05-09-2011 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, May 9, 2011 7:00 o'clock p.m. (LMCD REPORT, Continued) In 2010, the Public Safety Committee reviewed winter speed limits on Lake Minnetonka. Based on the recommendations of the committee, the LMCD made some changes to the ordinances to make sure they were consistent with the State of Minnesota regulations. These changes were received positively by both the public and the Hennepin County Sheriffs Water Patrol. In an effort to improve public awareness of the LMCD, two newsletters are published each year summarizing spring/summer and fall/winter projects and activities. The LMCD also regularly updates its website and contracts for the taping of the LMCD board meetings by the Lake Minnetonka Communications Commission. The LMCD Environmental Committee created a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to assist in a project to determine whether current ordinances should be updated for environmental purposes. A public forum was held in Shorewood last fall to get public input on recommendations from the TAC. Most residents were happy with the way the LMCD is managing the Lake's ecology. Based on public input, it was the consensus of the TAC that proactive changes were not necessary and no further work will be done on updating ordinances for environmental purposes. • As it relates to the State AIS Task Force, 2010 Chair Lisa Whalen served on a statewide task force to discuss AIS prevention and containment ideas in Minnesota. A series of four meetings were coordinated by the MN DNR. As a result of this work, Governor Dayton and the MN DNR commissioner announced • the introduction of new AIS legislation. This legislation authorized the MN DNR to provide more thorough watercraft inspections and enforcement and provided for increased penalties for violations and training and permitting for lake service providers. In 2010, new multiple dock license and variance applications were submitted for a large development on the west side of Halsted Bay named Woodland Cove, LLC, and planned for 1,071 housing units. The site has 8,816 feet of lakeshore frontage with the potential for a large amount of docking and boat storage. Based on the LMCD Code, the maximum number of boat storage units this site could store is 176. Woodland Cove proposed 140 boat storage units and the LMCD approved 117 in an attempt to maximize the protection of environmentally sensitive areas at the site. Greg Nybeck, LMCD Executive Director, indicated he has been with the agency for approximately 17 years. Nybeck presented the draft budget for 2012. The LMCD Board began working on the budget on April 18. The preliminary budget review was held on April 27. This budget will be reviewed with LMCD member cities on June 2. A second review by the LMCD Board is scheduled for June 8 and the third and final review by the LMCD Board is scheduled for June 22. The 2012 LMCD budget is expected to be adopted by the 14 member cities by July 1. The LMCD's strategic plan objectives takes into consideration the financial status of member cities as well as current trends in revenues and expenditures. There was a slight overall levy decrease to member cities of 2.6 percent. Orono's levy went down 2.5 percent from $59,000 to $57,000. Of the 14 cities, only two experienced slight increases because the percentage of their net tax capacity did not decrease as much as the other cities. There is a levy decrease for the LMCD administration budget from $250,000 to $231,000. Two reserve • fund transfers are proposed for this budget. To offset some of the revenue that needs to be reduced due to Page 8 of 17