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02/11/2008 - 29243CITY OF FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING FEBRUARY 11, 2008 The City Council meeting for the City of Fridley was called to order by Mayor Lund at 7:30 p.m. ROLL CALL: MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Lund Councilmember-at-Large Barnette Councilmember Saefke Councilmember Varichak Councilmember Bolkcom OTHERS PRESENT: William Burns, City Manager Fritz Knaak, City Attorney Scott Hickok, Community Development Director James Kosluchar, Public Works Director Julie Jones, Planning Coordinator Richard Pribyl, Finance Director APPROVAL OF PROPOSED CONSENT AGENDA: APPROVAL OF MINUTES: City Council Meeting of January 28, 2008 APPROVED. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Second Reading of an Ordinance Amending Chapter 205, Section 205.25, Related to Allowing a"Dog Day/Overnight Boarding" Use by a Special Use Permit in the S-3, Heavy Industrial Onaway Addition (Text Amendment Request, TA #07-02, by CMV Properties, LLC, for Camp Bow Wow) (Ward 3). William Burns, City Manager, stated this change would allow dog day and overnight boarding centers in the S-3 Onaway District. Council approved the text change authorizing this special use permit at their January 28 meeting. Staff recommends Council's approval the second and final reading of this ordinance. WAIVED THE READING OF THE ORDINANCE AND ADOPTED ORDINANCE NO. ON SECOND READING AND ORDERED PUBLICATION. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 2 2. Special Use Permit Request, SP #07-12, by CMV Properties, LLC, for Camp Bow Wow, to Allow a Dog Day/Overnight Boarding Facility in the S-3, Heavy Industrial Onaway Addition Zoning District, Generally Located at 7875 Beech Street N.E. (Ward 3). William Burns, City Manager, stated the request was made by CMV Properties on behalf of Camp Bow Wow. The location of the animal boarding facility for dogs is 7875 Beech Street. The lot consists of a little over half an acre, and the building contains 22,630 square feet. Interior space will include a lobby, reception area, lounge, dog interview room, 58 kennels, and 3 indoor play areas. The 3 indoor play areas will be connected to 3 outdoor areas for different sized dogs and dogs of different temperament. The proposed center meets the conditions contained in the proposed ordinance change. The facility is over 500 feet from any residential building. The play areas are to be enclosed by an 8-foot high vinyl fence, and the dogs will be kept inside at night. The Planning Commission gave their unanimous approval of the special use permit at their December 19 meeting. Staff recommends Council's approval subject to the follow seven stipulations. THIS ITEM WAS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA AND PLACED ON THE REGULAR AGENDA. 3. Receive the Minutes from the Planning Commission Meeting of January 16, 2008. Mayor Lund pointed out that on Page 9 of the minutes, the word "unanimously" at the top of the page should be removed. RECEIVED AS CORRECTED. 4. Approve Extension of Variance Request, VAR #06-01, by RSP Architects, for Totino-Grace High School, to Increase the Height of a Portion of the Totino-Grace High School Building from 30 Feet to 48 Feet for the Renovation of the School Auditorium, Generally Located at 1350 Gardena Avenue N.E. (Ward 2). William Burns, City Manager, stated this variance was approved by in January 2006. An extension was approved last year. Totino-Grace states they are still trying to raise funds for the auditorium addition, and are requesting another one-year extension. The variance would allow them to extend the height of their auditorium from 30 feet to 48 feet. Staff recommends Council's approval. Councilmember Bolkcom stated there is going to be another extension, so that would be 2009. She asked if they were reviewing the stipulations, because they go back to 2006. Scott Hickok, Community Development Director, replied they will be looking at the stipulations as they move forward to get their building permit. From talking with the representatives from Totino-Grace, it looks like this upcoming fall they would like to get the project underway. Councilmember Barnette asked if letters are sent out every time. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 3 Mr. Hickok said they were. Councilmember Barnette asked if we get any response to the letters sent to the neighbors. Mr. Hickok replied they do not send letters to the neighbors. They did send a letter to the school, letting them know that the extension was almost up on their variance request. Councilmember Barnette asked if they notified the neighbors. Mr. Hickok replied, no, they do not. APPROVED. 5. Resolution Receiving Final Plans and Specifications and Ordering Advertisement for Bids: 2008 Neighborhood Street Improvement Project No. ST 2008-01. William Burns, City Manager, stated the project includes reconstruction of 4.2 miles of City streets at an estimated cost of $3.2 million. The reconstruction will occur in four areas of the City. This is the biggest project we have had, and it includes portions of 39 City streets. Staff recommends Council's approval. APPROVED. 6. Claims (135415-135618). APPROVED. 7. Licenses. APPROVED THE LICENSES AS SUBMITTED AND AS ON FILE. APPROVAL OF PROPOSED CONSENT AGENDA: Councilmember Bolkcom asked to remove Item No. 2. MOTION by Councilmember Barnette to approve the consent agenda as presented with the removal of Item 2. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA: MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to approve the agenda with the addition of Item No. 2 from the consent agenda. Seconded by Councilmember Saefke. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 4 UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 2. Special Use Permit Request, SP #07-12, by CMV Properties, LLC, for Camp Bow Wow, to Allow a Dog Day/Overnight Boarding Facility in the S-3, Heavy Industrial Onaway Addition Zoning District, Generally Located at 7875 Beech Street N.E. (Ward 3). Councilmember Bolkcom stated at the last meeting she asked for some studies. She understands from Mr. Hickok that there were no actual studies. She asked staff if they could take this back to Brad Sielaff and see if there is anything else he thinks they may need to do. MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to approve Special Use Permit Request, SP #07-12, by CMV Properties, LLC, for Camp Bow Wow, with the following seven stipulations: 1. The petitioner shall obtain a building permit prior to interior modifications. 2. The petitioner shall obtain a sign permit prior to installation of any new signage. 3. The petitioner shall remove bituminous pavement where the outdoor play area is to be located. 4. The ventilation system needs to be designed so that no odors or organisms will spread between wards or to the outside air. 5. No outdoor storage of equipment or materials is permitted without first obtaining a special use permit. 6. The petitioner shall comply with Minnesota Rules, Chapter 1306 for sprinkler installation. 