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02.17.2026 PC MinutesCHANHASSEN PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES FEBRUARY 17, 2026 CALL TO ORDER: Chair Noyes called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Eric Noyes, Vice Chair Steve Jobe, Jeremy Rosengren, Ryan Soller, Mike Olmstead, Dave Grover, and Katie Trevena. MEMBERS ABSENT: None. STAFF PRESENT: Rachel Jeske, Planner; and Eric Maass, Community Development Director. PUBLIC PRESENT: Trace Jacques BKV Group Mike Healy BKV Group Hannah Schmite HKG Bill Diede Bolton & Menk John Gilbert 1641 Jeurissen Lane Dennis Kim 1510 Avienda Lane PUBLIC HEARINGS: 1. CONSIDER SITE PLAN FOR THE CHANHASSEN COMMUNITY CENTER (#26- 01) Community Development Director Eric Maass shared that the City Council approved shortening the name of the Chanhassen Bluffs Community Center to Chanhassen Community Center to avoid any confusion. He shared that the commission would view a series of renderings and a fly- through of the project. He stated that they wanted to give the latest information about the project as of this afternoon. He introduced members of the project team in attendance at the meeting. Trace Jacques, BKV Group, presented several image renderings for the Chanhassen Community Center. He presented a 3-D fly-through of the building. Commissioner Soller asked about the add-alternates and whether they were designed so that, if the budget did not include the capacity, they could be added in the future. Mr. Jacques answered that the alternate add-ons could be added at a future time. He clarified that an additional alternative could be added if there were extra funds. He discussed the design contingency, which was around $2 million. He said that without the add-ons, they were at the $80 million budget. He reviewed other items on the add-alternate list, such as the partition wall, the flooring within the field house, and party rooms. Planning Commission Minutes – February 17, 2026 2 Chair Noyes asked if there would be a ticketing office. Mr. Jacques responded that the ticketing would happen at the welcome desk or there would be a separate table that could be set up if needed. He stated that the welcome desk and the concession stand would be closely linked to each other. He said that there would be a lot of temporary signage to direct the public to the correct location. He stated that it would be an operational decision, which is outside of his role. Commissioner Rosengren asked if the equipment for maintenance of the ice rink was included in the budget. Mr. Jacques answered that it includes all of the maintenance tools, but it only includes one Zamboni. Commissioner Rosengren asked if there would be overhead ambient heaters for the ice rink. Mr. Jacques responded that there would be overhead heaters, but they were not shown in the fly- through. Mr. Jacques resumed the fly-through video, describing features as he went. He included that the playground featured is a placeholder as they haven’t chosen it but mentioned they hope to have a theme. The field house windows will have screens that can be lowered if there is glare. There will be a demising screen between the turf side and the hard-court side of field house. Commissioner Olmstead asked about the length of the running track. Mr. Jacques responded that it was just over six laps per mile. Commissioner Jobe asked if there were centralized bathrooms. Mr. Jacques responded that there are three bathroom options throughout the community center. He stated that there are individual showers in the changing rooms. The changing rooms did not have toilets. He said that the hockey and skating changing rooms had individual showers. There were four changing rooms for the ice rinks, including a varsity boys' and girls'. Commissioner Trevena asked if the south side is planned as a player drop-off. Mr. Jacques said that the preferred arrival for hockey players was on the south side, as it was a straight shot and there would be less volume of people in this location. Commissioner Jobe asked about elevators. Mr. Jacques responded that there would be one primary public elevator and one service elevator. He said that there is a service elevator between the community room and the dance room. Commissioner Rosengren asked if there was an agreement with the school for them to play at the hockey rink. Mr. Maass answered that the city was working with different teams in the community, especially the school hockey teams, to make sure they are happy with the designs and layouts. They plan to include some school branding in the design. Chair Noyes asked about places to park bikes. He asked if there were provisions for current or future solar power. Mr. Jacques responded that there were places to park bikes and planned spaces for solar power. Chair Noyes asked about EV charging. Planning Commission Minutes – February 17, 2026 3 Commissioner Jobe asked about the accuracy of tree counts in the renderings. Mr. Jacques answered that the trees were evenly distributed throughout the site and that there were a lot of trees near the east side of the property and the water