Loading...
05/08/2001 - City Council Special. y;.;•::....::.r:::::::.. MEMO city of eagan TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCII.MEMBERS FROM: CITY ADMINISTRATOR HEDGES DATE: MAY 3, 2001 SUBJECT: SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING/TUESDAY, MAY 8 A Special City Council meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, May 8 beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. As a reminder, any Special City Council meetings on the second Tuesday are to be televised under the policy that Council agreed to earlier this year. If any member of the City Council would like a sandwich prior to the Special City Council, please notify Mira and arrangements will be made for you. The purpose of the meeting is to consider the following agenda items that include: ^ Part III C.I.P. 2002-2006/Public Work Project ^ Emergency Preparedness Plan Update ^ Fire Department Aerial Truck Replacement ^ Review Public Notification Policy for Mailing Public Hearing Notices • Discussion regarding Placement of Signs which include Election Signs PART III C.LP. 2002-2006/PUBLIC WORKS PROJECT The Public Works Department has prepared the Five (5) Year Capital Improvement Program (C.I.P.) Part III for the years 2002-2006. The C.I.P. continues to refine and re-evaluate the community's infrastructure while taking into consideration approved C.I.P.'s of Dakota County and MNDOT. The document enclosed without page number includes an Executive Summary memo from Director Colbert on the proposed expenditures, an Executive Summary memo from Acting Director of Finance Pepper on the proposed revenues for the C.I.P. Part III and the detailed document. Presentation of the C.I.P. at this time of the year allows the City Council to prioritize, as a matter of public policy, those capital improvements that are to be considered as part of the 2002 Work Program. Staff needs more than a year of lead time to begin the process of developing feasibility reports, holding public hearings and then proceeding with the projects which takes several months in order to meet a construction time frame for the next year. It is anticipated that the City Council will review the schedule as outlined by the Public Works Department, make any changes/modifications to the program and then the document will be scheduled at a regular City Council meeting for input by the public and a final ratification. ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: To provide staff direction regarding the Five (5) Year C.I.P.2002-2006. Please note that the other element of the Five (5) Year C.I.P. that relates to Part III is for the park system and their Five (5) Year C.I.P. will be presented when the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission has their joint meeting with the City Council. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PLAN UPDATE Periodically the City reviews the All Hazardous Plan, which we commonly refer to as the Emergency Preparedness Plan. A goal at the January City Council retreat was to review and update the plan. A memo, a copy is attached on pages ~ through _~, was distributed in February to the City Council highlighting the Eagan Emergency Plan Review, the July 2000 Super Storm Operations and other improvements for the Police Department. Copies of the plan will be presented at the meeting on Tuesday. ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: To receive the updated "All Hazard" plan patterned and formatted from the state prototype plan and to provide any comments or direction to staff about the document. FIRE DEPARTMENT AERIAL TRUCK REPLACEMENT The Fire Department Truck Committee is recommending that the 1977 fire aerial truck be scheduled for replacement. In order to properly schedule the aerial platform, an appropriation of $800,000 to $1 million will be necessary. The replacement is proposed for the 2003 Capital Improvement Budget. In order to receive delivery during 2003, it will be necessary to provide direction to the Fire Department Truck Committee to begin preparation of the specifications and advertisement for bids during 2001. Recently, the Fire Department was given a demonstration by one of the companies that build fire aerial trucks and there is a 2001 demo that could provide quite a savings to the City. Since the City Council adopted a Capital Allocation Program for Part II of the C.I.P. to fund all new and replacement capital items, there has been an understanding that specialized equipment such as the aerial truck are exempt from the funding given the cost and that depreciation is much longer than most of the equipment that is purchased and replaced by all City departments. This City could sell equipment certificates and spread the sale over a 3 to 5 year period as a special tax dividing the cost of the equipment over 3 to 5 equal payments levied against the entire community. The City Administrator and Fire Chief will speak more to the request at the meeting on Tuesday. Enclosed on page ~ is a copy of a memo from Chief Jensen, entitled "Replacement Of Aerial Platform Unit 1211". ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: To provide direction to the City Administrator and Fire Chief regarding replacement of the 1977 aerial fire truck. REVIEW PUBLIC NOTIFICATION POLICY FOR MAII,ING PUBLIC HEARING NOTICES At recent Council meeting direction was given to staff to bring the City's 3 50' mailed notification procedure to a Special Council Meeting for discussion. a This topic was discussed by the City Council most recently in 1995/1996. Discussion at that time centered around the adequacy of a 350' radius for mailed notification. The content of the Council discussion was that increasing the notice range to 450' or 500' would nevertheless result in a property owner 451' or 501' from a development site claiming the notification procedure to be lacking. In addition, the Council also discussed incorporating a policy whereby staffwould determine, on a case by case basis, when to exceed the 350' due to the type of project or the area of the City would result in staff being forced to make arbitrary decisions that would certainly open staff (and the City) to criticism for not extending the notice area for any given project. The determination of the Council was that the City should maintain the State of Minnesota mandate of a 350' notification for any application requiring a Public Hearing and that the City institute the Development Notification signage to be placed on properties with a pending application. ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: To provide any further direction to City staff regarding development notification. DISCUSSION PLACEMENT OF SIGNS (INCLUDING ELECTION SIGNS) At their regular meeting of February 20, 2001, the City Council directed that action on this signage issue be continued to allow the Advisory Planning Commission (APC) to review the situation and make a recommendation to the Council regarding this issue. Background information is attached on page g through 1L. As you may recall, the Council had the City Attorney's office review the situation and provide an opinion. This information was provided to the Council on February 20, 2001 and basically stated that the Council cannot allow signs in certain rights-of--way and not others, cannot allow certain types of signs in rights-of--way and not others, and that the law does not allow the City to regulate the number or size of campaign signs in areas where said signage is allowed. At their Workshop Meeting held on April 12, 2001, the APC unanimously recommended that signage be prohibited within public rights-of--way and on public property. Meeting summary notes are attached on page ~. ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: To provide direction to the City staff regarding placement of signs; specifically, campaign signs. /s/ Thomas L. Hedges City Administrator 3 MEMORANDUM EAGAN POLICE DEPARTMENT 3830 Pilot Knob Road y~Teo~f Eagan, MN 55122 ~" ' 651-681-4700 "` Eq~~,N 651-681-4738 FAX DATE: February 13, 2001 TO: Tom Hedges, City Administrator FROM: Kent Therkelsen, Chief of Police SUBJECT: City of Eagan Emergency Plan As you requested, I am submitting this information for City Council use in their review of the City of Eagan Emergency Plan and its use during the July, 2000 Super Storm event. This is not intended as a critique of the operations of the individual operating departments of the City. The information starts with a general overview of the Emergency Plan and concludes with a discussion of how the plan vas used in the July storm including areas of improvement that were noted. Emergency Management Coordinator Ken Southorn was instrumental in the preparation of this information. Eagan Emergency Plan Review The Eagan Emergency Preparedness Plan is a comprehensive "All Hazazd" plan patterned and formatted from the state prototype plan. By necessity, the plan is general in nature, providing guidelines rather than attempting to identify all situations that could possibly occur. The plan and associated annexes identify the responsibilities of city departments, outside agencies and certain individuals relative to activities that may be required in response to any disaster. The existing governmental structure is the basis for emergency operations. Governmental agencies/departments perform emergency activities related to those they perform on a day-to-day basis. The plan is designed to allow the field commander the latitude of making decisions based upon the situation encountered. The Plan consists of various sections, including the general plan, annexes, resource manual and "checklists" for each function. The plan and annexes identify emergency responsibilities by functional area or department, agency or individual. The resource manual is a comprehensive listing to assist the emergency management team in securing needed resources required to mitigate the situation. The "checklists" are reminders for individuals to address key activities during the disaster. It is important to note that the plan, including resource manual and checklists, are reviewed and updated annually as necessary. In the event of a disaster, the city departments that are trained and equipped to deal with the immediate threat provide emergency response. The field commander will apply the necessary resources required to resolve the situation at hand. The scene of the disaster is operated under the Incident Command System. Emergency Plan Page 2 All activity is channeled through the command stricture to assure the coordination, control and command of the situation. Freelancing outside this structured command causes confusion and is detrimental to the resolution of the situation. If the magnitude of the incident escalates beyond the capacity of the field command, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) will be activated to enhance communication between departments/agencies and provide overall coordination of the incident. Partial or complete activation of the EOC is accomplished based upon the magnitude of the incident. The Emergency Operations Center is located in the training room of the Police Department. The EOC, when activated, is staffed by key city personnel and individuals from relevant outside agencies or organizations. These individuals are typically department heads or other individuals who can support the field command operations. The EOC becomes the logistics center to support the field with necessary personnel, equipment, or other supplies. In addition, this is where the department heads and the City Administrator can confer and provide policy decisions for field personnel. City resources must be utilized to the maximum before State or Federal assistance will be made available. In the event of an emergency, exceeding the capabilities of the city and county, the State of Minnesota Duty Officer maybe called for additional resources. National Guard support maybe available, but is not guaranteed. Only the Governor, as Commander-ln-Chief, can