7. Special Use Permit to be reviewed within one year of the issuance of the certificate of occupancy to ensure compatibility. Seconded by Councilmember Barnette. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. OPEN FORUM: PUBLIC HEARING: 8. Consideration of an On-Sale Intoxicating Liquor License for Sandee's Sports Bar and Grill, LLC, Located at 6490 Central Avenue N.E. (Ward 2). FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 5 MOTION by Councilmember Varichak to waive the reading of the public hearing notice and open the public hearing. Seconded by Councilmember Bolkcom. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE PUBLIC HEARING OPENED AT 7:42 P.M. Richard Pribyl, Finance Director, stated the business will operate much the same as it has in the past but with a different operator. The Public Safety Department has reviewed the request and found no reason to deny the request. The applicant for the liquor license is Scott Larson. Staff has identified issues early in the process for Mr. Larson that would pose a problem with the eventual issuance of the liquor license. Mr. Larson asked that we proceed forward with his request for this public hearing. Staff was made aware in November that Sandee's Restaurant was part of a bankruptcy proceeding. Staff was also made aware that the owner of the property had yet to pay $80,000 in property taxes for the years 2005, 2006, and 2007. Pursuant to City ordinance, this type of delinquency would delay the issuance of a license until the property taxes had been paid. City building inspection staff visited the site last week and also found construction that had taken place without permits. On the same day, City staff also found high levels of carbon monoxide present within the building. A stop work order was issued, and the building was actually posted as inhabitable at that time. In order for any work to proceed on the interior, all buildings permits and fees will need to be paid. All plans and specifications will need to be submitted. They will need to be approved by the building inspection department, the Fire Marshall, and the Anoka County Health and Environmental Services Department. Staff does recommend holding the public hearing taking necessary testimony, and continuing the public hearing until staff has been satisfied the required actions have been taken by the owner to acquire a certificate of occupancy and also pay taxes. Councilmember Varichak asked Mr. Larson for an update. Scott Larson said it is his understanding that Xcel should be at the building sometime this week to hook up the power. Also, Town Center is going to have temporary wiring for HVAC systems and make sure that is working. They hope electricians will be out some time this week to get a permit to work inside, finish up the wiring and see what else was destroyed. There was a break- in about a year ago and copper wiring was taken, so that is why everything is kind of backed up right now. It is a slow process. He said he has been talking with Town Center to get this thing going. The mechanical guys met with the inspectors last week At that time he did contact a mechanical outfit who told him they have to go back and figure out how much more it is going to cost to do the plumbing and do some more work on the HVAC system. Mr. Larson will then present that back to Town Center on how much more it will cost to get that done. Once he gets the okay he will be getting the permits to start work on the building. Councilmember Varichak asked Mr. Hickok about the uninhabitable sign on the restaurant. Mr. Hickok replied it is unfit for human habitation until CO levels are brought down and certain things have been done to meet the Fire Marshall's requirements. Then they will need to get permits to proceed with work from this point forward. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 6 Councilmember Varichak asked when he thought that would happen. Mr. Hickok replied, it would only be speculation right now but, as Mr. Larson has indicated, they do have a plan to move forward and good communication with the inspection staff will be key for that happening. He is optimistic as is Mr. Larson that he will be able to get back in there and get back to work. Mayor Lund stated he is not going to say "yes" to it until those things occur. Mr. Larson's biggest problem may be with Town Center Development by virtue of the fact they filed bankruptcy. He asked Mr. Larson if he understood that somebody had to pay the taxes. He asked if the water bill was in arrears as well. Mr. Pribyl replied as far as he knows it is all current. The utilities have actually been out of there he thinks for about a year. Councilmember Barnette asked if a company that is filing bankruptcy lease a portion of their property. Fritz Knaak, City Attorney, replied it depends on what kind of bankruptcy they are in. Normally, a trustee would have to approve any action taken. Councilmember Bolkcom asked if Mr. Larson was aware of the food-to-liquor ratio. Mr. Larson replied, yes. Councilmember Bolkcom asked Mr. Larson if he has ever owned or operated a restaurant of any type. Mr. Larson said he had not. Councilmember Bolkcom asked Mr. Larson if he understands that they have to apply for a manager's license. Mr. Larson replied, yes. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she is a little confused about the building permits because different people are coming in but there are no building permits. She asked if any had been pulled. Mr. Hickok said it is his understanding that the contractors need to go in and assess what they need to do to make a plan. Once a plan is prepared it will be submitted to inspection staff and permits will be obtained. Councilmember Bolkcom said it is her understanding that Mr. Larson plans on staying open until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 7 Mr. Larson replied 1:00 a.m. on Monday through Wednesday and then Thursday, Friday, and Saturday unti12:00 a.m. Councilmember Bolkcom asked Mr. Knaak if this might actually take a while before it comes back to Council because of the back taxes and bankruptcy. Attorney Knaak replied, yes, unless they chose to waive that for some reason; and he has not heard any indication as to why there would be a reason to do that here. Mr. Pribyl stated he would say, based on the circumstances on this particular license, it would be staff's recommendation just to continue the public hearing so they can bring information back to Council when it actually progresses to a point they can actually put closure to this. Should this actually become a protracted situation, they would bring it back and have Council table it at that time. Attorney Knaak stated in a case like this where you really are going to be relying on the information on the record to make their decision and a substantial amount of that information, and everybody agrees has not appeared yet, the appropriate action to take would be to continue the public hearing. MOTION by Commissioner Varichak to continue the public hearing until an undetermined date. Seconded by Commissioner Bolkcom. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. NEW BUSINESS: 9. Receive Public Comments and Authorize Staff to Distribute the Draft 2030 Comprehensive Plan for the City of Fridley to Other Jurisdictions. Julie Jones, Planning Coordinator, stated she is pleased to bring them the latest edition of the draft Comprehensive Plan. She appreciates all the time they have spent the last few weeks going through it. As they have probably heard from staff a number of times in the various discussions they have had about this Plan, when they started out this process they thought this was going to be a simple update. The City did a very thorough job of creating a Comprehensive Plan ten years ago, and staff thought they could do a little bit of updating of tables and charts and that would be all they needed to do. However, as they got into it further, they realized they wanted to do a lot more extensive work than they had set out to do which was challenging because they were doing all of the work internally with existing staf£ Tonight she brings this Plan before them with complete confidence that they can complete this plan for them. It is not something that was created by an outside agency. There were a total of 28 staff inembers involved in creating the content of this Plan, besides staff involved in doing some of the typing, editing and printing of it. . FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 8 Ms. Jones stated there are a few changes they have made since the public hearing. One of them is removing an action step that was to survey employees of some of the City's largest employers, asking them why they do not live in Fridley. There were some comments from people who thought it was not going to be real cost effective to do that, staff might not get real answers, and there are a lot of factors that go into people's decisions as to where they live. Ms. Jones stated another change they made was to modify the pedestrian section to include some reference to the east side of the community. There are several references in the Plan about creating safer pedestrian and bike connections on the west side of the City. However, they were neglecting to mention the east side of the City, which also has challenges with it being somewhat disconnected because of Highway 65. So they added some language about that. Ms. Jones said they also modified language to more clearly state how they want to do a more comprehensive study of both walking pedestrian, and biking access through the City. They want to do a comprehensive study about what the needs are, prioritize those needs, and then look at some available funding to meet those needs. Ms. Jones stated although not really labeled in this version of the Plan, they did attach the results of the telephone survey which is mentioned several times in the Plan. Ms. Jones stated there were miscellaneous typos. They also added more photographs in the Plan. Ms. Jones stated she wanted to clarify one of the action steps there has been a lot of discussion about. That is the concept of the 57th Avenue bridge over the railroad tracks. Some people have criticized this action step. The whole concept is really to secure an easement on vacant land should that overpass be a possibility in the future. They hate to bypass the opportunity if funding could become available for this idea and not have an easement secured. The physical feasibility of putting a bridge through there has already been studied. The City Council did approve an expenditure to look at that a couple of years ago with some leftover funds from another project. So the project is feasible. This concept really needs to be in the Plan if they really want to try and secure federal, state, or county funding for this idea in the future. Staff agrees completely with a lot of information they heard from folks that it is going to be a very expensive undertaking to do something like this. However, staff does continue to contend that this access across the tracks will improve our emergency response time in the City and it will significantly increase property values in the area, so they continue to include it in the Plan and feel it is an important feature. Ms. Jones stated another thing she wanted to mention that came out in the public hearing was one of our Planning Commission members mentioned that in the public water supply chapter staff should put some information about our most recent drinking water quality information which goes into the City's newsletter. Staff was going to incorporate that chapter or put it as an attachment to the chapter, but then realized that changes every year. Since that document is available on the website and is in the City's newsletter every year, they decided not to put it in the Plan. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 9 Ms. Jones stated the overall focus of the Comprehensive Plan is that it builds upon Fridley's connection to the core city of Minneapolis. Our focus is on reducing our reliance on the automobile. This is something that is really new from the last plan. It is something the Metropolitan Council requires, which they think really makes a lot of sense. It creates opportunities for new retail options, as well as looking at redevelopment opportunities for some of our existing retail sites. It also creates opportunities for new housing types. In the Plan, there are some opportunities for new housing types, particularly senior housing. It strives to improve the many maj or corridors in the City by working more with the County and MnDOT. It strives to protect our natural resources. There is a whole new sustainability section in this Plan that was not in the last one. Also, it also supports staff's desire to make Fridley a great place to live, work, and do business. Ms. Jones stated they are looking for Council's approval tonight to forward this Plan to 17 surrounding jurisdictions, which includes surrounding cities, the school districts, the County transportation people, MnDOT, and the watershed district. The City needs to give them six months to review the Plan by law. Staff will then bring the draft Plan back to the City Council with any changes for their approval by resolution before it gets submitted to the Metropolitan Council. Staff anticipates that will occur at the August 25 City Council meeting. By September 10 they will want to submit the draft Plan to the Metropolitan Council for their review. Once they say the Plan is acceptable, Council will then be asked to adopt it as the official Comprehensive Plan for the City. Ms. Jones stated in a cover memo in the Council packet they mention the public water supply and sewer chapters. Staff has discovered formatting differences on how they submitted the chapter, and what Metropolitan Council has in their website as to how they want it submitted. Staff has taken a closer look at it, and they think they are very close to providing them with the information they need. It is in a different format and so they are going to try submitting just those chapters to them. At the same time, they are submitting the whole document to the surrounding jurisdictions to see if they really need to make those changes or not. If they do, then that will be incorporated into the revised document to be seen later in August. Staff does not anticipate any change in any of the action steps in the Plan. It is more or less just the format of the data and how it is presented. