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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-07-04 WS,~~u~e City of Lakeville Council Work Session October 7, 200¢ @ 6:00 PM MARION CONFERENCE .ROOM In attendance: Mayor Bob Johnson; Council Members David l_uick, Laurie Rieb, Wendy Wulff, and Mark Bellows. Also in attendance: City Administrator Steve Mielke, Asst. to City Administrator Brian Anderson, CED Director Dave Olson, City Engineer Keith Nelson, City Clerk Char Friedges, SGT Tim Knutson, EDC Chair Jack Matasosky, EDC Members: James Edmond Sr., Barry Pogatchnik, Gary Tushie, Jeannie Schubert, Bob Brantly, and Ex-officio Member Todd Bornhauser. 1..7oint Work Session with the EDC regarding 2005-07 Strategic Plan for Economic Development Mr. Matasosky presented a draft of the EDC's 2005-2007 vision, mission, organizational definition, and the following six significant issues with corresponding goals and desired outcomes to the City Council as described in the Work Session packet: 1. Transportation • No additional material was stated. 2. Managing Development No additional material was stated. 3. Affordable Housina Mr. Pogatchnik stated that the EDC would like to study affordable housing in Lakeville to ensure there is an adequate supply. Mr. Tushie added that affordable housing is a complex issue and has finally come to the forefront this year because the mean house price in Lakeville has risen significantly. Affordable housing isn't only for entry level housing, but for the life cycle of housing which includes senior housing for both owning and renting. The EDC feels if Lakeville is going to be a vital community, additional affordable housing policies may need to be set, as Lakeville is already half built and current funding programs and land opportunities could be exhausted. The EDC suggested revisiting the affordable housing goals and possibly deviating from the Met Councils definition of affordable housing to adopting new standards with lower thresholds, which may require higher densities. Mayor Johnson inquired if the EDC would need to seek the expertise of a consultant or was the EDC able to perform such a study. Mr. Matasosky stated that the EDC would like to identify the present needs and future goals and then approach the issue on how to implement an action plan to meet those goals. However, the goals must come from within the City instead of the Met Council, which has worked in the past but the EDC feels the market price may have exceeded the communities demand. A consultant would more than likely have to be hired to • take a look at all the affordable housing issues to date. 4. Downtown Plan Mr. Matasosky stated that initially it was challenging to attract businesses to the downtown area but now the EDC feels they have larger traffic generators such as the grocery store, dance studio, and karate gym that make it viable for the smaller specialty shops to thrive. The EDC feels the downtown is ready to expand; however, they would like the expansion plan to originate from the City Council and staff being the Downtown Lakeville Business Association is compiled of a diverse group of individuals with different needs and ideas. The EDC also feels that dispersing the community block grant funds to downtown businesses has created a sense of uniqueness and theme to the downtown area, but a new plan needs to be created to ensure everyone is working towards the same goal. Mayor Johnson stated that he realizes there is not a downtown master plan in place and agreed that one needs to be created due to the diverse group of business leaders that operate in the downtown area. Mr. Matasosky stated that new vision or master plan might need to include some redevelopment as downtown real estate is limited, which limits expansion .options. The EDC's past vision was to connect the downtown area with the newly constructed Heritage Commons development. However, the EDC stated that vision has been at work for six years and hasn't connected with residents. EDC and City Council members indicated that other options for expansion of the downtown may need to be considered. 5. Partnerships Mr. Matasosky cited that one example of improving a partnership through better communication and involvement would be to engage in ISD 194's projects and allow them to provide input to related City projects. The two-way communication and bridge building would allow both parties to better plan for future infrastructure needs, which would generate the most cost effective • solution for the particular issues. Mr. Pogatchnik stated that ISD 194 has begun to build that bridge by providing a strategic plan for the City and the EDC to review and offer input, which hasn't been offered in the past. Council Member Wulff stated that while serving on the HiPP Committee, she has noticed that Lakeville has far more partnerships than the next three cities combined, which shows the City is willing to partner with various governmental bodies. The City Council agreed that the City is heading in the right direction with ISD 194 and would like to continue to work with them to achieve our common goals. 