activate the National Guard. Requests to activate the National Guard must be made by the County Sheriff. July 2000 Super Storm Operations unng t e storm o u y ,many City and external agencies responded to the emergency. Police, Fire, and Public Works were activated to deal with the immediate danger to personal safety and city infrastructure. Notable among the non-city responders were regional representatives from the Minnesota Department of Emergency Management, the Dakota County Emergency Management Coordinator, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, NECHAMA (Jewish Disaster Relief), and a host of volunteers from local area churches and businesses, as well as numerous individuals who volunteered on their own. Emergency response to the super storm was prompt and efficient. Search and rescue efforts were heroic and carried out in the most professional manner. Security, traffic control and response to "regular" emergencies were well executed in the face of the massive call load being experienced by the 9-1-1 center. Public works utilized their resource lists to provide emergency protection to the roads and infrastructure of the city. Cooperation between city departments was good, but could have been improved with the activation of the EOC. Improvements ctrvat~on. In this particular disaster, the number of victims and the large area affected was not immediately evident to those in field command positions. Had the severity and extent of damage been known earlier, the EOC would have been activated to assist in the coordination of the incident. Compounding this problem in the July disaster was the fact that the disaster area grew as water continued to move through the city for several days after the storm. Volunteer Coordination. We need to designate a coordinator and staff to handle volunteer efforts. The number of volunteer agencies and individuals who came forward was gratifying, but created coordination problems for city staff. Ultimately the Salvation Army provided an 800 number and staff to accept volunteer offers and needs. Unfortunately, the information was not easily communicated to the residents and some needs and volunteers were not identified. s Emergency Plan Page 3 Outbound Communications. News media, direct mailing, the city web page and leaflet distribution were all used to communicate with the public. Implementation of a "reverse 911" notification system, currently being investigated by Dakota County and the public safety departments within the county, will enable public safety to send messages to all working telephones in areas defined by staff. Related to this was a concern about coordination of information being distributed by the City. Press releases and leaflets were made available to city staff in phone answering positions, but were not numbered or dated. This led to confusion over which version was most current. Command Vehicle. This and other events during the last two or three years have pointed out a need for an updated mobile command vehicle. The existing command vehicle, a home converted school bus, does not have the proper configuration or equipment to properly direct a field command operation. The current command vehicle is not scheduled to be replaced until 2005. I hope this information will be useful to you, the Mayor and City Council Members. Police and Emergency Management staff are available to meet with you, other staff, and the City Council as necessary. C/ Emergency Management Coordinator Ken Southorn Captain Rick Swanson Captain James McDonald 6 CITY OF EAGAN TO: Tom Hedges, City Administrator FROM: CRAIG JENSEN, FIRE CHIEF DATE: April 5, 2001 SUBJECT: Replacement Of Aerial Platform Unit 1211 The Fire Department Truck Committee, at my direction, has been looking into the replacement of the department's aerial platform, which is built on a 1977 Howe chassis with an 85-foot ladder. This vehicle is 24 years old and is scheduled for replacement in the 2003 capital improvement budget. Our aerial platform has had some extensive breakdowns and has become unreliable. It has failed during both training and fires. At no time have the failures been life threatening, but they have delayed effective fire fighting tactics. Due to the unreliability of the aerial, it does not respond to calls that NFPA (National Fire Protection Administration) states it should respond to. These calls would include industrial fires, school fires, and multi-family housing fires, i.e. apartment fires. The aerial, as well as all fire equipment, must pass an annual certification. This unit has needed extensive repairs performed to assure its passing. The aerial platform has had or does have hydraulic failures, broken welds on the ladder, wiring problems, corrosion of outriggers, engine oil leaks, and of course the frame is corroding after 24 years. In August of 2000, it passed certification for one more year. The reason I bring this to your attention is the time frame needed to write specifications and build a new vehicle of this nature. It will take approximately one year in designing and writing specifications and another year for the construction. The cost factor is also an issue that needs to be considered. At the present time, the cost of a new aerial platform is in the neighborhood of $800,000.00 without any equipment, and an additional $100,000.00 is needed for the equipment. We have been informed by the manufacturer that these prices will increase about 5% per year. Aerial manufactures have also noted that our current aerial platform has little or no trade-in value and should be advertised and/or sold at action. The Fire Department would like to request approval from City Council to write specifications and advertise for bids for a new aerial platform this year with a delivery date of January, 2003. The funding for the aerial platform will also need to be determined. Please arrange for this item to be placed on the agenda at a Council workshop or as a consent agenda item at aregularly-scheduled City Council meeting. 