retention area. Commissioner Soller asked about the flooring in the field house. Mr. Jacques responded that it was a permanent turf and a permanent hardcourt. He said that the turf could be modified down the road. They wanted to maximize the number of courts. He said that the turf would be a practice field because of its size. Chair Noyes asked about the life span of turf with the proposed use. Mr. Jacques answered that turf and technology had improved, but he did not know the exact number of years. Commissioner Soller asked about the operation of the facility and how the different services would be offered, and who was managing the operation. He asked if they were designing so there could be flexibility to the services offered in the future. Mr. Maass answered that the Sports Facilities company was a part of the team and they were helping create the operations performance. He said that the City Council was exploring a contract with Sports Facilities to manage the day-to-day operations of the community center. Mr. Jacques said that each component was thought about from a revenue perspective. Commissioner Rosengren asked where the high school graduation ceremony would be held. Mr. Jacques responded that the arena floor could be covered, and it was multi-purpose. He said that it was a goal to have the Chanhassen High School graduation ceremony held in this location. Chair Noyes asked if there were any other milestone dates, such as groundbreaking. Mr. Jacques answered that the groundbreaking would be in June 2026, and it would be approximately a year and a half of construction. Chair Noyes asked if it would be completed in 2028 for that graduation ceremony. Mr. Jacques confirmed this information and corrected his earlier comment. Mr. Maass referred to previous questions. In addition to solar power and EV charging, geothermal heating is also being considered in the project. Rachel Jeske, Planner, reviewed the development location and said it was a planned unit development. She stated that they put out the proposed development sign on the property on January 29, and an email was sent to the proposed development group on February 5. Postcards and a public hearing notice in the Sun Sailer were published on February 5. She reviewed the city’s discretion on whether they should approve or deny the site plan. She summarized the site plan review and noted the proposed materials for the architecture of the building and the landscaping. She reviewed the site plan code compliance and the parking. She explained the traffic impact analysis that was completed in 2023 and said that the traffic impact analysis was not largely impacted by the community center. She reviewed the wetland and stormwater Planning Commission Minutes – February 17, 2026 4 management information and stated that the major drainage patterns would remain the same on the site. Commissioner Olmstead asked about the traffic study and the consideration of the middle entrance/exit on Bluff Creek Boulevard. He asked if there was any consideration of a right-turn lane. Bill Diede, Bolton & Menk, responded that the driveways were given to the site, and they had to deal with what was given to the site because of the roundabout. He said the traffic study did not call for a right-turn lane. Commissioner Olmstead said he was worried about the cumulative effect of other developments and that Bluff Creek Boulevard would get pretty interesting. He said if there were events at the community center, they would want to think about the traffic flow. Mr. Maass responded that Charlie Howley had been intimately involved with the project to consider the accesses. The prevailing thought is that most people would choose to go to the roundabout rather than go right- in or right-out. Commissioner Trevena said that the site plan had significant retaining walls. She asked about long-term capital planning for that infrastructure. Mr. Maass responded that the walls were not designed to fail, but if they did, it would be a capital cost that the city would have to take on to offset. Mr. Diede said that the retaining wall was at the top of the engineer’s mind when designing the building. Chair Noyes opened the public hearing. There were no public comments. John Gilbert, 1641 Jeurissen Lane, thanked the city for putting the project together. He asked if the vote tonight confirmed they could start the groundbreaking. He said he recently started going to the Chaska Community Center. He said he loved the steam room, sauna, and hot tub. He asked if there was a way to include these types of amenities. He asked if the feedback from the open house made it to the public domain. He asked if the original and subsequent Performa would be available to the public domain. He proposed, in exchange for a second Zamboni, that they could consider building two platform tennis facilities, which would be used year-round. He said that the city had adequate personnel to run the facility itself. He thought the community center was biased toward the hockey community. Dennis Kim, 1510 Avienda Lane, said he saw many pheasants near the large pond. He said he did