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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC MINUTES 041420201 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 CITY OF ST. ANTHONY CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES APRIL 14, 2020 CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Stille called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. Mayor Stille invited the Council and audience to join him in the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL. Present: Absent: Also Present: Guests: Mayor Stille, Councilmembers Jenson, Randle, Walker and Webster. None City Manager Mark Casey, Assistant to the City Manager Charlie Yunker, and City Engineer City Engineer Justin Messner. None. CONSIDERATION, DISCUSSION, AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON ALL OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. I. APPROVAL OF APRIL 14, 2020 CITY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA. Motion by Councilmember Jenson, seconded by Councilmember Webster, to approve the City Council Meeting Agenda of April 14, 2020. Motion carried 5-0. II. PROCLAMATIONS AND RECOGNITIONS — NONE. III. CONSENT AGENDA. A. Approve March 10, 2020, Council meeting minutes. B. Approve March 19, 2020, Emergency City Council meeting minutes C. Licenses and permits. D. Claims. E. Resolution 20-032; a Resolution Accepting Donations and Grants Received in the 1st Quarter of 2020. F. Arbor Day Proclamation. G. Earth Day Proclamation H. Resolution 20-033; a Resolution Revoking Wine/Beer license for Hickory Hog I. Resolution 20-34; a Resolution Approving a request to keep four (4) female chickens in an R-1 zoning district at 3112 Bell Lane J. Resolution 20-035; a Resolution Approving a request to keep six (6) female chickens in an R-1 zoning district at 3511 Harding Street City Council Regular Meeting Minutes April 14, 2020 Page 2 1 Motion by Councilmember Jenson, seconded by Councilmember Walker, to approve the Consent 2 Agenda items. 3 4 Motion carried 5-0. 5 6 IV. PUBLIC HEARING 7 8 2020 Street and Utility Improvement Project. 9 10 A. Resolution 20-036; a Resolution Ordering Improvements for the 2020 Street and Utility 11 Improvements. 12 13 Mayor Stille opened the public hearing at 7:08 p.m. 14 15 City Engineer Messner reviewed the resolution with the Council and asked that the resolution be 16 approved. 17 18 Councilmember Randle stated speaking to the residents as a whole this is a surprisingly good 19 deal and encouraged the residents to take advantage of it. 20 21 Councilmember Webster thanked Mr. Messner for a clear presentation, the scope and cost of the 22 project, and outlining it for them and the public. 23 24 Mayor Stille indicated for clarification on the November 25, 2020 deadline to pay the 25 assessments off. He thought it was important for the residents and community to know that if the 26 assessment is paid on November 26, 2020, a day late, the resident will owe interest on the 27 assessment for the entire year. He reminded the residents to keep November 25, 2020 date for the 28 date to pay this off. 29 30 Mayor Stille explained for people who want to wait and have this amortized and financed 31 through the City, that is stretched out until May 15, 2022 when the first assessment payment will 32 need to be made, which is two years and he thanked staff for coming up with a way to defer that 33 payment for the residents. 34 35 Mayor Stille indicated there was not anyone in the audience and asked if Mr. Casey received any 36 online comments. Mr. Casey indicated staff has not received any comments online or through 37 emails. 38 39 Mr. Yunker indicated there is one person online through zoom who raised their hand. 40 41 Ms. Noelle Noyes, 4029 Silver Lake Terrace, wondered on March 10, 2020 when the process for 42 the assessments was amended, why that decision was made. Her main concern was with the 43 range of price the residents were given increased substantially and she wondered why that 44 change was made and how that impacted the overall cost. She also understood that if a resident 45 wanted to pay this over time it would not start until May 2022, but she wondered if a resident 46 wanted to pay the cost upfront why that payment date is not delayed by a year as well. Given the City Council Regular Meeting Minutes April 14, 2020 Page 3 1 State Shelter in Place order how are precautions being taken with COVID-19 and having more 2 traffic and workers on the street during this pandemic. Mr. Messner explained earlier this year 3 City Staff sat down and looked at this project in particular because this is the first time the City 4 broke away from the traditional City style street where there are uniform size lots and more of a 5 grid style pattern seen in Minneapolis. The majority of the lots were relatively the same size. 6 With this improvement, particularly on 32nd and Croft Drive, single family homes that had very 7 extreme assessments because of their front footage, particularly the corner lots. Those lots were 8 paying quite a bit more then the small interior lots. All the homes have the same use of the streets 9 and utilities so staff felt those larger lots should not be penalized and have to pay more. Many 10 Municipalities throughout Minnesota actually use this per unit method and is the preferred 11 method with staff actually goes through and looks at a cost benefit appraisal for a home. Staff did 12 actually compare that to pervious assessments that were ran that looked at the front foot method 13 and that method was relatively consistent with the majority of the homes on the property. 