from monetary and equipment donations as well as with labor which they hoped would be provided by the Public Works Department. Mrs. Amundsen introduced her son, Craig, who is an architect for BRW, the city planning company who. had been involved in several City planning activities, who she said had volunteered to provide the specifications for the project. The Gardenette spokesperson also said her club had already received $1 ,000 in donations in addition to the $500 given them by Medtronics and planned to solicit other busi- nesses for donations to make up the costs still necessary to construct the fountain. The sketch of the park layout indicating the fountain would be sited at the southern- most area as well as photos of different size fountain cascades had been provided • in the agenda packet and Mr. Amundsen gave further details of how the fountain would be constructed. He said the 18 foot cascade jet of water would be recycled through a sumpump and would be lit by a photo cell which would turn the lights on after dark and off automatically at midnight each night. Mayor Sundland told Mrs. Amundsen he perceived this project would tie in very well with the City Marketing Committee's recommendation "to dress up this front door area of the City". Mr. Hamer indicated he had been working with the garden club members on their plans for this project and had already roughly estimated just what would be entailed if his department were to provide the labor do the job. He said he had contacted NSP who had agreed to donate 500 feet of underground electrical cable, which the Public Works Department could easily bore in with a rented auger. The Public Works Director indicated he had accompanied Gardenette representatives who had broached the adjoining neighbor about running the cable across his property and Mr. Hamer said, that neighbor had indicated his wholehearted approval of this improvement project. Since the engineering and specifications had been donated by BRW, the Director said he perceived the actual construction would not be too difficult. He estimated it would cost $1 ,200 for the necessary 28 feet of concrete which would have to be laid and he had figured the pump and motor would run about $2,700. There would be an additional cost for electrical materials, but the Public Works Director said he intended to request the electrician, who would be hooking it up, to donate that • service. Mr. Hamer indicated he did not perceive this would be a difficult project to con- struct especially since the water and storm sewer service are already on the site. He foresaw no repair problems since the water would not be pooled, but could be -3- drained out the existing storm sewer. The Gardenettes had also requested that the • large flag flown in the park be lit at night as well and the Public Works Director told Councilmember Marks the electric usage would be metered. He said an estimate of electric costs would be hard that night because they would be predicated on the size of both the motor and pump used in the fountain. Mr. Hamer agreed with the Mayor that the fountain and lighting the flag would improve an area which is already an asset to the City. He said people would be able to sit on the benches already provided in the park to watch the fountain cas- cade and an 18 foot cascade would certainly let driver's on Highway 88 know they were passing St. Anthony Village. Mr. Amundsen indicated that all that was nec- essary that evening was to have the Council give concept approval to the fountain design. Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Ranallo to approve the concept design submitted by the Village Gardenettes for the fountain theypropose to erect, as stated, at the southern edge of Trillium Park at the entrance of the City on St. Anthony Boulevard and Highway 88. Motion carried unanimously. Councilmember Ranallo told the Gardenettes there might be more incentive to contribute towards the project if the names of all who donated were inscribed on a plaque to be displayed with the others on the back wall of the Council Chambers, Jerry Isaacs, developer of the Northgate Office Park, south of the park on Highway 88, who was present for a matter connected with one of those office condominiums, said he would • be glad to donate the plaque for that purpose. George Wagner, who indicated he was substituting for Commissioner Bjorklund, who had been designated to represent the Commission at the Council meeting, then reported the minutes of the Planning Commission meeting held August 20th. He said there had only been two items .which required official action by the Com- mission and the majority of that lengthy meeting had been devoted to what he termed to be "housekeeping matters which needed to be attended to, including reaffirming the policies which would be followed in relation to what had been historically accepted by past Commissions, but on which the newer members, including himself, had not had their say". Other concerns which took up the Commissioners' time had been how the matters the Commission had handled in the past few months had finally been dealt with by the Council . The Council perception was that these matters had been well documented in the minutes and called for no further action on their part. The Commission representative proceeded to report on the two matters which required recommendations from the Commission to the Council . Commissioner Wagner said there was very little concern expressed by the Commissioners in regard to the conditional use permit request for a tanning salon in the Northgate Office Park because the Commission had handled a similar request the previous month and had attached the same conditions for approval as had been approved by the Council for the tanning facilities in a beauty shop in the same commercial area. The Commissioner also said the P.E.J. representative had assured the Commissioners during the hearing that he intended to • conduct his business in an ethical manner. Motion by Councilmember Ranallo and seconded by Councilmember Marks to grant a con- ditional use permit to P.E.J. , Inc. , 104 Metro Square