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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWK March 28, 2006 o o o 1685 CROSSTOWN BOULEVARD N.W. . ANDOVER, MINNESOTA 55304. (763) 755-5100 FAX (763) 755-8923 . WWW.CI.ANDOVER.MN.US City Council Workshop Tuesday, March 28, 2006 Conference Rooms A & B 1. Call to Order - 6:00 p.m. 2. Community Center Update - Admin./Community Center 3. Alternative Energy Analysis - Admin./Planning 4. WI Fi Update - Admin.llnformation Services 5. Community Survey DiscussionlDecision Resources - Admin. 6. Code Revisions - Planning 7. Law Enforcement Analysis - Admin, 8, Other Business 9, Adjournment o o o CITY OF NDOVE ANDOVER CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP- MARCH 28,2006 MINUTES The March Workshop Meeting of the Andover City Council was called to order by Mayor Mike Gamache, March 28,2006,6:01 p.m., at the Andover City Hall, 1685 Crosstown Boulevard NW, Andover, Minnesota Councilmembers present: Councilmember absent: Also present: Don Jacobson, Mike Knight, Ken Orttel, Julie Trude None City Administrator, Jim Dickinson Community Development Director, Will Neumeister Others COMMUNITY CENTER UPDATE City Administrator Dickinson stated the Community Center in its entirety is now in its first full year (2006) of operation and Staff and the Community Center Advisory Commission thought it would be prudent to provide an update to the City Council relative to current year operations, recap 2005, and answer questions the Council may have. Mr. Dickinson and Erick Sutherland, Recreational Facility Manager, presented a report updating the Council on General Ledger Expense vs. Budget, National Night Out and 1 st Year Anniversary Party Memo, April 2006 Open Skate and Open Gym Schedule, Debt Service Analysis and the Community Center Marketing Brochure. Mr. Sutherland stated the ice rink: is doing great They are $8,000.00 over gross revenue from last year at this time for the summer. Councilmember Jacobson wondered what will happen to the Ice arena when Blaine expands their sheets to four. Mr. Sutherland stated it will not be a problem for nine months out of the year because ice time is scarce for the surrounding communities. Mr. Sutherland stated they will be closing down the ice mid-May to the beginning of June for maintenance. Mr. Sutherland indicated the field house has been doing great since November 2005. The Field House projected revenue for 2006 is expected to be $80,000. Mr. Sutherland stated they have organized a Basketball League and have been asked if they could get a Volleyball League started. He did not think there was time during the main Volleyball season to have a league and summer may not be ideal either because there are not a lot of o Regular Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes - March 28, 2006 Page 2 Volleyball Leagues. Councilmember Trude did not think having a V olleyballleague in the summer would be a bad idea because it would allow parents to participate when they are not so busy with their children's activities and school. Councilmember Knight stated they are in need of activities at the Community Center commons for kids after school. He thought they could have board games or game tables for them. He thought this was better than having kids wandering and getting into trouble. He thought the City needs to buy some supplies that could be used for the kids. Mayor Gamache wondered if they had anything budgeted for this. Mr. Dickinson stated the first year they did not budget for it. He stated they are not breaking even yet in the budget. The toughest issue was the debt service number because the Capital Campaign was so low. Councilmember Orttel asked why in 2008 the YMCA lease revenue is so low. Mr. Dickinson stated this is not for the entire year in 2008; the first full year is 2009. Mr. Sutherland stated because the utilities costs estimated were less than actual, they are o projecting a loss for 2006. Councilmember Trude stated the YMCA, is supposed to have events non members can go to such as the Easter egg event, but she did not think this was well advertised and unless you are a member of the YMCA, you may not have heard about it. She wondered if they could get some notification out of these events. Mr. Sutherland stated they are having different activities throughout the year. Mayor Gamache thought they should include these in the newsletter. Councilmember Orttel wondered if the YMCA can be on the cable channel. Mayor Gamache stated they do a monthly update on cable. Councilmember Trude stated there is such a demand for meeting rooms and there will not be enough with the two rooms at the Community Center and she wondered if they should go to the School District to see if they could get some of their rooms included in what they already donate to the District. She thought the City should be able to get five rooms for free. Monday, Tuesday & Thursday are nights that are needed. Councilmember Trude wondered if the Council would be behind her in trying to get meeting rooms at the school. Councilmember Knight wondered if the money would be going for meeting rooms at the school, what is the money normally used for. Mr. Dickinson stated the money is used for summer programs and other miscellaneous programs at the school. o Mayor Gamache thought the associations would be able to pay for meeting rooms but he was not sure about the scouts. Councilmember Trude did not think they would have to pay more money; they could allocate the city donation to different areas. Councilmember Knight wondered if the Council wants the City to provide equipment for after o Regular Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes - March 28, 2006 Page 3 school activities at the Community Center. Mayor Gamache thought they could go to the Lions and see if they want to