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CCM 06/09/2014 CITY COUNCIL MEETING CITY OF FRIDLEY JUNE 9, 2014 The City Council meeting for the City of Fridley was called to order by Mayor Lund at 7:03 p.m. ROLL CALL: MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Lund Councilmember Barnette Councilmember Saefke Councilmember Varichak Councilmember Bolkcom OTHERS PRESENT: Wally Wysopal, City Manager Darcy Erickson, City Attorney Scott Hickok, Community Development Director Roger Fink,Trident Development APPROVAL OF PROPOSED CONSENT AGENDA: APPROVAL OF MINUTES: City Council Meeting of May 27, 2014. APPROVED. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Resolution Appointing an Absentee Ballot Board for the 2014 Election Cycle. ADOPTED RESOLUTION NO. 2014-42. 2. Resolution in Support of the Grant Application for a GreenCorps Member from MPCA. THIS ITEM WAS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA AND PLACED ON THE REGULAR AGENDA. 3. Approve the Memorandum of Understanding for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program FY 2014 Local Solicitation. Wally Wysopal, City Manager, stated this is a continuing program for the City of Fridley Police Department for the local 2014 solicitation. APPROVED. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JUNE 9, 2014 PAGE 2 4. Appointments - City Employees: Wally Wysopal, City Manager,stated staff recommends the appointment of the following new city employees: Police Officers: Kyle Lusignan and Michael Smith and Assistant Liquor Store Manager: Robert Crim. APPROVED. 5. Claims (164096 - 164222) APPROVED. 6. Licenses. APPROVED THE LICENSES AS SUBMITTED AND AS ON FILE. 7. Estimates. Ron Kassa Construction 6005 E. 250th Street Elko, MN 55020-9447 Miscellaneous Concrete Repair No. 453 Estimate No. 1.........................................................$ 7,623.75 Penn Contracting, Inc. 13025 Central Avenue, Ste. 200 Blaine, MN 55434 2015 Watermain Project No. 427 and Sewer Forcemain No. 433 Estimate No. 2.........................................................$135,929.80 Astech Corporation, Inc. PO Box 1025 St. Cloud, MN 56302 2014 Street Rehabilitation Project No. ST2014-01 Estimate No. 1.........................................................$ 62,578.88 Sunram Construction, Inc. 20010 75th Avenue N Corcoran, MN 55340 Main Street Bike/Walk Project No. ST2011-22 Estimate No. 2.........................................................$117,541.60 FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JUNE 9, 2014 PAGE 3 APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA: Councilmember Bolkcom requested Item No. 2 be removed and placed on the regular agenda. MOTION by Councilmember Barnette to approve the proposed consent agenda with the removal of Item No. 2. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. OPEN FORUM: Henry Zimmer , 4021 California Street, presented his issues in a written letter to the Council. He asked why they specified they wanted asphalt/concrete surfaces which makes it so all the water runs down the storm sewer, into the river, and into our water supply. Why is that so important? Mayor Lund asked Mr. Hickok if those were his responses on the second page of Mr. Zimmer’s letter. Mr. Hickok replied, yes. Mr. Zimmer stated he did not think the Railroad is going to be too happy to have the City Code on their property either. If they want to make it a no parking zone, they should put up a barrier or something to stop people. Councilmember Bolkcom asked Mr. Zimmer what he meant by referring to the City Code? Mr. Zimmer replied it is a City Code violation if he parks off the pavement. There is only a small area where they can park their cars back there. It is a dead end street. He has been doing it for 40 years, and all of a sudden the City comes out and says it has to be enforced whether he wants it and whether the Railroad approves it. If the City has jurisdiction over the Railroad, that is fine. However, he thinks the Railroad has something to say about this. He does all the mowing of the grass and keeping the place nice and neat and trimming the trees around California Street. The City promised him it would leave him alone. When they put the Railroad place in, they damaged their houses and their property with all the blasting that was done. They also promised them a park. Mayor Lund asked Mr. Zimmer if this was in his backyard. Mr. Zimmer stated it is in his front yard. Mayor Lund stated there appeared to be 10 points in Mr. Zimmer’s handout, and apparently, he was not satisfied with Mr. Hickok's responses. He said they would review this matter and get back to Mr. Zimmer. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JUNE 9, 2014 PAGE 4 Councilmember Bolkcom asked for some background. Mr. Hickok stated Mr. Zimmer’s property is the southwestern most property in all of Fridley. What is southwest to him is Rail property, the switching yard, and then Co-Park and the former Baggan's Pub. He has a very small street that serves him and a neighbor to the north. That street was improved recently. Mr. Zimmer has a practice of parking across the paved street, not on his driveway, but across on the Railroad unimproved property. He goes over the boulevard and parks in this area. He believes that if the City does not have jurisdiction over Rail property, how can the City tell him that he cannot park there and that he has to pave Rail property. There is no indication the Rail has approved his parking there. Although there are certain things in the Rail jurisdiction the City cannot control, he did not think the Rail would approve parking on Rail property and if they did, it would have to be by a standard the City requires under City ordinance for private use of Rail property. Mayor Lund asked Mr. Zimmer how many cars he had. Mr. Zimmer said he has three and his kid has one. It is a narrow street and it is hard to park cars there. Actually the street was supposed to go back to his property line to make room to turnaround. There is no sewer or anything. Columbia Heights promised a park and they put a beautiful one in. He never received any thanks from the City for doing all he does, and he is really upset. He has to put up with all the smoke, noise, etc. back there and now he has the City on his back. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA: MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to approve the agenda with the addition of Item No. 2. Seconded by Councilmember Saefke. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 2. Resolution in Support of the Grant Application for a GreenCorps Member from MPCA. Councilmember Bolkcom stated on page 10 there are four projects they can do, and, and one of them is, "Work with watershed partners to identify grants, programs, and opportunities.” On Page 11 it says, "Supervisor will ensure Minnesota GreenCorps member is not involved in any general site fundraising..." or any other activities prohibited by AmeriCorps. Scott Hickok , Community Development Director, stated they would be identifying grant sources. They would not be writing grant applications. Councilmember Bolkcom asked, if identifying sources is not part of general site fundraising. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JUNE 9, 2014 PAGE 5 Mr. Hickok replied it would be like general research they would be doing in conjunction likely with a watershed partner program where they would tell us there might be some money available. GreenCorps wants to allow their staff person to work for us for free for 11 months, but they do not want the City to put them on assignments that are outside of the spectrum of their tasks, such as administrative tasks. They want to be looking at such things as trees and stormwater issues. Councilmember Bolkcom asked as to "Produce information for community awareness and education," what does that entail. Mr. Hickok replied, the City had an intern in the Engineering Department do a tree inventory. The next step might be to identify what trees might be susceptible to certain diseases. We could send information to property owners about what they could do, who their contacts might be, and how they might take of any issues. MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to adopt Resolution No. 2014-43. Seconded by Councilmember Saefke. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. NEW BUSINESS 8. First Reading of an Ordinance under Section 12.06 of the City Charter Declaring Certain Real Estate to be Surplus and Authorizing the Sale Thereof. Scott Hickok, Community Development Director, stated this is the first reading of an ordinance that would allow the Council to deem this property accessible. This is a fairly typical issue on a redevelopment project especially were you have a plat that goes back to the late 1800s. In the mid-1900s, the City relocated the frontage road and moved it back from the intersection. Mr. Hickok state in that particular case, there were private properties and there was also public property, one the City purchased to put the "S" curve in the frontage road that went around the Sinclair Station. Although the City vacated the frontage road, because it was on a City-owned parcel, it did not vacate this property, because it was on a City-owned parcel. Mr. Hickok stated State Statute would say Fridley could just give the property to the HRA, but the Charter does not necessarily say Fridley could do that. The City has one more step, according to the Charter, and that is to have the City Council approve an action to deem access and to approve the transfer of the property from the City to the HRA. The purpose tonight is for Council's authorization to give this property to the HRA so it can be conveyed to the developer as part of this project. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JUNE 9, 2014 PAGE 6 Mr. Hickok stated this was revealed through the planning process at the County Surveyor's office. They discovered this piece did not vacate because of the underlying historic City ownership. Therefore, the City needed to convey it to the HRA, and when the HRA has it, the plat can be filed and the property can close. Councilmember Saefke stated on page 52, under Recital 4, the words, "the within" should be removed. MOTION by Councilmember Saefke to waive the reading of the ordinance and adopt the ordinance on first reading with the correction. Seconded by Councilmember Bolkcom. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 9. Approve Agreement Relating to Landowner Improvements within City Right of Way on State Street, Anoka County, Minnesota (Cielo Project) (Ward 1). Scott Hickok, Community Development Director,stated this agreement talks about allowing the approval of an encroachment by the future Cielo Project into what would remain public property. If the City vacated all of the frontage road, half would go back to the State. The State has already turned it back, so technically, it would then go back to the previous property owners, many of whom owned the property in the late 1800s. Finding successors would have been very difficult. Mr. Hickok stated they are avoiding that conflict by just vacating the east side of the frontage road and leaving the west side of the frontage road as City property. It is legitimate by legal terms. It was approved by the County office. What the City wanted to do and thanks to the City Attorney, worked on an original draft of an agreement that has been doing back and forth between the developer's attorney, the HRA attorney, etc. This resulted in an agreement that allows improvements to be made along with what would be the fence. They could imagine between where the existing chain link fence is now, the chain link fence is going to come out, just set back a bit from that on public property, that half of State Street which was not vacated there will be new bollards, a new ornamental fence, a walkway, bollard lighting, some landscaping in there. That will be done by the developer on that vacated piece. This agreement makes sure they all understand by what terms that happens. Councilmember Bolkcom asked why they were doing it this way. Mayor Lund stated instead of trying to get property owners to convey the property to Mr. Fink, the developer, the City is going to retain public ownership; but there is going to be this agreement allowing him to put improvement on City property. Councilmember Bolkcom stated there is still that whole thing about who is taking care of what. Darcy Erickson stated this is an agreement they had drafted which basically spells out that the developer or owner who is encroaching on the City-owned property bears all costs for the FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JUNE 9, 2014 PAGE 7 construction of improvements, maintenance of improvements, and in fact goes so far as to say that if the City needs to get into its right-of-way or its property to do any work, it gives notice to the owner who has to remove their improvement and in fact, then replace them. There is a lot of protection built in for the City. She did not know if there currently are any utilities or City improvements in there. Mr. Hickok replied, the likelihood for the City needing to get in there is very remote. Roger Fink , Trident Development, referred to minor things in the agreement. Mr. Hickok brought up the possibility of bollard lighting. That should be an improvement added to the Definitions of landowner improvements. Everything else is correct except for the bollard lighting that should be added. Also, there is reference to a site plan that has a date of February 2014. That site plan may be inaccurate. He asked if they could hold that date open until they can define the accurate site plan. The change he anticipated is when they learned about the property line being different, because of the half being vacated instead of the entire right-of-way, they shifted the building east just a few feet so there were no other overhanging encroachments crossing that line. He just wanted to make the site plan they are referencing in this agreement is the most accurate one they have. Attorney Erickson stated what they can do is direct staff to review the site plan on file and authorize the date of the most recent and approved site plan to be used with it prior to the execution by the Mayor and City Manager. Also, authorize the reference to the bollards be inserted in the agreement and have it in there prior to the execution. MOTION by Councilmember Saefke the following amendments: (1) "bollard lighting" be added to the Definitions of landowner improvements in the agreement; and (2) direct staff insert the correct site plan date and strike the current site plan date (page 51, paragraph 1.9) of the agreement. Seconded by Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. MOTION by Councilmember Saefke approving Agreement Relating to Landowner Improvements within City Right of Way on State Street, Anoka County, Minnesota (Cielo Project) (Ward 1). Seconded by Councilmember Barnette. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 10. Informal Status Report. There were no informal status reports. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JUNE 9, 2014 PAGE 8 ADJOURN: MOTION by Councilmember Barnette, seconded by Councilmember Varichak, to adjourn. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AND THE MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:43 P.M. Respectfully submitted by, Denise M. Johnson Scott J. Lund Recording Secretary Mayor