6. Public Communication No additional material was stated. Mayor Johnson commended the EDC on performing an outstanding job on their recent successes and ability to establish strategic goals for the 2005-2007 years that will be beneficial for the long-term growth of the City. Council Member Bellows inquired if senior living has been discussed when reviewing affordable housing. Mr. Matasosky stated that affordable housing would include all forms of housing, which includes senior and assisted living that would be part of a future study. The study would then help establish a plan for developers to review and invest in rather than guessing what the community's needs are or what the market will bear. Mayor Johnson inquired about the timeframe to execute each one of the six goals. Mr. Matasosky stated that it depends on the study or goal once they are defined. The EDC wanted to seek City Council's input prior to pursuing those goals to ensure the Council agreed with them. Mr. Olson stated that the EDC would need to establish a work program for each of the • three years of the strategic plan and identify the necessary funding to execute each of the goals. It will more than likely take three years to accomplish all six goals. Council Member Wulff stated that the aggressive goals and outcomes listed under Managing Development would become very useful when the City updates the comprehensive plan in a few years. Mr. Olson • • agreed that the timing of these studies would prove to be useful in the preparation of the comprehensive plan that is projected to start in 2006 and be completed in 2008. In closing, the City Council thanked the EDC for all their hard work and stated they look forward to working with them in obtaining their goals for the goad of the City. The City Council then directed the EDC to pursue their goals for 2005-2007 as outlined in the work session packet. 2. Update -Elko/New Market Interceptor Mr. Nelson explained to the City Council the attached map to the Proposed Amendment identifying the preferred route for extending an interceptor sewer to Elko/New Market. A lift station would be constructed on Dodd Boulevard and 235th Street in Eureka Township and a forcemain would be extended to a gravity interceptor sewer that would be extended through the southerly portion of Airlake Industrial Park. The lift station to be built by the MCES would be sized to accommodate 2.2 million gallons per day (8,000 sewered households) in the Elko/New Market area projected for the year 2030. In the year 2030, a new interceptor sewer is planned, which would be constructed from the Empire Water Treatment Plant through Empire, Castle Rock, and Eureka Township to phase out this lift station. Elko/New Market would be limited to 2.2 million gallons per day until the year 2030, which would limit growth. The MCES ha would extend Staff believes provide lateral Industrial Park. meetings and studied many options, some of which h Eureka Township and bypass Lakeville altogether. interceptor to extend through Lakeville, which would 'Hate an existing lift station in the south end of the A second issue explored by the MCES was providing sanitary sewer service to our Farmington Outlet Sewer District. This is our urban reserve area west of the Farmington border. Although our Farmington Outlet Sewer District meets criteria for interceptor sewer, the MCES does have a policy to minimize the number of interceptor sewer connections to any city and in the past has said this is a local issue between the cities of Lakeville and Farmington. Mr. Mielke stated the Met Council has identified serving Elko/New Market as their first issue and serving Lakeville/Farmington as their second issue. They've made it clear that Lakeville/Farmington is a local trunk issue that should be serviced with local revenues instead of an interceptor issue that would receive Met Council funds. However, the Met Council has recently offered to pay up to 50% of the trunk costs. Although the City has not agreed to this option yet, there is value to this offer being the Met Council could easily circumvent Lakeville. It is staffs understanding that the Met Council is following the appropriate process to extend interceptor and sewer to Elko/New Market. City Council then directed stafF to draft formal comments on the Met Council's current plan as discussed so City Council could approve them at an upcoming meeting. Staff was also directed to draft formal comments on the Southeast Scott County Plan that could later be approved by City Council. 