Building, St. Paul , under the -4- City ordinance amendment which would allow the operation of a body sun tanning • facility in unit #19, Condominium #535 in the Northgate Office Park at 2526 Highway 88, subject to annual review of the permit and to the facility meeting all applicable City, State, and Federal codes. In granting the permit, the Council finds, as did the Planning Commission, that: 1 . No one had appeared at either the Commission hearing or Council consideration of the request, or had contacted staff prior to either meeting to object to the permit; 2. The proposed service seems to fit in with other types of service in that com- mercial district; and 3. No problems or complaints about similar operations in St. Anthony have been reported. Motion carried unanimously. Mr. Isaacs told Councilmember Makowske that it was true that all the condominium units had been sold out and indicated the Council would be invited to the celebra- tion commemorating the removal of the old motel sign to be held October 4th. Jeff Roberts, the applicant, indicated he intended to donate $50 towards the fountain project which he perceived would serve to enhance the appearance of the southern commercial area where his tanning studio would be located. • Commissioner Wagner reminded Mr. Roberts that his signage proposal would have to be presented for Planning Commission approval . Mr. Isaacs' response to this appeared to indicate no problem in that regard was anticipated. Mayor Sundland then welcomed Amy Clements, the Northeaster reported, who said she would be covering St. Anthony events from now on. Before acting on what Commissioner Wagner said had been a unanimous recommendation for Council approval of the final platting of the Hertog Floral Addition, the Councilmembers and Mayor had a brief discussion of the reasons why NSP was able to provide underground electrical service to the Hertog project and not to the Johnson development, just north of it. It was reiterated that the utility company could go underground for the Hertog addition because there was no development just across Edward Street where to do the same for the Johnson property, would involve changing the service to the residences across Edward as well , which those neighbors might resist vigorously. Councilmember Marks said the comment had been made to him that "The Council had folded too easily" when it came to requiring underground services for the Johnson project and he wanted recorded in the minutes just how much it would cost to pro- vide utility service to each of the nine Johnson lots. The estimate was that each lot would have to pay at least $6,000 for the electric service and over $600 for the individual service hookups. In addition were the costs for undergrounding phone service and the cost to the homeowners across Edward was not determined, but the Mayor said an NSP representative had told him they would incur further costs of having their service masts on their homes converted. • Councilmember Ranallo indicated he perceived those assumptions had been verified when NSP had gone to all the expense of putting up new electric posts rather than -5- going underground when all the existing posts had to be moved back for the County Road D project. If it had been as easy as some people had assumed for the utility • company to provide underground service, that would certainly have been one of the places where NSP would have done so, the Councilmember observed. The Mayor concurred, reiterating that he had worked for ten years to get North- western Bell to bury their lines underground when they changed the service on 33rd Avenue N.E. , only to have the cable T.V. company put up wires where the phone lines were. Motion by Councilmember Enrooth and seconded by Councilmember Makowske to approve the final platting for the Hertog Floral Addition, a seven lot subdivision between 33rd and 32nd Avenues N.E. , east of Edward Street, as presented in the final plat for the project, subject to final approval by the City Attorney. In approving the final platting, the Council finds, as did the Planning Commission, that: 1 . Both the Planning Commission and Council had held public hearings on the pre- liminary platting; 2. No one had appeared at either hearing or at the subsequent considerations of the final platting to object to the proposed platting; 3. The subject plat generally conforms to municipal standards and where lots are smaller than required, many similar lots with small frontages, depths, and land area, have been platted and developed in the adjacent locality; 4. The final platting specifically identifies the utility and drainage easements which the City would have access, which had been a concern of the Planning Commission; and 5. The platting requires placement of all utilities underground as recommended by the City's Comprehensive Plan. Motion carried unanimously. Commissioner Wagner concluded his report by observing that the sign on the Curtis Mathes store, which had prompted a great deal of discussion during the Commission meeting, had finally been taken down. The Commissioner remained as an observor for the rest of the meeting. The Mayor said he had that morning attended a meeting of north suburban mayors and elected officials from 17 cities, including Minneapolis and St. Paul , where the impact of the proposed mega-mall in Bloomington would have on other metropolitan municipalities was explored at length.. He said this coalition wanted to take no sides with either Minneapolis or Bloomington, but the general perception seemed to be that there had been too little time taken to assess the exact impact a 1 .5 billion dollar project with the concessions which were being proposed would have on - other communities in regard to the fiscal disparities distributions and tax incre- ments. Mayor Sundland indicated computer printouts indicated that St. Anthony is now in the hole by about $4,000 in the proposal to exempt the project in fiscal disparities. If Bloomington were not exempted from participation in that program, • the City could expect to get back $37,511 if the project were developed as proposed. He said