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02-27-17 CC WS MinutesCITY OF SHOREWOOD CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017 MINUTES 1. CONVENE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD COUNCIL CHAMBERS 5:30 P.M. Mayor Zerby called the meeting to order at 5:32 P.M. A. Roll Call Present. Mayor Zerby; Councilmembers Johnson (arrived at 6:14 P.M.), Labadie (arrived at 5:35 P.M.), Siakel and Sundberg; Administrator Lerud; City Clerk Panchyshyn; Director Nielsen; Director of Public Works Brown; and, Engineer Hornby Absent: None B. Review Agenda Sundberg moved, Siakel seconded, approving the agenda as presented. Motion passed 310. 2. COMPEHENSIVE PLAN MENDMENT CONSULTANT PESENTATIONS Northwest Associated Consultants Director Nielsen explained the City sent out a request for proposal (RFP) or consulting services to help Shorewood prepare its Comprehensive (Comp) Plan update. The RFP was sent to three planning firms. Northwest Associated Consultants (NAC), Inc. submitted a proposal. One firm never responded at all and one did not have the time to do the work for the next year or so. WSB & Associates did submit a proposal. Nielsen introduced Alan Brixius, the President of NAC. Mr. Brixius introduced his two colleagues that were with him this evening — Bob Kirmis (a senior planner) and Chloe McGuire Brigl (a planner /designer). He explained that NAC is a small firm of land use planners that was established in 1973. He and Stephen Grittman bought the company in 1999. He has been with NAC since 1980. NAC assists cities as staff. They have up to 23 different clients now; they had more clients before the recession. NAC's core business is city planning which includes comprehensive planning, zoning administration, ordinance development, and code enforcement. For most of its clients it serves as the planning staff. NAC offers a variety of planners with varying areas of expertise to clients. Its clients are primarily municipal. Some clients are townships and some are counties. They do very little private work so they have no conflict of interest with other staff or developers. Many of the clients are long -term. He has worked with the Cities of New Hope and Delano for more than 30 years. NAC staff works for a broad range of communities. They work with lake shore communities and fully developed communities that are looking at maintenance redevelopment and reuse. They look at reinvestment in the fully developed communities. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES February 27, 2017 Page 2 of 6 When they do a comprehensive plan they start out with a tactics interview. That includes interviewing each member of Council, staff members, Planning Commissioners and any other people that can provide input into the future of Shorewood. Those statements and perceptions help create the scope of work that will go into the Comp Plan. They determine what the priorities, concerns and issues are. They develop policies and strategies focused on the City's goal statements. They provide concise and efficient explanations. The last update to the City's Comp Plan was completed in 2008. He assumes that things have not changed dramatically since then. They may have to be updated. He noted that he, Mr. Kirmis, and Ms. McGuire Brig] would be the team that serves Shorewood. Ms. McGuire Brigl is relatively new to NAC. Her skills are in community facilitation and graphics. She will put the inventory work together. He looked at the Shorewood Comp Plan relative to the Metropolitan (Met) Council's Systems Statement which sets forth the information the Met Council has about Shorewood. Most of the regional statements do not require a lot of significant changes. They will bring things up to date and make them suitable for resubmission to the Met council. He thought most of the issues Shorewood will be face are local, primarily housing and housing density based on regional expectations versus local expectations. The other areas of utilities, transportation and parks won't require much work. Some regional trail planning is being imposed. They will determine how that best fits the community. They want to come up with a concise plan that gives attention to the areas Shorewood representatives think need attention. They do not need to elaborate on areas that go well beyond that scope. It would not be a collection of data but an actual plan. He displayed some examples of comprehensive planning they are doing for other cities and what the cities' needs are — the Cities of Buffalo, Mendota Heights, New Hope and Elko New Market. Mr. Brixius stated the Comp Plan has to fit the community. If NAC is hired, NAC staff becomes the City's advocate to the Met Council. Local issues become the first priority. The additional densities for new growth are going to apply to new projects. They want Shorewood to understand and use its Comp Plan. They also offer the opportunity to do planning districts and neighborhood plans. Mr. Kirmis stated their work plan approach as three objectives. 1. The Comp Plan process must address each of the directives of the Met Council as indicated in its Thrive 2040 Planning Objectives. 2. The Plan update must define the City's vision and goals for itself through the year 2040. These goals must reflect the City's desired land uses and be practical within the City's investment framework. 3. It must be an active and effective public participation process per Shorewood's request. He provided an overview of a work program that they anticipate will take one year to complete. ➢ Task l: Hold a start -up meeting for organizational purposes. NAC staff will meet with City staff and the City's Met Council sector representative. Plans or studies done since the last update would be identified. General City issues would be identified from a City staff and Met Council perspective. A Comp Plan committee would be established to assist with the review of the Plan and to provide recommendations to Council and the Planning Commission. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES February 27, 2017 Page 3 of 6 ➢ Task 2: Prepare an inventory /community profile — it would be a snapshot of what Shorewood is today — land use, transportation, utilities, and so forth. It would be an update of Shorewood's 2030 Plan. ➢ Task 3: Issue identification — The City's issues from the perspective of Council, staff, the Planning Commission. Tactical individual interviews are conducted. Neighborhood meetings could be conducted. There is an option for an online survey. ➢ Task 4: A policy plan would be developed based on input received from city staff, Council, and business leaders. Issues would be turned into goals and then action policies would be developed. He assumes are lot of them will be similar to what already exists. ➢ Task 5: Development framework — the collection of the various plans and supporting narrative. The Met Council identifies certain plans that must be included in the Comp Plan. They relate to natural resources, land use, transportation, and utility plans. Utility plans would be done by the City Engineer. ➢ Task 6: Implementation — a plan is relatively meaningless unless it is implemented. Part of NAC's job is to review the City's development regulations. ➢ Task 7: Public Participation and civic engagement. Ms. McGuire Brigl reviewed some of the engagement strategies. After the issues identification there would be three open houses. There would be interviews with members of Council, staff, the Planning Commission as well as neighborhood leaders and business owners. There would be Comp Plan review workshops with Council and the Planning Commission. There would be a public hearing on the draft Comp Plan. There would be an option for an online survey. Mr. Brixius stated there would also be an ongoing section on the City's website to let people know of meeting times. Meetings would be open to the public. Progress updates would also be placed out there for people to comment on. NAC offers a very thorough opportunity for public engagement at each step. Following the public engagement there would be the workshops with the Comp Plan Committee. Mr. Brixius stated the process could be condensed if Council desires. He noted the fee for this effort would be $37,900 based on the assumption that a lot of the current Comp Plan is applicable. Councilmember Sundberg asked how large NAC's staff is. Mr. Brixius stated there are six planners and one office manager. Sundberg then asked how NAC distinguishes itself from other planning organizations. Mr. Brixius stated planning has changed over the years. Individual planning firms have merged with other disciplines (e.g.; engineering and architectural) over the years. NAC distinguishes itself because it is a planning group only; it has always believed there should be a distinction between planning and engineering. They have in the past worked with almost every engineering firm in the Twin Cities area. Councilmember Siakel asked how NAC invites people to participate in an online survey. In the past they have set up a SurveyMonkey on a city's website. There would also be a comment page. They would do something similar for Shorewood. Councilmember Labadie asked if NAC has found a survey to be an effective tool. Mr. Brixius the number of responders varies. He considers a survey to be another way to collect input from people. Sometimes the response rate was less than 50 percent. Mayor Zerby stated every city is unique but he thought Shorewood is more unique. There are 14 cities that surround Lake Minnetonka and all but one has a population of less than 10,000. Shorewood is one that has less than 10,000. Shorewood is a member of a number of joint powers organizations; fire and police services are covered by a joint powers agreement (JPA). There are two school districts in CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES February 27, 2017 Page 4 of 6 Shorewood. About half of Shorewood is water. When the Met Council Thrive 2014 bulletin came out through half of it Shorewood was referred to as Shoreview. That makes him think that the Met Council has a cookie cutter approach. He asked how NAC helps cities maintain their uniqueness. Mr. Brixius stated that issue has to be addressed for each city each time there is a requirement to update comp plans. Particularly for a city that is fully developed. The density elements essentially say something has to be torn down and then something else has to be put back up at a higher density. He reiterated that NAC would be the City's advocate. In the past NAC lets the Met Council know what a city's constraints are. One of NAC`s clients is the City of Spring Park. About 98 percent of the City is within a shoreland district. It is a fully developed city and its services are joint powers services. He noted that he has been through the preparation of the 1980, 1980, 2000, 2010 plans. He explained that in the start-up meeting NAC tries to get the Met Council representative to that meeting. That allows the representative to see what the community is and try to get them to understand that somethings are not possible. The City of Oak Grove is a township that incorporated. Past comp plans established the density trading within the community. There was a concentration of 2.5 acre lots on sceptic systems and Met Council wanted them to be hooked up to the East Bethel waste treatment plant. The Met Council was asked how Oak Grove was supposed to get sewer to any of the places between the subdivisions and wetland and natural areas. That was not practical. The compromise was to reserve a small portion of Oak Grove next to East Bethel for future use of the system. Mr. Brixius stated the Shorewood Systems Statement indicates the transportation and utility elements are not going to change. Some of the density has been worked in with the Minnetonka Country Club development. Mayor Zerby thanked them for coming. WSB & Associates Erin Perdu, a member of WSB & Associates Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) Group, stated the CPED started about five years ago with one planner. It now has 11 planners and economic development specialists. It is the largest community planning group in Minnesota. The CPED Group has a wide range of experience. She has been doing planning for about 20 years. They serve as city planners for several cities; at several of them they are also the city engineers. They are the city engineer and city planner for the City of Tonka Bay. They also work in Cities of Excelsior and Long Lake and other communities in this area. They are currently doing comp plans in six cities where they are city engineer as well. In total they are working on 13 full comp plans in the metro area and they are in various stages of being completed with some of them being nearly complete. They are also working on several comp plans in communities outside of the metro area. They have experience doing plans for the Metropolitan (Met) Council. WSB is successful at working with various groups and with engineers including transportation and water resources individuals. Shorewood's last Comp Plan was very good. Therefore, WSB would build on the successes Shorewood has had. Kurt Bearinger, a planner with WSB, reviewed their philosophy for updating the Shorewood Comp Plan. He explained he had spoken with Shorewood's Met Council representative about the expectations for Shorewood. The representative was very complimentary about Shorewood's last update. WSB would build off of that work. It would review the goals and the policies for applicability. The projections for Shorewood are not very significant. There would not be a need for any significant land use changes. The focus would be on redevelopment. That would be how the affordable housing parameters would be met. WSB's approach is integrated. WSB understands that Shorewood values natural resources. The Local Water Plan will have to be updated as part of the process. WSB serves as Shorewood's City Engineer. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES February 27, 2017 Page 5 of 6 Hearing from the community is important. Because the update would not be a full revision of the Plan they propose to focus on the redevelopment of the Smithtown Crossing area and Planning District 6. WSB has a variety of experience with a number of innovative engagement techniques and technologies. Ms. Perdu stated WSB is working collaboratively with WSB's engineering and infrastructure related groups on comp plans in a variety of communities. That is a unique aspect of WSB's experience that it could bring to Shorewood. They work for several lakefront communities, in small rural areas, in very urbanized suburbs and in fully developed areas. Councilmember Sundberg asked if Breanne Rothstein would be involved. Ms. Perdu stated she would be the project manager and noted she is the CPED Group Manager. Sundberg then asked Ms. Perdu if she would have an active role. Ms. Perdu stated she would have some role noting she works a lot on public engagement. Councilmember Labadie stated there are five cities listed on the handout where WSB is working on comp plans yet Ms. Perdu mentioned there were six cities. Ms. Perdu state Excelsior was not on the list. Mayor Zerby stated every city is unique but he thought Shorewood is more unique. Most residents consider Excelsior as Shorewood's downtown. Shorewood was Excelsior Township until 1953. There are 14 cities that surround Lake Minnetonka and all but one has a population of less than 10,000. Shorewood is one that has less than 10,000. Shorewood is a member of a number of joint powers organizations; fire and police services are covered by a joint powers agreement (JPA). There are two islands that are separated by water. They are served by another city's fire department. There are two school districts in Shorewood. When the Met Council Thrive 2014 bulletin came out through half of it Shorewood was referred to as Shoreview. That makes him think that the Met Council has a cookie cutter approach. He asked how WSB helps cities maintain their uniqueness. Ms. Perdu stated she likes to start the comp planning process by finding out what is special about a community that people want to preserve. Once the amenities are outlined they would try to build on those assets. Redevelopment would be focused so that it would match the character of what is already there. The implementation strategies could be very specific related to the design of what my go in as properties turn over. It would include ways to design new buildings and design residential density. In some of the visioning workshops she has done she asked residents why they like to live in a community, what would they preserve and retain and what would they like to change. That is the basis for developing a visioning goal. Mayor Zerby commented that people think they live in Excelsior because Shorewood shares the Excelsior zip code. That makes it more difficult for Shorewood to maintain its identity. Zerby asked Ms. Perdu to elaborate on community engagement. Ms. Perdu stated their proposal includes a couple of large community events. One of the first things they would do in a kickoff meeting with Council and staff is discuss how to program those events. There is an .option of having an online presence. There would be meetings that are focused on a couple of topics so residents could go to meetings about the topics they are interested in. Mr. Bearinger their focus would be on the redevelopment areas. Ms. Perdu stated for redevelopment areas they like to have gatherings at the site. Mayor Zerby thanked them for coming. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES February 27, 2017 Page 6 of 6 3. ADJOURN Siakel moved, Labadie seconded, Adjourning the City Council Work Session of February 27, 2017, at 6:33 P.M. Motion passed 5 10. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Christine Freeman, Recorder S t Zerby, Ma r ATTEST: �, City Administrators Greg -Uerud