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1) Len Levine Presentation on Transit Oriented Development's <br /> <br />Len Levine presented a power point presentation to the City Council on Transit Oriented <br />Developments. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig inquired if Mr. Levine had any recommendations on encouraging the <br />transit system. <br /> <br />Mr. Levine replied that part of it is a political problem. With the traffic congestion in the area the <br />State is going to have to deal with it sooner or later. He also recommended that the Council <br />make another trip to Chicago to allow the new Councilmembers to view some of the transit- <br />oriented developments. <br /> <br />Mayor Gamec agreed that it would be beneficial for the Councilmembers to see the <br />developments first hand, but it is a difficult time to justify spending the money during this tough <br />budget times. <br /> <br />Councilmember Strommen stated that she was in favor of transit-oriented developments, but <br />cautioned a little bit with the communities they viewed in comparison to the City of Ramsey <br />because those areas already had transit systems in place. <br /> <br />2) Helicopter Ordinance <br /> <br />Community Development Director Frolik stated that last year, the City received complaints <br />regarding helicopter take-offs and landings being conducted from an urban single family lot <br />located in the vicinity of 148th Avenue, Potassium Street and Sunwood Drive. At that time, staff <br />consulted with MnDOT office of Aeronautics to gain some insight into this type of activity and <br />how it can be regulated. MnDOT issues three types of heliport licenses: 1) personal use, <br />restricted to use by one person; 2) private use, which is for use by multiple persons at the <br />invitation of the owner (an example would be the heliport at a hospital); and 3) public use, which <br />is unrestricted and open to the public. Current legislation says that the MnDOT office of <br />Aeronautics can no longer require licensing of personal use airfields unless they are within five <br />miles of an airport. If they are outside the five-mile radius, the applicant can request that the <br />personal use airfield be licensed by MnDOT Office of Aeronautics. One of MnDOT's <br />requirements for licensing personal or private use airfields is that the applicant conforms to the <br />Federal Aviation Regulations requiring the owner to file a notice of intent to establish a landing <br />area with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In response to the notice, the FAA does <br />an airspace evaluation and responds by either objecting or not objecting to that use of airspace. <br />However, FAA is not a licensing agency and even if they determine that the use of the airspace <br />and landing area is unsafe, they cannot prohibit someone from utilizing the landing area. But <br />MnDOT, the licensing agency, can refuse a license application and typically does if there is a <br />negative determination from FAA. In addition, MnDOT's decision to issue a license is based on <br />safety concerns and they do not take noise into consideration. If the City wants noise to be a <br />consideration, then the City would have to require its own permit and identify noise as a factor to <br />be considered. The City doesn't have the expertise on staff and would have to seek outside <br /> <br />City Council Work Session/July 8, 2003 <br /> Page 3 of 5 <br /> <br /> <br />