3. Review -Liquor License Requirements Mr. Anderson informed the City Council that the review of the intoxicating liquor license requirement is to inform Council on the community feedback staff has received and for City s held several stakeholder interceptor sewer throng there are benefits for the benefit and possibly elimi . Council to provide direction for staff based on that feedback. Mr. Anderson stated that formal restaurants have inquired about locating in Lakeville; however, some have not due to the initial $825,000 investment that must be met in order to obtain an intoxicating liquor license. Council Member Wulff stated that those who have trouble meeting this requirement are those who wish to refurbish an older building. Mr. Anderson stated that is an issue and the current code could be rewritten to distinguish different requirements between different types of buildings such as free standing, multi-tenant buildings, and refurbished buildings. However, that is a "one size fits all" requirement, which very few cities require. A popular approach by other cities is to require that 50% of the revenue generated must be from food sales. Mayor Johnson stated that when this ordinance was initially passed in the mid 80s, the intent was not to discourage any establishments from locating in Lakeville but to ensure they were of fine quality. He wasn't aware that the ordinance was prohibiting the smaller, more unique independent establishments from locating in Lakeville. Mr. Olson stated that the current requirement could hinder possible downtown opportunities from occurring as older building become vacant and simply need remodeling in order to open for business. Restaurant operators have indicated to him that the $825,000 requirement is challenging to meet and sometimes discriminates against the smaller independent owners. The Mayor inquired about the amount of alcohol related crimes generated from smaller independent establishments verses the larger establishments. Mr. Knutson distributed a spreadsheet outlining the number of police calls generated from each intoxicating liquor licensed establishment and stated that the restaurant-orientated establishments generate fewer alcohol related calls than the alcohol-orientated establishments. Mr. Mielke added that the LPD has identified two issues that contribute to alcohol related calls. The first is over-serving patrons who become extremely intoxicated, which is then an internal management issue. The second is that liquor-orientated establishments receive more calls than food-orientated establishments. Therefore, staff is recommending changing the requirement to require at least • 50% of the revenue must be from food The Mayor noted that several of the growing cities in the Twin Cities area require that 50% of the revenue must be from food and they appear to be having no trouble attracting quality establishments. The Council agreed that the 50% requirement is fair for all establishments, regardless of the building they're operating from. Council Member Wulff noted that is appears Lakeville's intoxicating liquor license fee is well below other cities, citing the findings from the blue spreadsheet handout. City Council then directed staff to further research the 50% requirement, grandfathering of existing establishments, liquor insurance requirements, and revised fee recommendations/justification. 4. Review - HiPP Study Mr. Mielke informed the City Council that the County hired HiPP consultant recommended that the six issues, listed on the second page of the handout were the most feasible in pursuing. On November 10th at the Rosemount Community Center, various members of the HiPP steering committee will lead discussions regarding the six issues to interested cities in Dakota County. At the conclusion of those discussions, each city will have to decide whether or not to pursue the various partnerships. City Council directed staff to provide recommendations regarding the City's involvement towards each of the six issues. 5. Other Business • A) Council Member Wulff informed the rest of the City Council that she had recently attended Mn/DOT 35W BRT Study project update and stated that their recent review has been directed towards Minneapolis and not Lakeville. However, they stated that a future stop for 35W BRT could be the old weigh station along 35 next to Fleet Farm and a strip of property near the CSAH 70 interchange. Staff and City Council members will continue to be involved in these discussions. B) Mr. Mielke informed the City Council that the ISD 194 Facility Committee has asked City staff or City Council members to participate on that committee. This committee would meet about twice a month to offer input an ISD 194 future facility needs based upon the districts growing demands. Mayor Johnson suggested that Mr. Mielke and Mr. Olson could alternate their time to attend the meetings. Council Member Rieb stated that she would be able to attend if staff wasn't able. 6. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 8:38 p.m. Respectively submitted, Brian Anderson • Assistant to City Administrator •