Loading...
1989-08-29 Council minutesCITY OF MENDOTA HEIGHTS DAKOTA COUNTY STATE OF MINNESOTA Minutes of the Special Meeting Held Tuesday, August 29, 1989 Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, the special meeting of the City Council, City of Mendota Heights was held at 7:00 o'clock P.M. on Tuesday, August 29, 1989 at City Hall, 1101 Victoria Curve, Mendota Heights, Minnesota. Mayor Mertensotto called the meeting to order at 7:00 o'clock P.M. The following members were present: Mayor Mertensotto, Councilmembers Blesener, Hartmann and Cummins. Councilmember Witt informed the Council that she would be attending the meeting late. CITY ADMINISTRATOR The Council received and acknowledged a PROFILE DISCUSSION letter from Councilmember Elizabeth Witt, notifying them that she would be resigning from the City Council effective Friday, September 8, 1989. The reason given for the resignation was that Witt intends to be a candidate for the position of Mendota Heights City Administrator, and felt that at the same time serving on the Council would compromise the integrity of the selection process. DISCUSSION OF UNITED PROPERTIES PROPOSED DEVELOP- MENT The Council then discussed with current City Administrator, Kevin Frazell, the criteria, personal qualities and professional qualifications that should be sought in a new City Administrator. A number of these were listed, and it was agreed that Frazell would draft a recruitment profile incorporating Council's thoughts, and present it for Council action at the meeting of September 5th. Councilmember Witt arrived at 7:45 P.M., following this discussion Dale Glowa of United Properties was present to discuss with Council a potential corporate location in the Mendota Heights Business Park. This would be a 140,000 square foot facility for a company already located in the Twin Cities, and who is seeking an Page 2 August 29, 1989 The company is associated with the airline industry, and is very attracted to the Acacia Property in the Business Park, because of the fact that it overlooks the runways at MSP International Airport. Glowa indicated that while the company is very interested in the Mendota Heights site, there is competition from other communities, including Inver Grove Heights, Woodbury and St. Paul. The Acacia site in Mendota Heights would initially be 9.58 acres for Phase I, with a right of first refusal for an additional campus up to a total of 16.8 acres. Glowa said that the company was attracted to the site; he felt they would pay a premium for the land, and added that any offer of financial assistance from the City of Mendota Heights would be viewed very favorably in light of the competition from other cities. The United proposal is that the City provide approximately $573,000 in assistance from the Tax Increment District for site and utility work, as well as acoustical treatments to the building. It was noted that the completed facility should pay around $260,000 a year in taxes, meaning a pay back period of less than three years for the Tax Increment District. Glowa indicated that this property would normally be very difficult to market, because of the problem of direct over flights from the airport. He added that this is a very unique user, who to the contrary is quite attracted to the link with the airline industry. The company will be making a decision by the middle of September on its new location. City Treasurer Larry Shaughnessy reported that the Tax Increment District has a sufficient fund balance to meet this expenditure, so that no outside debt financing would be necessary. DISCUSSION OF BRASLAU/COLLETTE EAGAN/MENDOTA HTS AIRCRAFT CORRIDOR STUDY Page 3 August 29, 1989 Glowa said that the company would employ about 250. The buildings would be of brick style, much like the rest of United Properties Business Park. Glowa indicated that he was not asking for formal Council action this evening, but just a general reaction so he would know what type of support he had when he made a presentation to the company the following week. The Council indicated a strong concensus to support the project and the request for the Tax Increment assistance. It was noted that it has long been a City objective to get this property back on the tax rolls, and the problem of aircraft noise was precisely one the reasons why the Tax Increment District was formed. This, coupled with a very quick pay back, makes it an ideal project for the site. It was also discussed that United Properties would need a bit of flexibility in the amount of money granted from the City, since the $573,000 was a preliminary estimate. However, it was noted that the Council would have full approval authority over any final allocations of funds, and the line item costs would be completely accounted for. Consultants David Braslau and Robert Collette were present to discuss with Council their report on the Eagan/Mendota Heights corridor issue, and specifically why Mendota Heights is experiencing such an increase in aircraft noise impact. Collette began by referencing the preferential runway system that had been in place for many years. He stated that the 180 day runway use test over Highland Park had set a precedent for considering alternatives from the traditional preferential runway system (PRS). Collette said that he and Braslau were proposing that Mendota Heights request a similar test for deviations from the established Mendota Page 4 August 29, 1989 Collette indicated that their report would give the Council some direction in how to accomplish that. However, he warned that it would become a very political issue and there would be a lot of blustering. Collette informed the Council that it is projected there will substantial growth in the volume of air traffic in the future, which could one day totally overwhelm the corridor. At that point, he felt that the tower chief could decide to totally abandon the corridor and begin having planes turn without any regard to the land side impacts. Collette also mentioned that the upgrading and configuration of St. Paul's Holman Field would impact the corridor by limiting the times that operations can go very far to the north. Braslau reported that he had spoken with representatives of the Metropolitan Airports Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration, who