help in donating items also. Mr. Sutherland stated last year they rented two of the gyms to the High School from 2:00-5:00 and he would hate to lose that program. Because of the way the after school program has gone through the roof, they only have one court available. The spring adaptive group has grown so large that they need another gym. He thought they should have the adaptive group go back to the High School and use their gyms, which would allow them to continue with the activities for the younger youth in the City. Councilmember Jacobson did not think there would be any problem with the City and Lions putting some money in for games at the Community Center. Councilmember Trude thought they need to have the youth at the Community Center and wondered what would happen to the concession revenue if they did not have the kids there. o Councilmember Knight wondered how much the community is willing to pay to keep the program going for the kids. He asked if Mr. Sutherland has talked to other cities regarding what they are doing. Mr. Sutherland stated they have and are waiting for some feedback regarding that. Mr. Sutherland thought the adaptive softball group could move back to the high school in the spring. Mayor Gamache liked that idea so they would be able to keep the other two groups at the center. The Council discussed the Fun Fest and the Community Center. Mr. Sutherland noted the YMCA membership is at 3,100 members. The counts for the YMCA in January were 55,306 people that went through the turnstile; February had 55,509 that went through the turnstile, and March they were 159% over their goal for new memberships. ALTERNATIVE ENERGY ANALYSIS The City Council has requested that staff follow up on a report that was presented in September of 2002 that outlined the pros and cons of the use of a wind turbine for the generation of electricity. Staff was asked to determine if a wind or solar electrical generating system could be used to offset costs at the Community Center. o Councilmember Knight stated the only thing he would be interested in is to what degree solar energy would benefit the Community Center. Mr. Dickinson stated they would keep an eye on things and update the Council periodically on what is happening. o o o Regular Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes - March 28, 2006 Page 4 COMMUNITY SURVEY DISCUSSIONIDECISION RESOURCES City Administrator Dickinson stated an Andover Council 2005-2006 goal is to conduct a citizen survey. At the February 28, 2006 Workshop the Council met with Peter Leatherman from Decision Resources, taking the first action step of determining the extent of the survey. Mr. Leatherman, Decision Resources, discussed the draft of the survey questions with the Council. Councilmember Jacobson stated they did a survey around four years ago and he wondered if there were any questions that were the same to cross reference. Mr. Leatherman stated there were only a few because the last survey was geared toward Park and Recreation. Councilmember Trude stated she wants to have an identifier on where people live. Mr. Leatherman stated he would track this later in the survey. He stated he could follow with a question regarding what school their kids would go to. Councilmember Jacobson did not understand question five. Mr. Leatherman stated this question is to see how coooected a resident feels to a community. Councilmember Jacobson stated they need to be very careful about the wording in the questions. Councilmember Trude thought they could use "community spirit" instead. Councilmember Jacobson stated he would not use question six in the survey. Mr. Leatherman stated what they are trying to do is set a baseline amount so it is considered affordable housing and not low mcome. Councilmember Trude thought they should cross out question 21 because they do not do this for the community. Mr. Dickinson stated they need to take out question 25 because they do not have this in the City. The Council thought the survey should show County Roads: Round Lake, Bunker Lake Boulevard, Andover Boulevard, and Crosstown Boulevard to be excluded from maintenance. Councilmember Trude wondered if they need questions 31 or 32, Mayor Gamache thought this may be helpful if residents want to add more services. Councilmember Jacobson thought they should find out if the residents are willing to pay more money for additional services and what type of services. Mr. Dickinson stated they could ask: a question on how much a resident would be willing to contribute to the maintenance or upgrade on their street. Maybe the question could be worded as a percentage. Councilmember Jacobson thought question 37 was a bad one because people do not know the percentages; they look at the bottom line and not at what percentage the City is getting. Mr. Leatherman stated this is a very important question. Councilmember Trude thought it might be helpful to add a question asking how much money should be going to the City. o o o Regular Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes - March 28, 2006 Page 5 CounciImember Trude wondered ifthere is a way to get at a policing question that is more general. CounciImember Jacobson thought they could just ask if the resident has a public safety concern in Andover instead of going into detail for questions 38 and 39. Councilmember Jacobson thought question 40 should be "Do you think the Anoka County Sheriff is doing a good job in Andover? If not, what could be improved"? Councilmember Orttel thought question 40 is a good one because it has specific issues listed. CounciImember Jacobson thought if you got the residents' opinions, they would get more issues instead of just the ones listed. Mr. Leatherman stated he could have the residents answer questions 38 & 39 with their own concerns. CounciImember Trude