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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFebruary 13, 2008 C IT Y o F NDOVE 0 REGULAR ANDOVER OPEN SPACE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING FEBRUARY 13, 2008 MINUTES The Regular Meeting of the Andover Open Space Advisory Commission was called to order by Chairman Deric Deuschle, February 13, 2008, 7:01 p.m., at the Andover City Hall, 1685 Crosstown Boulevard NW, Andover, Minnesota. Commissioners present: Gretchen Sabel, Jody Keppers, Jim 'Olson, Winslow Holasek, Bruce Perry and Kim Kovich Commissioners absent: None Also present: City Planner, Courtney Bednarz 'Others APPROVAL OF MINUTES 0 January 9, 2008 Motion by Kovich, seconded by Olson, to approve the minutes as presented. Motion carried on a 7 -ayes, O-nays, O-present, O-absent vote. Commissioner Perry thanked Chairman Deuschle and Commissioner Sabel for going to the League of Women's Voters meeting and reporting the status of what they do at the Open Space Advisory Commission. UPDATE FROM COUNCIL WORK SESSION Mr. Bednarz stated staff presented a progress report to the Council at their January 22nd work session. He conveyed several things the Council wanted to share with the Commission. Commissioner 'Olson stated he looked back at the July 11, 2007 meeting and it is the criteria for the 'Open Space which is what they use and the number one item from the criteria is the one that was morphed into Number Seven. He stated he did not have a huge problem with it being changed. Commissioner Kovich thought the Council was misled and this had nothing to do with W ACA laws. 0 Commissioner Perry wondered how Number Seven fit into Number Nine. Chairman Deuschle noted Numbers Seven and Eight were merged together. Mr. Bednarz explained the reasoning for the Council merging the numbers together. 0 Regular Open Space Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes - February 13, 2008 Page 2 Commissioner 'Olson wondered what the Council considered public access. Mr. Bednarz thought it would be being able to walk into it and seeing it. Commissioner 'Olson wondered if they would even be interested in land that did not have public access. He wondered if that was a code word for trails and parks. Mr. Bednarz stated the funds cannot be used for trails or active use parks and if they fmd a site which a trail could be put through, the funds would have to come from other funds. Commissioner Kovich stated he did not have a problem with changing the points but he did not like the idea of throwing out Number Seven because wetlands are already covered. Mr. Bednarz stated they can play with the list and it may change as they look at different properties. He thought they spent enough time looking at the list and thought they needed to move on and begin evaluating properties. Chairman Deuschle agreed and did not have a problem with losing Number Seven. He did not know if he wanted to lose the emphasis by having it in there. Commissioner Sabel thought in Number Eight of the criteria they should delete "buffer" and add 0 "land including or adjacent to". The Commission felt "protect" should not be removed from Number Eight. They also changed the following in Number Eight "Scoring based on width size of area and its ability to protect lakes streams an.d wetlands. These features. Additional scoring if the ffiHfef area is adjacent to area with the DNR Public Waters Inventory or Coon Creek." APPLICATION OF REVIEW CRITERIA TO STUDY AREA Mr. Bednarz stated staff has prepared information for nine study areas based on review of the natural resource inventory. The Commission is asked to review each of these areas at the meeting and suggest priority sites to pursue for the 2008 grant. Several sites will be necessary as not all property owners will be interested. Commissioner 'Olson thought Item #6 was a pretty weak area and they should not look at it at this time. Commissioner Keppers thought from the City's point of view it would be a high area to look at to preserve. Mr. Bednarz thought this area was important to the City to protect because of the creek and corridor. He noted there are no features currently on the land but it can be restored to its natural state. He stated the idea was to preserve the entire area along the creek corridor where possible. Chairman Deuschle thought it would behoove the City to purchase the area between the road and right of way along Bunker Lake Boulevard for their corridor and use the open space dollars in 0 other areas. The Commission discussed all nine areas and eliminated six before reviewing the final three for recommendation. 0 Regular Open Space Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes - February 13, 2008 Page 3 Commissioner Kovich thought before they could make a recommendation they would need to go out and look at each piece of land being considered and he would not feel comfortable making a recommendation without doing that. Commissioner Olson thought all of the properties along the Rum River should get high priority in the future because they should be protected. Open Space Study Area - Section 1 Commissioner Olson wondered why this would not go all the way to the lake. Commissioner Kovich thought a nice point for this piece of land is that Crosstown Boulevard is a good way to look at it and if they want support in the future, they need to pick a piece that is a high score. Chairman Deuschle thought they needed to have one piece of land on Rum River. He thought that was a high priority. 0 Motion by 'Olson, Seconded by Perry, to recommend the following areas for consideration of an initial grant application: 1. Section 1 with a total of 70/1 00 possible points. 2. South of Leeman Lake with a total of 95/1 00 possible points. 3. Section 11 with a total of 75/100 possible points. Motion carried on a 6-ayes, O-nays, I-present (Kovich), O-absent vote. Mr. Bednarz reviewed the next steps of the process with the Commission. OTHER BUSINESS a. Next Meeting - Joint City Council Meeting Mr. Bednarz noted there will be a joint meeting with the City Council on February 26, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. at the Council Workshop. b. March 2008 'Open Space Advisory Co~ssion Meeting. ;~ Chairman Deuschle thought the March 2008 meeting should focus on the grant application. 0 c. Three Parcels picked for Grant Application Commissioner Kovich stated they only have the recommendation of the staff on the three properties they selected and have not applied their own criteria to the selections. He indicated he 0 Regular Open Space Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes - February 13, 2008 Page 4 had an issue with this. He noted he did not disagree with any of the areas selected but thought they should apply the criteria to the areas. Mr. Bednarz asked Commissioner Kovich if he has ranked all the properties himself like other Commission members indicated they had. Commissioner Kovich stated he did not and thought they should discuss the criteria and possibly drive by the site. Chairman Deuschle thought they had enough justification with the points. He thought the order in which they are listed may change by further discussion but he thought the scores would closely match staff's and he felt comfortable with using those scores as justification. He stated he would not want to recommend anything for the grant without looking at the parcels. Commissioner Keppers thought the properties did need to be looked at more closely before the City takes any action on them but what they are doing at this point is cutting down the areas for contacting people and grant application. He thought this was a good start and was not too concerned about jumping into this. Commissioner Olson thought the criteria was a tool to be used in the overall evaluation process. 0 Commissioner Sabel wondered how the parcels were chosen by staff for Commission review. Mr. Bednarz reviewed how staff chose the parcels. Motion by Perry, Seconded by Olson, to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan 'Osbeck, Recording Secretary 0