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she also wanted to thank all of the people who attended the forums. On Page 3 it stays they adopted the Plan on January 28 so that has to be changed to the l lth if that is the true date. On Page 6, the fourth paragraph down, it says "growth started in Fridley in the 1940's but slowed down during World I and World II." On Page 12, she asked which one is the orange section. Mayor Lund stated that is supposed to be the cream color. Councilmember Bolkcom asked if the color white equates to parks because it says, park, vacant vs. right-of-way, etc., are those parks? Ms. Jones replied the white is right-of-way. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 10 Mayor Lund asked if the parks are even listed. Ms. Jones replied the white includes the parks, too. They just did not want to include the open space land in the calculations for the breakdown of residential and commercial/industrial. Councilmember Bolkcom stated it does not show the parks so that is confusing to her. She asked if someone could go over that. Mayor Lund asked if the parks are to be included in the land mass area. Mr. Hickok, Community Development Director, said no. Mayor Lund stated so you almost have to identify the parks separately. Right now it looks like the bulk of the public parks are not white. It is in with the residential, yellow. Councilmember Bolkcom stated on Page 17 is that all in acres? Ms. Jones replied, that is correct. Councilmember Bolkcom stated up on Page 18 it talks about how much multi-family residential we have. She asked if this was higher than in other communities. It also talks about the vacant land owned by Burlington Northern. Is that all single-family residential? Ms. Jones replied, yes. Councilmember Bolkcom stated on the bottom on Page 43, it says the Housing and Redevelopment Authority agreed to pay for such a study and it was scheduled to be completed during the summer of 2007. Is that referring to the study the two interns did? If it is a study, it should probably be included in here, correct? Ms. Jones stated, yes, that is the housing conditions study. Councilmember Bolkcom asked if there is a reference to that in the Plan. Ms. Jones replied there is a greater description of it later in the chapter. Councilmember Bolkcom commented the way it reads was that it "is" completed but should say it "was" to be completed. On Page 58, there is a typo, the spelling of "contaminated" site. On Page 62, they might want to say the Fire Department actually sent out non-homestead letters. On Page 63, the third paragraph from the bottom, the word should be "encouraged," not "encourage." On Page 64 the action steps sounded good, and she thinks they are very positive. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she sees action steps but asked if indicates somewhere later who is going to do it. She saw a lot of references made that the City will continue to work towards and will promote this, but does that come at a later date and they do not actually include any of those? FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 11 Ms. Jones replied, to answer that she would look to Chapter 14, the implementation plans where they do not necessarily say how they are going to do it; but they do put a timeline as to what they are going to do first and lay out kind of the priority of those action steps. Councilmember Bolkcom stated on Page 65, with respect to the action step under No. 6, she is not sure the City "needs" to amend that S-1 District to allow redevelopment that is multi-family. She thinks that action step is something that should be investigated and needs discussion with the property owners, both single-family and multi-family. She is a little concerned when they say they "need" to amend. Sometimes that is where they can get in trouble with things that are in the Plan. Councilmember Bolkcom stated at the bottom of Page 99 and Page 100, it is a rather novel approach that we are just going to quit maintaining the county and state roadways without compensation. She did like where it says we are going to meet with them, but feels it is a little drastic to say we are going to just discontinue it. Personally she thinks it does reflect on our community, and she thinks most people do not have an idea those should be maintained by the county and state. Mayor Lund stated this goes back to even a couple of years ago when they met with Carol Molnau, our Commissioner of Transportation. He suggested this very same thing some time ago that, if they cannot meet their code requirements, the City should treat them as being in violation of the City codes as far as maintenance. Quite frankly why are they in many respects above the law? They do not have to abide by our local ordinances. He would like to see out of the 17 other jurisdictions, how many are going to pull that out of there and take exception to it. Councilmember Bolkcom stated that was one thing that was very loud and clear at the visioning meetings, that people wanted us to clean up our entrance. She thinks people perceive University Avenue as one of the big entrances into our community. Councilmember Bolkcom stated on Page 104, under 7.1, Existing Parks, Trails, and Open Space, this was a little confusing. On Page 116, under 17.10, the action step, she was a little surprised that we have that many of our park facilities that are old and in need of upgrade. She thought most of all of our parks have been upgraded, although she knows they need to continue to upgrade them. Councilmember Bolkcom stated on Page 185, related to Oak Glen Creek, she thinks there should be some mention that there is a fair amount of erosion and there are some neighbors very concerned about their properties and the back parts of their yards dropping in there. She is a little concerned there is not more mention of that. Mayor Lund suggested maybe it should include some action step in there. Councilmember Bolkcom stated on Page 198, under "Fridley Community Center" she would like to see more discussion related to how much of the Community Center is used. We spend a lot of money there every year, and she wonders how much of it is used in the evening. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 12 Councilmember Bolkcom said she thinks the citizens' survey should be included because it is very worthwhile. It was very interesting to her see some of the breakdown according to where people live, how old they are, etc. William Burns, City Manager, said it does two things: it gives you longevity and you can see how things have changed, and it tells you how the responses are divided by subgroups. Councilmember Bolkcom referred to the proposed bridge. She thinks as far as a response team, our Fire Department can get on I-694 pretty quick She understands why they want to have it, it makes sense. She is a little leery that they are saying they would like to purchase easements on that property. She is thinking of all the other things that need to be done. Maybe it should be better worded, and they need to weigh it against some of the other things. She thinks about all the other things the HRA has going on. It would be nice to see a feasibility study, but what are the costs of the easements going to be? Maybe part of the statement should be something related to the study and getting some kind of cost estimates. Councilmember Bolkcom asked whether the City normally gets a lot of comments back from the other jurisdictions. Ms. Jones replied they are not expecting a lot. When they have done minor Comprehensive Plan amendments recently, they do not hear much back They are certainly planning on looking at everybody else's plans. Councilmember Bolkcom asked if the Rice Creek Watershed District is one of the jurisdictions staff sends the Plan to. Do they give comments back? Ms. Jones replied, yes. That is a little different situation because they actually have to sign off that they have approved our local surface water management plan. Tom Myhra, 6360 Able Street NE, stated he would have preferred a public hearing. He kept saying are you giving the staff enough direction. When he listened tonight, he did not hear anything about a lot of direction. He does not mean step by step, he means the urbanization. One of the last things said was staff hopes to make Fridley a great place to live. You have to preserve it. They spent a lot of time and reading Pages 1-3 and found some things that bothered them. On Page 2, under the 1.1 process it says engaged in a series of housing forum meetings designed to analyze the chapter of housing, etc. There is no change in housing chapter results in the housing forum. Right from the beginning it talks about the idea that Fridley is a fine city, we have to keep it a fine city, and perhaps the main thing is our present housing stock Regarding the forum, it said participation at the first meeting was good and it has dropped of£ Community discussion between people did not happen until the fourth meeting. At that meeting not much was decided. The most important thing talked about was maintaining Fridley housing. He does not really see that in the Plan so far, and he does not think much attention is given to that. Mr. Myhra stated he hopes Mr. Hickok has taken out anything related to educating and re- educating people. When he is told that he needs education about housing, he resents that. He FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 13 also resents the Concerned Citizens of Fridley is called a private interest group. That is really not fair. We are homeowners who feel strongly about Fridley being a great place to live. Mr. Myhra stated the concept of utilization for Fridley raises concern with the Concerned Citizens of Fridley. We need to focus on being next to Minneapolis. Councilmember Bolkcom asked for a copy of Mr. Myhra's handout. Mayor Lund stated he thinks Ms. Reynolds brought up at the last meeting about the concern of the technology, embracing urbanization. He asked Mr. Myhra is there was a specific page to refer to? Mr. Myhra stated he thinks it was on the very first line. It has not been rural since 1949. It is a suburb. It said we can choose to embrace the fact that we are a first-ring suburb or we can keep a rural feel to it. It is not a rural feel. It is a suburban feel to it. Mayor Lund asked Mr. Myhra with his education, does urban mean a significant difference from suburban? Mr. Myhra replied, yes, and the difference is that multi-housing row housing, high population density, and the suburban is just the opposite. That is when people move out is to give them more space. Councilmember Saefke stated he presumes that he is looking at Attachment E? Because in his book it says the pivotal point in Fridley's history? Is that what he is reading off? It reads we can choose to embrace the fact that we are a first-ring suburb or we can fight it and keep a rural feel. It does not say anything about urbanization. Councilmember Bolkcom stated it is on the back of the page. There is a little slide that says 2003 draft Plan embraces urbanized potential. Mr. Myhra stated the main thing is the owner-occupied. Columbia Heights is 70/30. We are 63.5 or something like that. Ms. Jones stated she saw no danger to make that even smaller. He says a balance is 50/50. Councilmember Barnette says, no, the balance is what we say it is. They say the balance they should strive for is 70 percent owner-occupied, and 30 percent rental. Councilmember Bolkcom stated if he reads the housing, it does not say that we are going to try and increase it. She is not sure what he means by decreasing the smaller number. She thinks they did a very fine job in the housing section talking about we need to look at what our density is and whether we need to stay in the Livable Communities Act. She thinks there is a lot of information in there that they need to really study. Mr. Myhra stated he is talking about the City View redevelopment. Presumably that would provide for denser housing. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 14 Mayor Lund asked Mr. Myhra when talking about these percentages, does that relate to density no matter what type of housing it is? Or does it relate to them wanting to see 70/30 on single- family, detached homes? Or are we talking about 70/30 on rental housing vs. home ownership? Home ownership does not necessarily equate to single-family detached homes. Homeownership can be higher densities of townhomes, condominiums and that type of thing. Mr. Myhra replied first there will be very little more single-family housing. If there is going to be more, it will have to come in multi-family housing. With that are more people. For instance, with Brandes Place, you could have put in four single-family homes there. There are 16 families there. That is what he is talking about density. One is tied to another. Councilmember Saefke asked what about senior housing. If someone decides to build an assisted living place for seniors, they could house 50 seniors in one building. That is high density. Does that count? Mr. Myhra replied, yes, that increases it. Councilmember Saefke stated the thing they hear from senior citizens is they would like a place to live. Ms. Jones talks about life cycle housing in the plan. For instance, if he could not afford the rising property taxes on a four-bedroom home, was a single widow, did not have any income and worked a good career and could not afford to live in the home any longer and had to sell it, he would want to buy something where he could eliminate a lot of that physical work and yet have a decent place to live. Mr. Myhra asked if he would be interested in moving to the facility by Wal-Mart. Councilmember Saefke stated he has been in some of them and they have both senior affordable housing, subsidized, and regular rental ones. Mr. Myhra stated he understands there are vacancies yet. If you really want this for seniors, if you could then somehow get some single-family detached where it is all taken care o£ They have it in Mounds View, Spring Lake Park, and Elk River. Councilmember Barnette stated they have the same thing at Christenson Crossing. Mr. Myhra stated, yes, that would be the same type of thing. Mr. Myhra stated regarding the City View project, it seems to him if they move with taking the land then you are almost saying, yes, we are going to do it some time. If the HRA gets that land, are they going to turn around and put in single-family homes like they did along the highway? What kind of money are we talking about? It just does not seem like the way for us. A couple of reasons are we could have an eating place on the river but now with Sandee's maybe that takes care of that. We could have more housing for people using the Northstar Corridor. Are we going to have a station and how much is that going to cost? Do we really want our housing patterned up to accommodate the railroad? They did not think so. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 15 Mr. Myhra stated Council has repeatedly told him they would never use eminent domain to take from one private enterprise and give to another private enterprise. Mayor Lund replied he does not recall this Council ever saying never. They have not done it. It is very limited. Mr. Myhra asked does he think that is alright. To take from private to private. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she thinks it is a great idea for the Northstar Corridor area where they are looking at eminent domain to purchase the property because she thinks that is the only way they are going to get that property. He has already told them that is what he wants. Councilmember Barnette commented, and it is for a public purpose. Mr. Myhra stated their stand is if that is what he wants, he guessed they will not argue about it. Mayor Lund stated he hears what he is saying about eminent domain and he does not think it should be used haphazardly and often. However, he thinks it is a tool that should be usable for very, very limited reasons and that is really what the law is. Mr. Myhra stated then maybe what the Plan should talk about is what is a blighted house in Fridley. Councilmember Bolkcom stated there is a state law. Mr. Myhra stated there is a state law but it is wide open pretty much except you have to declare it blighted. So maybe your plan should say here is what we would consider blighted. He knows this Council is good about this, but what about the next Council? Mr. Myhra stated he would state the goal differently. Why don't we talk about it being to work towards home ownership? It is a nationwide goal. Mr. Myhra stated we talk about senior citizens but the community director from Roseville or Rosemount said senior citizens do not like to be stacked. They always use the word "warehouse." He is talking about the development across from Sandee's. In the Plan it says it would be possible to get in two developments, and they both went belly-up. It seems to him they should do a little questioning with people who come with land use plans and say, where is the money coming from. Councilmember Bolkcom asked Mr. Myhra about the senior citizens comment, does he actually have a study that they do not want to be stacked? When her mother-in-law was alive she lived in an apartment complex. Mr. Myhra replied he has an advantage on her, he is a senior citizen, and he talks with senior citizens. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 16 Councilmember Bolkcom stated her mother-in-law lived in some wonderful apartments called Meadowood Shores in New Brighton. She and a lot of other people enj oyed living there and there were a lot of activities there. Mr. Myhra replied maybe rather than talk with the workers in Fridley, maybe that is what they really actually need to do is ask what senior citizens want. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she did think they heard from a fair amount of seniors at one of the meetings and they talked about different types of housing they would live in and continue to live in Fridley. Mr. Myhra stated the Mayor at one time told him financially-wise you could not take, for example, the Columbia Arena site and turned that into senior housing because there is no way that could be made comfortable. Councilmember Barnette replied he thought he said that. Councilmember Bolkcom stated that Mr. Myhra might also look at the citizen survey that was done related to seniors. It is very telling to her, Question Nos. 93 and 94. Mr. Myhra asked what it said. Councilmember Bolkcom replied, ten years from now do you expect to be physically remaining in your existent home? 16 percent said no, 81 percent said, yes. Then it went onto say what type of housing would you prefer? One-level town home or cottage, 20 percent; 37 percent wanted an assisted living complex; 7 percent, a smaller single-family home; condominium in a senior cooperative housing project, 23 percent; and 1 percent said nothing. Some of this is based on studies done by very credible people. Mr. Myhra stated he begs to differ with her in the building, it is not done because that is what seniors want, but because that is what will make money. Mayor Lund stated would not the private market forces say we are not going to continue to build these things. Mr. Myhra replied if that is all that is available to seniors and they can no longer walk up the steps, then probably, yes, they will be forced to take this sort of thing. Mayor Lund replied if he was a developer/builder, would not the market tell him? They build it because there is a demand for it. Mr. Myhra replied not always. He has a pretty good authority the DeMello Place folded because they could not get enough senior citizens applying ahead of time to get it started. The units were not getting sold. We have a lot of senior citizens and we need to find out what they want. Many times they find the seniors do not stay in Fridley because their kids are living out of Fridley. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 17 Mayor Lund stated he hears from so many seniors who have moved out of Fridley because they did not have a housing choice. There was nothing available in Fridley without a lot of steps, etc. Councilmember Barnette stated he thinks these projects were not successful because of financing. The new housing in St. Anthony where Apache Plaza used to be has been very successful and there is a lot of senior housing there. Mr. Myhra stated the last time he was there he saw a lot of vacancies. Maybe that was because of the housing market also. Councilmember Varichak stated that is exactly what the DeMello project was, maybe a bad choice of financing but the market went sour and, therefore, the project went sour. Mr. Myhra stated what they need to do is come up with something, and it is save Fridley housing. Maybe they could say, discover Fridley again for the first time. Maybe the City could come up with a brochure to give to realtors and send it to any place where young families might be. Say in there, it is an excellent