14 Regarding the comment on such a large cost increase, that he was not actually sure about what 15 was presented to Ms. Noyes. The only costs presented to the homeowners was at the March 11, 16 2020 meeting and that was the third public information meeting. Prior to that meeting staff did 17 not have any costs on the project because the project had not been bid yet. 18 19 Ms. Noyes indicated at the first or second information meeting a range of six to seven thousand 20 dollars was given and she wondered what the greatest cost per unit staff had up until this year. 21 Mr. Messner indicated he was unsure and would have to research that, but it is not abnormal to 22 have costs in the twelve to thirteen -thousand -dollar range for residential assessments. 23 24 Mr. Casey explained the reason for not extending payment in full a year out is the City needs to 25 certify this assessment due to bonding in 2020 because that would make the first payment due in 26 2021 which would be paid by the City and the residents in 2022 through the fifteen years the 27 resident would have on the assessment. The fact that the debt has to be certified to the County in 28 2020, therefore anyone who wishes to pay that off would have to be done in 2020. 29 30 Mayor Stille asked what staff has been hearing about COVID-19 and street projects and 31 reactions by contractors so far. Mr. Messner explained contractors, in particular, have indicated 32 this is actually a good environment to do this because the workers are outside and do practice 33 social distancing while doing this type of work. Many of the workers are in their own vehicles or 34 machinery by themselves doing the work. If there are meetings onsite the workers will be 35 practicing social distancing of maintaining six-foot distance as well as with homeowners. From 36 the engineers and staff's standpoint there will be PPE used at all times. 37 38 Ms. Sara Atwood, 4024 Silver Lake Terrace, asked when residents are not able to access their 39 driveways where are they going to be parking as well as how will the families with electric 40 vehicles going to charge them because hookups are inside the garages, as well as, her residence 41 will be affected by the wall that will be put in place and she wondered what the cost of the wall 42 and fence that will be put up be. Mr. Messner explained parking for residents on Silver Lake 43 Terrace will be provide on Silver Lane. The City will mark a portion of the street as parking 44 eligible and the Police Department will make sure people can park in those places. Some 45 additional construction barrels will be put up on Silver Lane to provide limits of where folks can 46 park. With regard to electric vehicles staff has worked with those individuals that they are aware City Council Regular Meeting Minutes April 14, 2020 Page 4 1 of and will be setting up electric vehicle charges at the City's Well House Number Five, near the 2 tennis courts so those residents will be able to park there and charge their vehicles. Regarding the 3 retaining wall, the City has plans to replace it for this project. He noted the exact dollar amount 4 staff is not one hundred percent sure but will be around the $50,000 range for that wall and pretty 5 expensive. Currently it is a two-tier retaining wall and each tier is approximately three to four 6 feet so the new wall will be somewhere around that at six to eight feet high and will be a single 7 retaining wall. In regard to the fence, the City is not proposing to do a traditional split rail fence 8 or black chain link or vinyl fence, the City really wants to mimic what is on Silver Lake Road 9 with the wall and fencing. 10 11 Ms. Noelle Noyes indicated in the presentation there was something about there had to be 12 something in writing at this meeting and she wondered how that worked given that they are not, 13 as a group, present at the meeting. Mr. Messner explained if the residents would like to appeal 14 their assessment then the resident would need to sign a written intent of appeal and deliver that to 15 City offices. If the resident wished to do that the resident could either sign it at the meeting and 16 request to do so or a written notice can be sent to City Hall that the resident intends to appeal and 17 is something that can be done through email. If the resident does intend to appeal, signing a 18 notice does not mean that the appeal is a done process. The resident still needs to file the appeal 19 to the County Courthouse within thirty days of the adoption of the assessment role and the 20 resident would need to hire an attorney and go through the appeal process after filing at the 21 County Courthouse. 22 23 Ms. Noelle Noyes explained that given the extraordinary nature of what is going on right now, 24 the Pandemic and impacts on the economy and people's health, etc., she was a bit surprised that 25 none of that has been brought up in terms of assessing the potential impact of this under 26 completely changed circumstances from when the project was first brought up and talked about. 