7 Agenda Information Memo Februan 20, 2001 Eagan City Council Meeting E. SIGN ORDINANCE ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: To consider sign ordinance regulations (including campaign signs). FACTS: > In November 2000, the Council directed the City Attorney's office to research and prepare an ordinance regulating campaign signage within the City. > The attorne}•'s research has determined that the City does not have the ability to allow signage in certain public rights-of-wa}' and not others. Secondly, state law does not allow the Cit} to reeulate the number or size of campaign signs in areas where said signage is allowed. > As such, the Cit} Attorney has prepared a draft ordinance amendment that would prohibit the placement of signage (including campaign signs) within public rights-of-way. ATTACHMENTS: (2) Cih Attorney memo. page~QL. Draft Ordinance Amendment, page ~ throuah~. S SE`'ERSON, SHELDON, DOUGHERTY & MOLENDA, P.A. TO: Tom Hedges, City Administrator FROM: Michael G. Dougherty, City Attorney DATE: February 13, 2001 RE: Campaign Signs In November of 2000, the City Council directed our office to research and prepare an ordinance prohibiting the placement of campaign signs in the city right-of--way except at two designated locations in the quadrants of the City. The Council's direction was in part based upon an understanding that the City of Burnsville, while prohibiting signs in its right-of--way, allow s signage in portions of its right-of--way. In discussions with Burnsville staff, we learned that the City prohibits signage within its right-of--way; however, annually the staff recommends where signage may be allowed in portions of certain Burnsville parks. The use of Burnsville parks is not addressed in any ordinance, but is rather done through a resolution by the Council. With the above in mind, we have prepared an ordinance amending Chapter 4 of the City Code to prohibit any signage in the city right-of--way, other than governmental identification signs. The prohibition of signs is an exercise of the police powers of the City, in order to protect and ensure the safety of the users of the right-of--way. The rationale to support a ban of signage in the public right-of--way may be undermined, however, if the Council were to allow signage in designated right-of--way. Is it safer at the designated intersections than elsewhere in the City? Additionally, as mentioned in an earlier memo, state law provides that non-commercial signs of any size may be posted from August 1 in a state general election year until ten days following the state general election. If the City were to designate quadrants for the location of campaign signs the City still could not control the size of the signs during the election cycle. The regulation of signage is clearly a policy issue. The proposed ordinance meets one of the criteria sought by the Council. The exception the Council sought is difficult to defend as a necessary police action without specific criteria that would ensure safe conditions at the quadrant sign locations. MGD~jIt 9 ~~ RA D p ORDINA_'~1CE NO. 2ND SERIES ~ ~ ~~ AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF EAGAN, MINNESOTA, AMENDING EAGAIv' CITY CODE CHAPTER FOUR ENTITLED "CONSTRUCTION LICENSING, PERivIITS AI~~ REGULATION" BY AMENDING SECTION 4.20, SUBD. 1(c) AND 3 REGARDING SIG? REGULATIONS A~1D BY ADOPTING BY REFERENCE EAGAN CITY CODE CHAPTER l AND SECTION 4.99. The City Council of the City of Eagan does ordain: Section I .Eagan City Code Chapter Four is hereby amended by adding the following definition to Section 4.20, Subd.l(C), to read as follows: 9. Governmental sign means any sign placed, erected or maintained bX a governmental entity or ag~ency for identification of or directions to a public facility or street or for trafl~c control. Section 2. Eagan City Code Chapter Four is hereby amended by changing Section 4.20, Subd. 3, to read as follows: Subd 3 General sign standards. C. Locatio~r to right-of--way. No sign shall be located nearer than ten feet from any street-~ or railroad right-of--way, except ems} residential name signs which are attached to mailboxes, np ~vate lampposts, or the like. H. Location in right-of--way and public property. No sign, other than governmental si ns. shall be erectedLplaced or located within any street ri t-of-water upon an~public propertk No sien shall be affixed to an,~ty pole. I. Location on private property. No sign shall be erected placed or located upon private property without the permission of the property owner or the lessee. Section 3. Eagan City Code Chapter 1 entitled "General Provisions and Definitions Applicable to the Entire City Code Including Penalty for Violation"' and Section 4.99, entitled "Violation a Misdemeanor" are hereby adopted in their entirety by reference as though repeated verbatim. /o ~Rp,Ej ~aaFr Section 4. Effective Date. This ordinance shall take effect upon its adoption and publication according to law. ATTEST: CITY OF EAGAN City Council By: Mira McGarvey Its: Deputy Clerk Date Ordinance Adopted: Date Ordinance Published in the Legal Newspaper: By: Patricia E. Awada Its: Mayor // SUMMARY OF THE ADVISORY PLANNING COMMISSION WORKSHOP Eagan Minnesota April 12, 2001 Senior Planner Ridley explained that the City Council has asked the APC to provide comment and recommendation on the City's campaign sign regulations particularly location requirements. Discussion occurred regarding the uniqueness of Eagan allowing signs in public right-of--way and on public property and the negative affect this "free-for-all" approach has on the community as a whole. A consensus of the APC was that the most appropriate location for this signage was on private property only and members unanimously recommended that campaign signs be prohibited within public rights-of--way and on public property. The APC also offered to hold a public hearing concerning the proposed sign regulation changes if the city Council decided that it would be useful. iz