community in which to raise children. It is a City that has many, many jobs. Where you live in Fridley, your children would be within three blocks of a neighborhood park It has a highly recognized nature center. It is a City with many health- related facilities. It has a hospital, clinic, and medical expertise. Mayor Lund stated he uses that many times when he talks to people about the benefits of Fridley. Mr. Myhra stated it is a community with a City with a school system that has nationally recognized staff inembers. It is a City with a Neighborhood Watch program. It is a city with 16 places of worship. It is a city with four school districts and four private schools. There are six major firms. It has two businesses that do million-dollar business every year. It is located in the center of two major highways, five county roads, and miles of paved streets and gutters. It is a City that is before the State for the Northstar Corridor. It is a City that has city and school district newsletters that are informative, well-written, and attractive publications. It is a City with very a active teaching and learning studio arts center built in 1847. He referred to St. Louis Park who is similar to Fridley that has started a program something like, discover St. Louis Park again. Mayor Lund stated about 90 percent of the things Mr. Myhra highlighted about the benefits of Fridley, he uses on numerous occasions when he speaks with the Convention of Tourism Bureau. They also have a number of those things Mr. Myhra stated highlighting Fridley when they promote it in the Visit Twin Cities North each year when the convention of the Tourism Bureau meets here and collectively has busloads of realtors. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she thinks a lot of people, including people in their own community, are not aware of the programs. She is concerned that they have 400 plus non- homesteaded homes and those are rentals because of the housing market. She thinks they are all concerned about rental housing and maintaining those house. She thinks people who are thinking of moving here are looking at crime rates, the schools, etc., and those are very, very FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 18 important. She thinks the remodeling fair coming up is another place for people to look at the opportunities in the City, such as the recycling program, etc. Maybe we need to put things, such as the ramblers, in the action steps in the Plan. They have to convince people that it is important to live closer to the City, not being in the congestion and traffic. We have this older home, but it is a quality home. If we need to remodel it, there are opportunities in Fridley to do that. Mr. Myhra stated they need to get that into some kind of a compact message that is said again and again. Mayor Lund asked Mr. Myhra for clarification of a statement he made at the Planning Commission meeting. He made a statement that there is no consensus on a housing maintenance code but the code is of utmost importance. Is he saying that is something he would promote and that they should adopt a stronger maintenance code? Mr. Myhra replied, absolutely. He also realizes we do not have a lot of spare money. A1 Stahlberg, 8099 Riverview Terrace, read a newspaper clip from Columbia Heights about the removal of grass, snow, junk vehicles, etc. They are talking about expediting it from a 30 to 45 day wait to a 4-day wait period. Four days. That is called "getting the job done." What he hears is you have to find them, write them up, and then there is a 10 or 20-day wait, then you go to court if they dispute it, and who knows when the court date is and pretty soon the snow is flying. Mayor Lund stated he does not see how this relates to the Comprehensive Plan? Does he want them to incorporate Columbia Heights' methodology? Mr. Stahlberg replied, no, but they were talking about housing maintenance. We do not have housing maintenance in Fridley. Councilmember Bolkcom replied but we are working on it. Councilmember Barnette stated we do have a regulation on junk cars and it does work. Mr. Stahlberg stated he walked through his neighborhood, and he saw about 3 of them down one street. Councilmember Barnette asked if was talking about cars that looked bad. Mayor Lund stated he is not disputing that Mr. Stahlberg may have a legitimate gripe. We have talked about these car issues before. They will certainly give consideration to his comments about what Columbia Heights is doing. This is a policy change and has nothing to do with the Comprehensive Plan. He told Mr. Stahlberg if he sees something as a concerned citizen that he thinks is a violation of Code, all he has to do is contact himself, his councilmember, or City staff and give them an address. Dr. Burns stated we have a very aggressive code enforcement program. They are going to be writing an article now on the code enforcement efforts from 2007 for the next newsletter. He FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 19 would stack Fridley's code enforcement effort up against Columbia Heights any day. He does not think Mr. Stahlberg knows what he is talking about or being fair with what he is talking about. Take a look at the number of junk cars Fridley has removed, the number of complaints we have addressed, and the number of outside storage issues we have addressed. Julie Jones has done a fantastic job with special use permits on commercial property, on junkyards, and on clearing those up in Fridley. Mayor Lund asked Mr. Stahlberg what his Comprehensive Plan issues were. Mr. Stahlberg replied that was it. Speed up the housing maintenance. Mayor Lund commented on Mr. Stahlberg's issue he mentioned at the Planning Commission on the Comprehensive Plan, this kind of relates with the bikeway/walkway issues. He has seen tonight an e-mail from another person talking about walkable communities and complained repeatedly about not plowing the sidewalks, the bikeways, pathway and asphalt trail system. Mr. Stahlberg made the comment, that it was about money, and it is. The reason why there has been a hold on the maintenance code is we cannot come to an agreement quite frankly about where the additional money going to come from. If we have a stricter maintenance code, we will probably need somebody full-time to manage that. That would require another staff person, and we would probably take some heat about spending more taxpayers' dollars. We cannot plow those asphalt trails with the existing equipment that we have. Councilmember Bolkcom stated it is actually in the Comprehensive Plan about the issues related to people standing in the street waiting for buses, and there is some action plans related to that. She asked Dr. Burns, when the housing maintenance code will come before the City Council? Mr. Hickok replied, it will be at the Planning Commission on March 19 and will be before the City Council on April 14. If they concur with having the first reading and the public hearing the same night, they would like to suggest the first reading on April 14 and a second reading on April 28. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she does differ with Mayor Lund in that she thinks they can start the housing maintenance code without additional staf£ They do have an intern coming in the summer. Maybe they cannot do everything the first year but, if we have a code, there are some things they can do with the existing staff we have and with the intern. Mayor Lund stated we are going to take on some maintenance issues and are trying to incorporate it little by little. Also, Mr. Stahlberg made some comments that they are wasting money with the Welcome to Fridley signs. Mr. Stahlberg stated and the parks. Mayor Lund stated the Comprehensive Plan tells him that those funds by and large were raised by donations, not by taxpayer dollars. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 20 Mr. Stahlberg asked where the money was going to come to repaint them. Mayor Lund replied the City would have to maintain them. Councilmember Bolkcom stated as part of the visioning meetings, people asked to have those. She hears more positive things related to those signs, the park signs, and the neighborhood signs. It was one of the things that came out of the visioning meetings and people were very adamant about how they would like to have an entrance and they liked those that they saw in other communities. That is way back when we celebrated our SOth year. Councilmember Saefke stated he thinks the signs go right along with Mr. Myhra's suggestion for the positive aspect for the City of Fridley. Those are very attractive when you are coming into the City and you know where you are at, along with the parks. Mr. Stahlberg stated sure, there are a lot of things that people like but there is the maintenance and you keep adding the things but nobody is talking about the cost of maintenance. Regarding the mention of where we are going to get the money for the paths. First of all you do not start another program, like the City View, to make more bike paths which are very minor compared to the condemnation of the housing or the eminent domain that you would have to take out on Seventh Street to get to 57th. They talk about buying more equipment to clean these paths, no, you have the sweepers for the ice rinks, they could use those and there is that V-plow you use for the sidewalks, or just the pickup trucks with their plows and just angle them. This year we did not have snow for 1 to 1'/z months. So if they would have done it at the end of December they would have been done until a week or two ago. It is not like grass. Pam Reynolds, 1241 Norton Avenue NE, referred to Page 42, Chapter 5, Housing Plan, 5.0 Introductory. She looked today on the website and there is still nothing corrected. Second paragraph, next to the last sentence, there is growing public sediment, she believed it should be "sentiment." At the Planning Commission there was a chart she put together of ratios of rentals vs. home ownership. The reason she did this is the concept of moving towards embracing urbanization. From what she has found, it is pretty much when you are owner-occupied space and you are rental space and about 50/50, that pretty much holds true in large cities. Minneapolis being one of them. Regardless of the type of property, urbanization means high densities which means heavier crime. Her concern with urbanizing Fridley, is that higher densities lead to all kinds of higher things, i.e., pollution, crime rates, fires. Therein lays her concern with the Comprehensive Plan relying heavily on moving towards urbanization. When she moved to Fridley, she had no intention of living in Minneapolis. If she wanted to move to an urban center, she would have moved to Chicago or Seattle. The previous Comprehensive Plan talks about maintaining that hometown feel. That is not rural, that is hometown. We do not want 6 to 8 story buildings. We do not want concrete everywhere. We would like a bike path going down Old Central. Ms. Reynolds stated her whole thing with the original Comprehensive Plan is that she did not see it as being very comprehensive, and this one has a whole lot of aspects of that same high apple pie kind of thought process. Her opinion is if they are putting together a plan, say a budget, etc. you look at the reality of it. You do not reach way out there and grab something that FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 21 is not attainable. She enjoyed the Comprehensive Plan and read every page. Ms. Jones did a good job, but she just wished it would be reigned in a little bit, and if there could be something saying we would try and maintain our home ownership to rental percentage. Councilmember Bolkcom stated when she thinks of urban she does not necessarily think of high skyscrapers. She thinks we are an urban community because we are a first-ring suburb. Can we look at maybe how we define urbanization because it seems to be an ongoing thing here. She thinks they are kind of in the sense when she sees things about people would like to have a little downtown. She thinks the concept that is in here is people are saying they would like to see that down-home feeling but maybe what they need to look at is they are a first-ring suburb and they have to look at dealing with some of those issues relating to transportation, congestion, pollution. Ms. Reynolds stated with high densities you are going to get higher traffic, congestion, and pollution. Councilmember Bolkcom replied, not necessarily. A lot of our pollution, congestion, etc., are from people who are going through our City. Our population has actually gone down since the consensus in 2000 and from what she has read, our population is not going to grow much bigger. Ms. Reynolds stated she just does not want Fridley to end up being wall-to-wall residences and people. She took her parents to Uptown. To her that is urban. There are cars lining the streets, and there is no way to properly do snow removal. Councilmember Bolkcom stated people at the neighborhood meetings were talking about what would happen in 2030, so you have to have some of that pie in the sky, because who knows what will happen in the next 22 years. Councilmember Saefke stated he agrees on the term of urbanization, that he does not want to live in a place where there is no room for off street parking, etc. MOTION by Councilmember Saefke to authorize staff to distribute the Draft 2030 Comprehensive Plan for the City of Fridley to other jurisdictions. Seconded by Councilmember Barnette. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 10. Informal Status Reports Councilmember Bolkcom talked about the Remodeling Fair on February 23 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Schwan Center in Blaine. Mayor Lund talked about Empty Bowls that is taking place on March 3. It starts at 4:30 p.m. at Murzyn Hall in Columbia Heights. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 11, 2008 PAGE 22 ADJOURN. MOTION by Councilmember Barnette, seconded by Varichak, to adjourn. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:47 P.M. Respectfully submitted by, Denise M. Johnson Scott J. Lund Recording Secretary Mayor