stated question 43 should be regarding a railroad overpass and not a pedestrian overpass. . . CounciImember Trude wants more questions on transportation and less on police. Mr. Dickinson stated questions 47 & 48 basically tell them what roads the residents use to get to work. CounciImember Jacobson stated in most cases, they need to be general in their questions. CounciImember Jacobson thought they should combine questions 55 & 56. Councilmember Trude stated they need to reword question 54 to "lawn establishment and maintenance". Add "fence and boulevard maintenance and storage buildings". CounciImember Orttel thought they should keep questions 55 & 56 separate because they have not heard many complaints about boat storage. CounciImember Jacobson stated he thought question 57 should read, "would you support or oppose the purchase of open land for permanent preservation". Mr. Dickinson stated this question should not include "park" in the referendum. CounciImember Jacobson thought on question 58, they should change it from monthly to yearly. CounciImember Trude noted they publish a "bi-monthly" newsletter called: "Andover Today". Councilmember Trude stated on question 64, they need to have "City Council, Planning Commission and Park and Recreation Commission" and the Cable channel is "16". Councilmember Jacobson stated in question 68, they are offering wireless internet, not high-speed. Mr. Scott Allen stated it is wireless high-speed internet. CounciImember Knight stated he is curious what the response will be. Mr. Allen stated the following questions should be included in the survey: 1. Should the City pursue providing high speed wireless internet service for residents of o o o Regular Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes - March 28, 2006 Page 6 Andover 2. What would you be willing to pay for this service if available 3. Would $30/month be too much for high speed internet access 4. Are you currently using high speed internet at your home and with whom. Mayor Gamache thought they should use $30 as a baseline. Mr. Leatherman stated he would only ask the residents what they would be willing to pay if they indicated they would be interested in Slgmng up. Councilmember Trude stated one change on question 73 should be "Adults between 18 & 65." Councilmember Jacobson wondered when the survey would be done. Mr. Leatherman stated he could get a draft back to Mr. Dickinson next week. He indicated it would be the middle to end of April to conduct the field work. Councilmember Trude wondered if they could put the Community Center under City Services to see what people think. about it. WI-FI UPDATE City Administrator Dickinson explained a 2005-2006 Council goal is to explore wireless internet services for City of Andover residents; it is also a potential survey question for the community survey that is planned for this spring. Mr. Scott Allen, IT Coordinator, updated the Council on staff's activities exploring wireless internet servIce. Councilmember Jacobson wondered if they have looked at a signal through a satellite camero Mr. Allen stated they have to a certain extent. Councilmember Jacobson stated his problem with doing this is that there are newer things coming in and WI FI may become obsolete. Councilmember Jacobson stated if they install the fiber now, how would they recoup costs. Mr. Dickinson stated they could recoup it through fees and they could bond for it now. Councilmember Trude wondered how much Andover would spend to do the loop at the same time the School District puts in their fiber optics. Mr. Dickinson stated it would be around $170,000. Councilmember Jacobson wondered why the City would not go in with the School District on their fiber cable. Mr. Dickinson stated they do not want to be dependent on the School District for the fiber cable and the School District indicated they would not want that done. o Regular Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes - March 28, 2006 Page 7 Mr. Dickinson wondered if the Council thought this is too premature. Councilmember Orttel thought it is. Mr. Allen stated if they do not instaIl the fiber now with the School District, the cost will be significantly more in the future. Councilmember Knight stated they would have to have subscribers lined up otherwise they would not be able to do this. The Council recessed at 8:40 p.m. The Council reconvened at 8:45 p.m. CODE REVISIONS Mr. Neumeister explained to meet a goal of the City Council an item concerning buffering or ruraI neighborhoods from new urban residential neighborhoods has been added. o Revision 84 - Buffering Urban Neighborhoods from Rural Neighborhoods Mr. Neumeister indicated the language above the photo on page three is the language the Council may want to consider adding to the ordinance but the word ruraI in the third line toward the end should read ''urban''. He noted they are trying to get the urban area to buffer the adjacent undeveloped ruraI type area Councilmember Jacobson wondered if after buffering an area, ruraI wants to become urban. would this be a problem. Mr. Neumeister stated they would need to determine if the area is going to be temporary ruraI or permanent rural. Mayor Gamache thought they should go by the ultimate MUSA line for buffering. He thought this was the best way to do it because they would not be buffering areas that would change in the future. Councilmember Trude thought a wetland was enough of a buffer in some places. Councilmember Orttel thought it should be kept fairly open because each development should do like a PUD for buffering. Mr. Neumeister stated they are going to ask the buffering be a combination of a no disturbance or require planting trees to fill gaps in existing vegetation and will based on a case by case basis. o Councilmember Jacobson thought in the preliminary