27 She knew that people in the neighborhood have been furloughed already and there is a lot of 28 unemployment and it is unclear whether or not that is going to improve or not so it is somewhat 29 surprising to her in a disappointing way that there has not been some sort of more at least 30 information discussion about the potential impacts of the new situation on this pretty large cost 31 of thirteen to nineteen thousand dollars if paid as a part of taxes. 32 33 Ms. Sara Atwood indicated the City came out and marked where an easement is going to be on 34 her property and it is quite a large chunk of her property and she is not able to put anything on 35 the easement, such as the shed her family want there and indicated the easement will really 36 impact their land and what can be enjoyed. Mr. Messner explained the wall itself is on the 37 property line and the purpose of the easement is for the construction of the retaining wall and for 38 the installation of the storm sewer that needs to be replaced. There is an existing storm sewer in 39 Ms. Atwood's yard in that location and that line needs to be replaced because it is failing, and the 40 side of the embankment is washing out and needs to be repaired. These are improvements that 41 are necessary for the project. If the line is replaced the City is asking that a proper easement over 42 that is placed in order to access and maintain it. He noted Ms. Atwood is still allowed to place a 43 shed on that easement which he did explain in an email to her husband on that. The only thing 44 not allowed would be a permanent structure. He noted the easement is only ten feet wide on the 45 property line so by City Code they would not be able to put a permanent structure within that 46 distance anyway due to City setbacks for structures. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes April 14, 2020 Page 5 1 2 Mayor Stille explained the street projects are like steering a ship and it takes along time to go 3 through these. He indicated even in 2008-20010 the City went ahead with the proposed street 4 projects which he has not regretted at all because for one thing the interest rates were so cheap, 5 and the costs were so reasonable and were a benefit to the City. He explained he did understand 6 where the residents were coming from and why the City and Staff came up with an opportunity 7 to defer those payments for over two years from now. He indicated the City is being sensitive of 8 that and trying to react the best way it can yet still maintain this particular project in order to 9 move forward. On the flip side there are actually people who want this project to move forward 10 and are anxious for this to be concluded. 11 12 There being no additional public input, Mayor Stille closed the public hearing at 7:52 p.m. 13 14 Motion by Councilmember Randle, seconded by Councilmember Jenson, to approve Resolution 15 20-036; a Resolution Ordering Improvements for the 2020 Street and Utility Improvements. 16 17 Motion carried 5-0. 18 19 B. Resolution 20-037; a Resolution Adopting and Confirming Assessments for the 2020 20 Street and Utility Improvements 21 22 Presentation and discussion with public hearing was done in previous item. 23 24 Motion by Councilmember Jenson, seconded by Councilmember Randle, to approve Resolution 25 20-037; a Resolution Adopting and Confirming Assessments for the 2020 Street and Utility 26 Improvements. 27 Motion carried 5-0. 28 29 C. Resolution 20-038; a Resolution Awarding a Bid for the 2020 Street and Utility 30 Improvements. 31 32 Presentation and discussion with public hearing was done in previous item. 33 34 Motion by Councilmember Walker, seconded by Councilmember Webster, to approve 35 Resolution 20-03S; a Resolution Awarding a Bid for the 2020 Street and Utility Improvements. 36 37 Motion carried 5-0. 38 39 V. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION AND STAFF — NONE. 40 41 VI. GENERAL BUSINESS OF COUNCIL. 42 43 A. Resolution 20-039; a Resolution Requesting an Advance from the Municipal State Aid 44 (MSA) Street Fund for the 2020 Calendar Year. 45 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes April 14, 2020 Page 6 1 City Engineer Messner reviewed the resolution with the Council and asked that the resolution be 2 approved. 3 4 Mayor Stille explained every so often Shelly Rueckert will provide a presentation and summary 5 of the City street projects with all of the sources and uses of money which is projected over 6 fifteen years or more. There is a line item that is called the peak to plateau and gets balanced 7 with one-time money once in a while and this money has already been plugged into those 8 sources. Mr. Casey indicated that is a viable source the City uses and gives them more of a 9 plateau and a predictable versus a sharp spike or peak in the process which helps staff balance 10 this out and one of the sources staff does use. 11 12 Motion by Councilmember Webster, seconded by Councilmember Jenson, to approve Resolution 13 20-039; a Resolution Requesting an Advance from the Municipal State Aid (MSA) Street Fund 14 for the 2020 Calendar Year. 15 16 Motion carried 5-0. 17 18 B. Resolution 20-040; a Resolution Accepting and Approving the Termination of Access 19 Control Agreement with Ramsey County. 20 21 City Engineer Messner reviewed the resolution with the Council and asked that the resolution be 22 approved. 23 24 Councilmember Randle asked if all of the other businesses were contacted that would be affected 25 by this. Mr. Messner explained they were not, any new access onto a County Road, if there was a 26 redevelopment the business would need to submit a plan for their redevelopment and if 27 additional access is wanted the business would need to fill out an access control permit. The 28 County would review that permit and provide access. 