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120208 Planning commission CITY OF NEW HOPE 4401 XYLON A VENUE NORTH NEW HOPE, HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 55428 PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES December 2, 2008 City Halt 7 p.m. CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL CONSENT BUSINESS PUBLIC HEARING COMMITTEE REPORTS Design and Review Committee Item 5.1 Codes and Standards Committee Item 5.2 OLD BUSINESS Miscellaneous Issues NEW BUSINESS Comprehensive Plan Item 7.1 The New Hope Planning Commission met in regular session pursuant to due call and notice thereof; Chair Hemken called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. Present: Paul Anderson, Jim Brinkman, Pat Crough, Kathi Hemken, Jeff Houle, Sandra Hunten, Roger Landy, Ranjan Nirgude, Bill Oelkers, Tom Schmidt Steve Svendsen Absent: None Also Present: Curtis Jacobsen, Community Development Director, Eric Weiss, Community Development Assistant There was no Consent Business on the agenda. There were no Public Hearing items on the agenda. Commissioner Svendsen reported that the Design and Review Committee did not meet in November. Mr. Jacobsen added that at this time staff was not aware of any new planning applications to be submitted for the January commission meeting. The committee would be contacted if a meeting would be necessary on December 18. Chair Hemken stated that the Codes and Standards Committee did not meet in November. In answer to a question regarding the opening of the Holiday Station, Chair Hemken reported she had been told December 17. Mr. Curtis Jacobsen reported that the city had previously sent its Comprehensive Plan update to adjoining communities, Hennepin County, the school district, watersheds, and park districts. The six-month review period ended on November 10. Mr. Jacobsen stated that only minor comments were received and there would be no need to amend the Comprehensive Plan based on those comments. The city of Plymouth commented on the 2030 traffic volumes along Highway 169. Commissioner Houle questioned whether MnDOT's numbers had been utilized for streets crossing Highway 169 accessing Plymouth and New Hope, and this was answered in the affirmative. MnDOT's numbers were considerably lower than the original numbers the city used and more in line with the volumes Plymouth had projected. Commissioner Landy added that Met Council would now review the plan and may offer additional comments. Administrative Citations Item 7.2 Mr. Eric Weiss explained that staff had been discussing the possibility of implementing a new program where staff could issue administrative citations for offenses such as junk cars, trash cans, weeds, maintenance issues, et cetera. Many cities issue administrative citations for certain offenses which would lower the fee due because it does not include the $72 state surcharge. Due to state regulations, the state auditor and attorney general have issued statements against cities issuing citations for low level traffic violations. Mr. Jacobsen added that staff would like the commission to start thinking about this issue. Staff intends to have the City Council consider this issue and direct the Codes and Standards Committee to study the matter and develop an ordinance for review by the Planning Commission and Council. Mr. Jacobsen stated he felt that many of the fines set by the courts are excessive for the offense. Animosity is created between the city and residents when a citation is written to a property owner not properly following city code. This would also be a source of revenue for the city. Commissioner Houle questioned how much money was being spent and how much was received from the state under the current policy. Mr. Steve Sondralt city attorney, stated this would be impossible to determine due to the fact that the monies received from the state includes all tickets for code violations written by the inspectors, traffic violations, and all other tickets written by the Police Department and administered by the court system. Occasionally, a resident may contest a ticket in which case a court date is set and the inspectors must go to court to testify. The greater majority of tickets are just paid. Mr. Sondrall stated that New Hope cases come before the court every Thursday. Chair Hemken asked about the process for someone contesting an administrative citation. Mr. Sondrall stated that the city would need to set up a hearing procedure and the hearing would go before the City Councilor to an independent law judge or hearing officer. That person would make a determination as to whether the ticket was appropriate and issue a fine according to a schedule previously established by the City Council. Mr. Sondrall explained that misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors and felonies generally require jail time limits. Petty misdemeanors (code violations) are not considered crimes and do not require jail time, only a fine. The county handles the felony cases. Commissioner Hunten initiated discussion on costs associated with the hiring of a hearing officer. Mr. Sondrall stated that the state had administrative law judges the city could hire on an as needed basis. This would only be needed if a citation was contested. If the city were to implement this program, all of the fine money would be kept in the city. Currently, the city receives very little of the money collected. Commissioner Hunten stressed that the city would incur costs associated with handling all of this in house and wondered what that would cost. Mr. Weiss stated