are all sold on the idea of looking at alternatives to the tradition PRS. Collette added that he felt if the City of Mendota Heights is willing to take a stand, we will be able to accomplish some things. He indicated that we should follow the same road map as was set forth for the Highland Park 180 day Use Test, and the time line to do so would mean initiating the test sometime during 1990. The City's MASAC Representative, Bernard Friel, who was also present for the discussion, indicated that he thought the City should request a 360, rather than 180 day test. He felt that the short coming with a 180 day test is that it gives the opponents too many variables to shoot at. Collette responded that the 180 day test idea had just been established as a precedent, and it would probably be easier to piggy back on that than go with something different. Page 5 .August 29, 1989 Braslau and Collette also noted that the new noise monitoring system will be in place by the time of the test, which would help obtain objective test results. Collette indicated that they were proposing that 90 degrees remain as the northern corridor heading, since that would be more politically acceptable than trying to argue that the corridor ought simply to shift to the south. However, in exchange for recognition of 90 degrees on the north, the City of Mendota Heights would be pushing for a southern corridor of up to 150 degrees during hub operations/peak departure times. Collette added that most of the planes taking the northern route through the corridor are those circling back to destinations in the northwestern part of the United States. It was noted that current peak departure periods run about 5 1/2 hours on weekdays, and those would be the only hours the broader fanning operation would be used. This should make it more politically acceptable. Collette added that as a part of this study, Mendota Heights should insist that the northern boundary, once and for all, should be defined as a noise procedure, depicted on the video maps at the control tower, and defended vigorously, just as the southern boundary in Eagan has been since the early 1970's. The consultants then presented a new L10/Leq contour which showed the ground impact of their proposal. It was indicated that it really did not change the land impact much in Eagan, but provided great relief to neighborhoods in Mendota Heights. A question was asked about the "third track" that goes into the far northern part of Mendota Heights along Highway 110. The consultants responded that only about 6 percent of the traffic that Page 6 August 29, 1989 goes out of the 15 degree safety separation fan. There was then an extensive discussion about what the City's position should be for the non-peak hours. The consultants suggested that the current corridor configuration of 90 degrees from 11L and 105 degrees on 11R. Councilmember Jann Blesener expressed her concern that we might be agreeing to 90 degrees on the north, and that someday as the air traffic grows, we would find more and more "peak hours" during which traffic would be going far north into Mendota Heights, but respecting the existing southern boundary in Eagan. She suggested that a more reasonable compromise would be a configuration of 105 degrees on 11L and 135 on 11R. It was agreed that Blesener's proposal was technically feasible, but might change the tenor of the discussion about the whole runway use test request. The consultants warned that the discussion could change from one of an appropriate corridor of accommodating traffic, to one of Mendota Heights trying to shift the land use impacts further south into Eagan and away from Mendota Heights. Collette felt that it might be hard to sell, and was doubtful that it would ever make it through all of the committees to the FAA control tower. There was then further discussion about whether the City should, however, go in with an initial position that compromises its interest, or whether we should ask for the best possible case. Bernie Friel stated that he felt that the Braslau/Collette report was an excellent one, and he liked their proposal. He was concerned however that people might initially react to it as being terribly unfair to Eagan. Upon further discussion of the actual impact review by the noise contours, however, it was pointed out that the real impact on Eagan neighborhoods is not all that severe. ICMA RETIREMENT CORPORATION - TRIPARTITE AGREEMENT AYES: 5 NAYS: 0 ADJOURN Page 7 August 29, 1989 Braslau and Collette indicated that the completion and presentation of this report fulfilled their contract with the City. They added that they would be happy to serve the City further in representing the community's interest with the agencies that would be considering their request for the runway use test. MASAC Representative Bernie Friel responded that he would be strongly in favor of having the Council retain the services of Braslau and Collette to be the spokesmen for us. He said that he felt that they would have credibility with the people to whom they will be speaking. He also urged the Council to act quickly on the matter. Councilmember Buzz Cummins said that he felt the consultants should attend the September 19th Council meeting to give a truncated version of the presentation they had give this evening. This would give the public, both in the audience and at home on cable television, an opportunity to understand what the City is doing. The Council could then be prepared to adopt a resolution that same evening directing the consultants to represent the City in our proposal before MASAC, MAC and the FAA. It was further agreed that the Council would have a pre-meeting workshop at 7:00 P.M. on September 5th, for the purpose of resolving what position the City wished to take on the appropriate corridor for non-peak hours. Motion by Councilmember Hartmann seconded by Councilmember Cummins to approve the ICMA Retirement Corporation - Tripartite Agreement, transferring the assets of City Administrator Kevin Frazell in the Retirement Corporation to the City of Cottage Grove, Minnesota. The meeting was adjourned at 10:20 P.M. Page 8 August 29, 1989 to 7:00 P.M. on Tuesday, September 5, 1989. Kevin D. Frazell City Administrator ATTEST: Charles E. Mertensotto Mayor