plat stage they will indicate if a buffer is needed and what type of buffer. Mr. Neumeister stated where urban is adjacent to a more ruraI area they have the right to ask for buffering. Revision 32 - Shoooing Center Location and Completion Requirements o o o Regular Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes - March 28, 2006 Page 8 Councilmember Jacobson asked how many shopping center districts are left in the City. Mr. Neumeister indicated on the map what they have left in the City. Mr. Dickinson indicated that this would also assist shopping center's that may require redevelopment. Councilmember Trude thought the biggest thing is if it is not in the Code book, they cannot enforce this. Mr. Neumeister explained Chapter 12 covers everything that will be deleted. Councilmember Trude stated they need to look at screening of shopping areas to residential along with parking buffering. Mr. Neumeister stated they would come back with changes that will have buffering that gives them the combination and the flexibility so when they see a request that comes before them as a preliminary plat, they will ask that the buffering be brought forward as an element when they see a need for buffering. Revision 52 - Animals Councilmember Orttel wondered why this came up for revisions. He indicated he never had a complaint with rural farm land. Councilmember Orttel wondered if they could grandfather in all of the current farms and any future farms would need to follow this revision. Mr. Neumeister thought they could do this. Councilmember Jacobson stated they need to be careful when residential moves in by farms; there will be complaints. Councilmember Knight thought they need to reword the revision regarding chickens and poultry to have them indicated in the code as a "unit" instead of "each" because there is a significant difference between a chicken and a cow. Council thought they need to add another column to exempt operating farms that have livestock, Green Acre operations or an existing operating farm and to change chickens to animal units. Revision 68 - Guesthouses Mr. Neumeister stated the only changes to this ordinance is that in order to be a guest house they could not be used as a rental unit and could not have kitchen facilities. The Council was fine with this. Revision 81 - Encroachments - Front and Rear Yard Setbacks Mr. Neumeister stated the wording in the staff report should read "Front setback line" instead of front property line. o Regular Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes - March 28, 2006 Page 9 Mayor Gamache wondered what the difference would be between the front porch and an addition onto the back of the home. Councilmember Trude thought a porch may look terrible in a neighborhood if it did not fit in with the surrounding homes and did not look like a part of the home. Mayor Gamache thought it would be ok to put on a front porch but they would need a way to control it. Councilmember Jacobson thought a porch may devalue the neighborhood if they allow this. Mr. Dickinson stated they could drop this and just go by a variance process. Councilmember Trude did not think this is a variance issue; it is a code issue. Do they want to allow front porches or not? They need to get some City approved plans for people who want to upgrade their homes in the City, like other cities. They could get a variance if they followed an approved City plan for a front porch. The Council thought they should get rid of any ideas for porches on the front and just look at the rear. The homeowner could still apply for a variance, which would need a hardship in order to get a porch. o Revision 82 - Dirt Bikes Councilmember Jacobson suggested they prohibit A TV and dirt bikes in R-2 through R-4 Districts, 2.5 acres or less. Councilmember Trude suggested adding area closer than five hundred feet to a residence. Mayor Gamache wondered if they should include the time limit of 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. The Council did not have a problem with including this. Miscellaneous - Detached garages on comer lots The third suggestion is the detached garage cannot be any closer than the extended line of the principal structure, not including the garage. Ibis would be more restrictive. Councilmember Orttel stated version three looks good. The rest of the Council agreed. Mr. Neumeister indicated they would write up some language and bring it back for review. Miscellaneous - Lighting as discussed in the encroachments section Councilmember Jacobson thought almost everyone has some type of a security light and all of them would be violations according to the revision. o Mr. Neumeister stated they should take the bold language off the front page paragraph and stop at security reasons. o Regular Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes - March 28, 2006 Page 10 LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYSIS Mr. Dickinson indicated this is informational, and ifindividuaI council members have questions to contact him. In the near future, he will provide the council with a final report outlining the costs a city would incur with its own police department. OTHER BUSINESS Grace Lutheran Portable Classrooms Mr. Dickinson stated Grace Lutheran indicated they need additional room for Sunday school classes and they would like to have two portable classrooms. Staff thought the best place for these would be alongside the parking lot. Councilmember Trude thought they would fit by the preschool. The Council would not mind if the portables were along the south or east area but they would not want them along Bunker Lake Boulevard. o Motion by Jacobson, Seconded by Orttel, to adjourn. Motion carried nmmimously. The meeting adjourned at 10:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan Osbeck, Recording Secretary o