that he spoke with Crystal staff and they only had seven citations contested in three years that needed to come before a hearing officer. One of the reasons residents don't contest the ticket as often is because the fine is lmver. Mr. Plcuming Commission Meeting 2 December 2, 2008 Sondrall stated that if the administrative fine was not paid it could not be assessed to the property taxes. The city could issue a criminal complaint if a fine is not paid and take the resident to district court. A question was raised whether the city would write more administrative citations than it does now knowing the fees are high. Mr. Jacobsen stated that he did not believe the inspectors were purposely holding back from writing tickets due to the fines. He pointed out that keeping the revenues collected in the city would be a better way to go. Even lowering the current fee by half or more, the city would benefit by retaining the entire amount rather than only a small portion the court sends to the city. This system and lower fines may lessen the ill will between neighbors when a violation is reported at a neighboring property. Mr. Jacobsen reiterated that this topic was introduced to get the commission thinking about this issue and to see if there might be a value to the program. The issue would be studied by the Codes and Standards Committee and brought forward to the Planning Commission and City Council for consideration and approval. Cities utilizing this program all speak favorably of it. In answer to a question, it was noted the building officiat inspectors and police officers are allowed to \'\'rite citations. The procedure to follow prior to the issuance of a ticket for code violations would probably stay the same. Staff sends a notice for correction of a violation within a specified amount of time and then d1ecks the property after that time. If the violation is not corrected, staff sends another letter. If the violation is not corrected after the second notice, a citation is sent to the property owner. City staff was trying to achieve compliance of existing city codes in the most effective way. Chair Hemken pointed out that in the material provided to the Commission, it stated that the state may withhold highway funds if the cities issued administrative citations for traffic violations. In conversations with Senator Ann Rest and Representative Sandra Peterson, Chair Hemken indicated they felt cities should not issue tickets for traffic violations. Mr. Sondrall stated that cities were not allowed to write administrative citations for traffic violations per Minnesota Statutes. Zoning and building code violations can be dealt with by the cities. Mr. Jacobsen stated that if the Commission felt it worthy of study, staff would take the matter to the City Council to determine if it wanted the Codes and Standards Committee to study the issue in detail cu1d propose an ordinance for review by the full Plcuming Commission and City Council. He suggested that as mayor, Chair Hemken would be eligible to sit on a number League of Minnesota Cities committees cu1d could possibly work with the League on broadening the cities' authority. At this time it would be impossible for city staff to determine how much revenue would be generated or what the cost of running the program would be. Mr. Sondrall added that administrative fines were established by the city for failure to comply with the alcohol and tobacco complicu1Ce checks. Planning Commission Meeting 3 December 2, 2008 MOTION Item 7.2 Motion to Approve Minutes ANNOUNCEMENTS ADJOURNMENT Planning Commission Meeting Motion by Commissioner Houle, seconded by Commissioner Schmidt, to refer the matter of administrative citations for codes and quality of life issues to the City Council for consideration and direction for the Codes and Standards Committee to further study the issue and provide a recommendation. Voting in favor: Anderson, Brinkman, Crough, Hemken, Houle Hunten, Landy, Nirgude, Oelkers, Schmidt, Svendsen None None Voting against: Absent: Motion carried. Motion by Commissioner Landy, seconded by Commissioner Schmidt, to approve the Planning Commission minutes of October 7, 2008. All voted in favor. Motion carried. Chair Hemken reminded the Commissioners that a new chair would need to be elected at the first meeting in 2009. She also asked that the Commission think about reducing the size of the commission from eleven members to nine, which was a very workable number. It was noted that there should be an odd number of commissioners to alleviate any tied votes. Commissioner Anderson was the only commissioner up for re- appointment at the end of 2008. Anderson indicated he had agreed to another term. He represents the business community, as well as Commissioner Brinkman, who is a business owner and resident in the city. A suggestion was to leave the number of commissioners at ten for the time being. For a ten member commission, a quorum would be achieved at six. The subcommittees can each have five members and not violate the open meeting law. Discussion ensued on the fact that Commissioner Landy was not a regular subcommittee member, but had been considered a floater. He attended either subcommittee meeting in place of an absent member or sat on special task forces. Chair Hemken also chaired the Codes and Standards Committee. Commissioner Landy, along with all the commissioners, thanked Chair Hemken for her time on the Commission. The Planning Commission meeting was uncu1imously adjourned at 7:39 p.m. Respectfully submitted, c;;p~ '5J~ Pamela Sylvester Recording Secretary 4 December 2, 2008