not see a golf practice area, and that it would be nice to include it in the design. He expressed gratitude to live in Chanhassen. John Gilbert, 1641 Jeurissen Lane, returned to ask about funds going to resurfacing Bluff Creek Boulevard. He said that the main part of the road was getting a lot of wear and tear, and the money should go toward this part of the road until the construction is completed. Chair Noyes closed the public hearing. Planning Commission Minutes – February 17, 2026 5 Mr. Maass said that the Planning Commission could provide a recommendation on the planned unit development to the City Council, so the groundbreaking could not occur tomorrow. He said that the City Council would have to approve the project. He said, unlike a private project, the city would have to go to bid on the project. The bids would have to come in at or under budget before the project would start. He stated he did not know where a sauna or a hot tub would fit, but the request was noted. He said that the pieces of information would be added to the website, and he can also send the requested information to any individual. He stated he did not know the costs of platform tennis courts, but he can bring the information to the project team. He said the surface of the track would come down to the budget. He stated that the community center was designed for the community, not just recreation. He commented that a golf simulator was in the project at one point, but it was removed because of budgetary constraints, and there are several golf simulators in the community already. Commissioner Rosengren asked how the community center would impact the recreation center. Mr. Maass answered that the recreation center, as it exists today, would no longer be a recreation center. The school district would take over the recreation center space, and the city would still maintain the athletic fields around the current recreation center. Commissioner Grover asked if the elevated track was for running or walking. Mr. Maass responded that it was available for both, and the corners were not banked. Commissioner Soller asked about future-proofing or if the city was restricted to how things were designed. He said he would be thinking about growth opportunities and what would come next based on how things could evolve. Mr. Maass responded that they have it outlined how future aquatics could be added, and the building was designed so it could be expanded. He stated that the building was pushed far to the west to leave additional space on the east. Commissioner Jobe asked who would manage the baseball fields. Mr. Maass responded that there were no proposed changes to the management of the baseball fields or the current recreation fields. Chair Noyes asked about comparisons to other cities regarding outsourcing the management. Mr. Maass answered that they had maximized the parking on-site to facilitate events. Sports Facilities helped them right-size this information. Chair Noyes asked about the knowledge to run two arenas. He asked if they had benchmarked any other facilities to understand how they handle management. Mr. Maass responded that his understanding was that Sports Facilities manages the Chaska location. Commissioner Grover asked about the L-shaped area on the diagram. Mr. Maass answered that it was a potential building expansion in the future, but it was not proposed tonight. Chair Noyes asked if the large open space was a part of the property. Mr. Maass responded that it was a regional stormwater pond for the development. Planning Commission Minutes – February 17, 2026 6 Commissioner Jobe moved, Commissioner Soller seconded that the Chanhassen Planning Commission recommends approval of the requested site plan for the Chanhassen Community Center, subject to the conditions listed in the staff report, and adopts the attached Findings of Fact and Recommendation. All voted in favor, and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: 1. APPROVAL OF PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES DATED JANUARY 20, 2026 Commissioner Trevena moved, Commissioner Grover seconded to approve the Chanhassen Planning Commission summary minutes dated January 20, 2026, as presented. All voted in favor, and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS: None. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS: Planning Director Maass said that Chair Noyes and Vice Chair Jobe applied for and received a reappointment to the Planning Commission for another three-year term He stated it was going to be a big year for construction. He shared that the developer announced they would not be going forward with Minnewashta Apartments on Hazeltine Boulevard, and the property remains available for development. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION: None. OPEN DISCUSSION: None. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Olmstead moved, Commissioner Jobe seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor, and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. The Planning Commission meeting was adjourned at 7:34 p.m. Submitted by Eric Maass Planning Director