29 30 Motion by Councilmember Jenson, seconded by Councilmember Walker, to approve Resolution 31 20-040; a Resolution Accepting and Approving the Termination of Access Control Agreement 32 with Ramsey County. 33 34 Motion carried 5-0. 35 36 C. Resolution 20-041; a Resolution Approving the Appointment of Michael Guest to fill a 37 vacancy on the Parks & Environmental Commission and Appointment of James Niemi as 38 the Vice Chair. 39 40 City Manager Casey reviewed the resolution with the Council and asked that the resolution be 41 approved. 42 43 Motion by Councilmember Webster, seconded by Councilmember Randle, to approve 44 Resolution 20-041; a Resolution Approving the Appointment of Michael Guest to fill a vacancy 45 on the Parks & Environmental Commission and Appointment of James Niemi as the Vice Chair. 46 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes April 14, 2020 Page 7 1 Motion carried 5-0. 2 3 VII. REPORTS FROM CITY MANAGER AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. 4 5 City Manager Casey reported that City Hall is open for business with modified hours. He noted 6 if residents have any questions or concerns to please email or call. The liquor operations at Silver 7 Lake Village is open 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and the liquor operation 8 managers are working on trying to open up the Marketplace location in the near future. 9 10 Councilmember Jenson stated he attended the Executive Board Meeting for the Ramsey County 11 League of Local Governments on Friday, April 4th. 12 13 Councilmember Webster stated she explained the Chamber of Commerce was to hold their 14 annual meeting this Thursday, April 16th where they would recognize Villagers of the Year, Bob 15 and Lana Dullen as well as the Northeaster Newspaper as Business of the Year but that event has 16 been cancelled. Village fest is meeting in May to look at the conditions of the world and society 17 to see what planning may be in place for Village fest 2020 and Las Qantas Two was schedule to 18 have a silent auction this Sunday as one of their fundraisers along with a dinner and that event 19 has been postponed as well. 20 21 Councilmember Walker stated on April 10th he was interviewed by CTV and it went pretty well. 22 This was a general interview about being elected to the Council and his aspirations for being on 23 the Council. There was a little discussion as well about COVID-19. Informally and not as a 24 member of the City Council he kept an eye on the village people Facebook page to see what 25 people are saying and their fears and concerns were and a topic came up about hearing from the 26 Council publicly and what the Council has to say so he approach City Manager Casey about this 27 matter which resulted in a video the entire Council participated in and he has heard positive 28 comments from residents about the video. 29 30 Mayor Stille stated he attended the Regional Council of Mayor meeting on Monday, April 13th 31 virtually and Peter Frosh of Greater MSP was there to talk about where they are going as a 32 region as everyone is experiencing some really bad times and some of his estimates on what 33 might be happening and there are some office projects in towns that are being shelved and he 34 thought the industrial real estate market is going to be good because they are moving from just in 35 time supply chains to maybe a more of a just in case so there is going to be some shifting there. 36 He thought about that because St. Anthony does not have a lot of office and will not impact 37 them, and the City does have a small industrial area which does well for that part of the 38 community. Mr. Frosh was also talking about Minnesota being one of the first States to 39 potentially take advantage or come out of this and his opinion there has already been some quiet 40 conversations about what can be done as a region working with a comprehensive economic 41 development strategy and the Metropolitan Council and that so there are people looking at the 42 long view and they incorporate the Mayors of the communities to have input and that is the 43 whole purpose of that meeting, to get educated and see how the City of St. Anthony can fit into 44 this. Mayor Stille stated the meeting segued into a round table discussion with mayors of the 45 region and many cities were different in regard to revenues coming in and St. Anthony does not 46 have a lot of the different types of revenues of other cities. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes April 14, 2020 Page 8 1 2 VIII. COMMUNITY FORUM. 3 4 Mayor Stille invited residents to come forward at this time and address the Council on items that 5 are not on the regular agenda. 6 7 Hearing none, Mayor Stille moved forward with the agenda. 8 9 IX. INFORMATION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS. 10 11 Mayor Stille indicated the Walmart building is gone in the City and a nice change. He reflected 12 on the Police and Fire Departments and indicated he was thankful for them. He also stated he 13 sees more and more people walking around the City and meeting new people. I 15 X. ADJOURNMENT. 16 17 18 19 20 Respectfully submitted, 21 Sue Osbeck 22 TimeSaver Off Site Secretarial, Inc. 23 24 25 ATTEST: ,(�,� /Or 26 Cit lerk Mayor Stille adjourned the meeting at 8:17 p.m.