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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-16-08-WS ~ ~HILLS Approved August 11, 2008 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MEETING JULY 16, 2008 6:00 P.M. - ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDERlROLL CALL Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, Mayor Stan Harpstead called to order the City Council Work Session meeting at 6:08 p.m. Present: Mayor Stan Harpstead; Council Members David Grant, Fran Holmes, and David McClung. Absent: Council Member Brenda Holden. Also present: City Administrator Ron Moorse; Assistant City Administrator Noah Simon; City Planner James Lehnhoff; Stacy Kvilvang, Ehlers & Associates; and Bruce Chamberlain, Hoisington Koegler Group, Inc. 1. AGENDA ITEMS A. TCAAP Master Plan City Administrator Moorse presented the City Council with an update on the Master Plan process for the TCAAP site. '. Stacie K vilvang, Ehlers & Associates, stated as this project moves forward the Council needs to establish a master development plan. She indicated the Council needs to come up with a vision for this area, which will be implemented by the developer. Ms. Kvilvang reviewed several general questions with the Council, asking how the Council wanted to move forward - involving others in this process or keep it at a Council level. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION - JULY 16, 2008 2 Assistant City Administrator Simon stated the MDAG members were sent a letter by staff and that of those that responded, with the exception of one, they were all in favor of continuing to assist in this process. Mayor Harpstead indicated MDAG would need direction on the specific sets of recommendations they would need to make. Ms. Kvilvang stated she felt financial decisions should be made at a Council level, but that the design guidelines and ordinance issues could be discussed at a Planning Commission level. Mayor Harpstead questioned if the Council needed to approve a drawing at tonight's meeting. Ms. K vilvang indicated the Council was not ready to make that type of decision. She stated that tonight's discussion should assist the Council in establishing the Concept Plan. Councilmember McClung asked what type of timeline the Concept Plan had. Ms. Kvilvang thought this item should be addressed before the end of 2008, complete with design guidelines, park locations, street names, etc. Discussion ensued regarding the TCAAP Concept Plan. Mayor Harpstead indicated it would be his preference to get the community involved in this process and have the MDAG involved. He stated he would like to see several Council votes along the way to keep the process moving forward. Councilmember McClung agreed stating MDAG was established for a purpose and believed the residents needed to provide input in this area. Councilmember Holmes stated she felt the tinancials and the Master Plan were interrelated. She questioned how the gaps would be filled financially if the plan were to overspend the TCAAP budgeted limits. Councilmember Holmes noted she was in favor of MDAG but questioned how well ideas were communicated between that committee and the Council in the past. Councilmember Grant indicated he was in favor of public involvement in this process, but cautioned using too many groups because each one would corne up with a different plan for this project. He felt the Council needed to wrestle with the majority of these issues due to the fact TCAAP had a strict timeline. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION - JULY 16, 2008 3 Bruce Chamberlain, Hoisington Koegler Group, Inc., commented the intent of MDAO and the public process was to arrive at a PUD package that comes before the Council for formal review. He indicated this allowed the community's desires to be heard and put into a plan that would then be seen by the Planning Commission and City Council. Councilmember Grant stated he did not want numerous groups coming before the Council assuming their plan was going forward. He reiterated the importance of this plan being driven by the Council and not the other way around. Mayor Harpstead stated the MDAG group faced several obstacles, as there were issues the Council needed to vote on before they could proceed such as density, open spaces and infrastructure within the site. He explained a rough schematic could be presented to MDAG for them to develop design elements, which would then be presented to the Planning Commission and City Council. Discussion ensued on design standards and which group should be used to establish these for the TCAAP site. City Planner Lehnhoff noted it was his understanding the developer would bring someone to the City, Damon Barber, for example, to assist the City in developing design standards. Mayor Harpstead suggested the Council enable the Planning Commission to assist in this area. Ms. Kvilvang noted ifMDAG were to reconvene a straightforward mission would need to be noted along with task directives. She stated the Planning Commission would need to be kept apprised of all information going forward and that open houses could be held to keep the public informed and also allowing them to make comments. Ms. Kvilvang added that articles could be included in the City newsletter asking for public comments and suggestions as this item proceeds. City Administrator Moorse reported that Councilmember Holden sent an email with her comments, noting she felt the focus of the Concept Plan should be addressed at the Council level, as MDAO has provided as much input as they could. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION - JULY 16, 2008 4 Mayor Harpstead stated he felt MDAG has provided as much information as possible within the limits the Council set on them and should be used again going forward with this process. Councilmember McClung indicated individuals within MDAG were not allowed to express opinions on this, which may be useful at some point. Councilmember Grant questioned how many more times this site could reasonably be redesigned by December. Ms. Kvilvang stated the land uses have been essentially determined. She indicated now the mix of uses and types of uses need to be decided along with open space development and design standards for the project. Councilmember McClung questioned if the environmental data would impact the location of lots/land uses on the site. Ms. Kvilvang stated this should not affect the location of any land uses as there have not been any surprises in the past 2~ years regarding where contamination was on the site, even after the testing. Councilmember McClung asked if land uses were set based on the environmental information provided before testing was completed and if any adjustments would be needed after the clean up was complete. Ms. K vilvang stated several roadways were adjusted, which reduced the infrastructure costs, based on the testing information. Bruce Chamberlain indicated the plan started with a master plan that made the most sense from an urban design/neighborhood design standpoint. He stated the environmental problem areas were kept in mind, but that there were not any issues that could not be overcome with the clean up. Ms. Kvilvang stated the blob diagram can be set by the Council at this time, but the reality is, five years down the road when construction begins, things may change and amendments may be needed. She encouraged the Council to be flexible to market changes and site conditions that may arise. Councilmember Grant questioned if MDAG were to be brought in, what their scope would be. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION - JULY 16, 2008 5 Mayor Harpstead responded that the use of MDAG fulfills the desire to involve public input and allow the residents to take ownership of this project. He stated he sees real value in this. Mayor Harpstead indicated the Council would need to make some decisions and set the scope for MDAG to have them work efficiently in this process. City Administrator Moorse suggested the Council review the current blob diagram to see if the Council was in agreement with the current location for each of the land uses, along with the open space and roadway placements, etc. Councilmember McClung indicated he would need this information reviewed as information has changed since the last time the Council addressed the land use locations. Mayor Harpstead noted the park locations have been the only item altered in any way, along with a decision still needed for the water feature. Councilmember Holmes stated the water feature did need to be addressed and asked that it be done at the Council level, as it would affect the financials for this site. Councilmember Grant agreed. Mayor Harpstead stated the water feature could be decided at a Council level. Ms. K vilvang interjected and encouraged the Council to start deciding what the Council wants for this site, what vision they have because the financial implications will be key. She indicated these decisions would set the parameters for the site so that further design guidelines and setbacks could be determined by other committees, but that they would clearly understand where the Council stands on these other issues. Mayor Harpstead asked that this be broken down into several additional work sessions to address the following items: to discuss housing and dedicate acreage, to discuss amenities within the site; and lastly to discuss commercial property. Councilmember Holmes added that a discussion should be held on roads as well. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION - JULY 16, 2008 6 Councilmember McClung agreed noting it would be beneficial to have a detailed list of issues with each of these topics that need to be addressed by Council in order to move forward with a decision. Councilmember Grant encouraged Ms.. K vilvang to layout the key points the Council needs to address by the end of December with what decisions had to be made in a logical sequential order. He felt this would lead to the greatest amount of success for the Council due to the scope of this project. Mayor Harpstead indicated the Council had the legal obligation to make the final decisions. He stated however, that entrusting groups or partners within the community to offer suggestions could greatly benefit the Council. Councilmember McClung stated the scope would need to be set clearly in order for this to benefit the Council. Ms. K vilvang noted she could draft a detailed list of issues that needed to be addressed by the Council, itemizing critical decisions. She stated the Council would need to buy into this process in order for these decisions to be completed by December. Discussion ensued regarding the use of standing sub-committees for assistance in decision making. Mayor Harpstead stated he felt it would be beneficial to have a list laid out for the Council before proceeding. Councilmember Holmes encouraged the Councilmembers to devise a list of questions regarding the major issues that still needed to be addressed, as she was not in favor of using sub-committees. She added that the majority of the outstanding decisions had large financial implications and should be dealt with solely by the Council. City Administrator Moorse stated the questions from Council would be helpful so that answers could be brought back to Council providing as much information as possible to make decisions on a timely basis. He felt this was a good direction for the Council to move in. Ms. Kvilvang agreed stating this would allow the Council to break these decisions down into bite-sized pieces. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION - JULY 16, 2008 7 It was the consensus of the City Council to direct staff to breakdown the following items into future work session meetings: housing, density and acreage; amenities within the site; commercial property; and roadways providing itemized decisions that were needed by the Council on each issue. Mr. Lyle Salmela asked if an architect has been decided on for the housing developments. Mayor Harpstead stated Ryan Companies would handle this Issue but that different portions of the site would have varying architects. 2. COUNCIL COMMENTS AND REQUESTS Councilmember McClung noted newsletter articles were due on Monday. He reported the Fire Board met this morning and authorized the purchase of the aerial ladder truck. Councilmember Grant stated he was bothered by the fact that 350 entries were missing from the spreadsheet presented to Council on Monday night for Bonestroo. Mayor Harpstead agreed that the analysis of the data was suffering. City Administrator Moorse indicated the data has been collected but did need to be entered, which was completed on rainy days. Councilmember Holmes felt there should be more than three names for the TCAAP site. She suggested 5-10 names be presented to Council. Mayor Harpstead agreed indicating none of the names presented struck him. Councilmember Holmes stated she was concerned about the tone of the financial work session meeting. She indicated she was not in favor of setting a guaranteed rate ofretum. Ms. K vilvang explained the Council would not be setting a guaranteed rate of return, but that it was standard to set this amount within the development agreement as a goal. She stated this would adjust the level of public funds that were offered depending on how the development was proceeding as the economy changes. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION - JULY 16, 2008 8 Mayor Harpstead adjoum~EJ~-f,~ty Council Work Session mee' g at 7:33 p.m. / Ronald. oorse City Administrator