one of the points made at the meeting had been that the cost of providing -6- new 6-new highways to serve the proposed project could well exceed the 200 million dollar • the Department of Transportat ion has in its budget from now to the year 2000 for all highway construction. the message the coalition had sent to the Governor, the Mayor said, was that fiscal disparities contribution from the mega-mall should not be considered at a special session of the legislators, but rather worked out in a- general session. He added that even prominent officials from the Governor's own office had been critical of his role in this controversy. Councilman Ranallo told Mayor Sundland he supported his participation in the coali- tion and urged him to "keep going". Councilmember Makowske reported she would be meeting with the other members of the Board of Directors of the Ramsey County League of Local Governments, September 6th, and indicatedAt was her intention to propose_ they consider inviting a Ramsey County judge to attend a future RCLLG meeting to shed some light .on.how'judges set their fines and sentences. The Councilmember indicated she' had attended her first meeting of the Association of Metropolitan Municipalities Housing Committee and found it Very informative. She then noted the impressive picture of Councilmember Marks which had appeared on the front page of the most recent League of..Minnesota Cities paper. Councilmember Enrooth indicated the Rice Creek Watershed District wouldl!be meeting in September to finalize the various requests from cities, including the City's own concerns related to bodies of water within the St. Anthony boundaries. • Councilmember Marks reported he had attended the August 2nd meeting of the executive board of the Youth Service Bureau as well as the Miller-Schroeder conference on innovative financing for redevelopment projects on the same date. The Councilmember offered to share the "stacks of literature on a whole range of creative financing tools" he had come away with from that meeting. The Hance report on matters conducted at Hennepin County Municipal Court August 7th was ordered filed after brief comments on the number of large fines, the majority of which had been stayed by the judge, as well as the large number of bench warrants which had been issued. Mr. Childs said he wasn't certain what percentage of those warrants would be enforced, but he 'knew the St. Anthony Police were especially good atcatching those offenders. The July financial report was filed without further comment. The Manager report ed. receiving a call the day .before indicating that H.U.D. had given the final approval to the Walker on Kenzie senior housing project. He said the City plans on buying the property from Mr. Saliterman within the next few weeks . and anticipates construction 'to be started right away. The closing on the Brighton Development townhomes was held August 22nd and Mr. Childs said the groundbreaking ceremonies are scheduled to be held at 4:30 P.M. , September 11th. Bids on another St.. Anthony housing project, the-Chandler Residence, would be taken the next day, he added. The Manager then told the Councilmembers that the Mayor had been elected Vice Pre- sident of the St. Anthony Chamber of Commerce, from which position he would assume the presidency next year. -7- Mr. Childs then reported meeting with Tom McMullen of District #282 regarding the City's lease of Park View and said he would be coming to the Council with a rec- ommendation that the current lease with current price levels be maintained for at least a year in which time a task force this winter could consider alternatives. The budget work sessions tentatively scheduled for August 28th and September 9th were dropped, with the Council agreeing to hold the first session on September 4th, as originally planned at 5:15 P.M. , and to schedule the next session for September 11th, after the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Townhomes of St. Anthony. Another session would be scheduled later, if needed. Councilmember Enrooth indicated he might be in Colorado the 4th, but would try to get there. Because of the September 11th activities, the Manager pointed out that it appeared onlyfithe September 25th LMC regional meeting at Faribault would be feasible for Council attendance. The August 6th letter to municipal emergency managers from the Hennepin County Director of Emergency Preparedness, which had been included in the agenda packet, informed the cities that disaster warning sirens would be sounded on a zoned basis rather than for the entine !seven county metropolitan area, as in the past. The enclosed map, which had been attached to the Hennepin County Warning Plan, indica- ted the City:iwould be in Zone 6, but Mr. Childs told Councilmember Marks, the map was in error when it indicated the City would be split up by county, since the whole City would be included in that zone. Mayor Sundland said he perceived it would be essential to let the residents know that after this conversion is accomplished, whenever they hear the siren, they had better take to their basements immediately because the storm is actually in their area. Mr. Childs said because of the City's position in the northeast corner of that zone, St. Anthony residents would have the most advantageous notice of an impending dangerous storm. The Mayor said this area has the most sophisticated doppler system available with -a triangular alert system • which can see all around a storm. A copy of the resolution proposed by the Public Works Director to authorize the appropriation of more MSA funds for the County Road D project had been distributed in advance of the meeting. Motion by Councilmember Ranallo and seconded by Councilmember Makowske to- adopt Resolution 85-037. RESOLUTION 85-037 A RESOLUTION OF:-APPROPRIATION OF MUNICIPAL STATE-AID FUNDS TO C.S.A.H. TO T.M. PROJECT Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilmember Enrooth and seconded by Councilmember Marks to adjourn the meeting at 8:40 P.M. Motion carried unanimously. Respectfully submitted, lenCrowe, S cretaryl � i Mayor ATTEST: i y er