Recent actions

March 17: The City Council unanimously decided to push back to at least April decisions on rezoning and permits for a controversial proposal to expand Southtown Baptist Church at 2600 W. 82nd St. and build 90 units of senior housing in a four-story building on what is now church land.

The senior development, which would be built by United Properties, would be near single-family homes. Many residents had objected, saying the building would be too tall for the area and would create too much traffic.

Some council members said they welcomed the building of affordable homes for seniors but wondered if the building could be farther from single-family homes and toward the property's busier eastern edge.

MARY JANE SMETANKA

March 18: The City Council approved the overall development plan for the 43-acre "Gateway" redevelopment project near the intersection of Interstate 494 and Hwy. 100.

The council also rezoned the area from office to mixed development, which would allow building of a hotel, offices and more than 600 units of senior housing that are planned near Fred Richards Golf Course.

The project will go up in phases, and the developer still has to bring final site plans to the city for approval.

March 11: The City Council voted against signing a three-year extension of its recycling contract with Waste Management. The current contract expires Dec. 31. Council members said they were worried that the contract would limit new initiatives, such as organics recycling and multi-family recycling.

The city has negotiated its recycling contracts with Golden Valley and Minnetonka since 1988, and Waste Management would "only accept an agreement ... from all three cities, not one or two cities," according to a staff report. Minnetonka and Golden Valley have expressed interest in signing the contract.

With this contract, Waste Management offered the three cities 80 percent of the revenue in 2009, 78 percent in 2010 and 76 percent in 2011. The highest percentage the city staff could find in other cities was 75 percent -- one reason why the staff had recommended approving the contract extension.

JENNA ROSS

March 17: The City Council discussed changes to an ordinance that regulates garbage container storage. The current city law says garbage containers must be "out of public view insofar as possible." But city staff gets hundreds of calls every year about violations of the rule. Of the 4,785 code violations in 2007, 22 percent were for garbage containers in public view.

"A lot of people say, 'Doesn't the city have more important things to check than trash cans?'" he said. "But if little things go unchecked for too long, you can end up with a neighborhood where property maintenance goes down and crime goes up."

Jullie also said the city doesn't necessarily seek out garbage-container violations but that city workers often run across them in the course of neighborhood inspections. The city will give residents warnings if they are in violation but eventually may issue a citation for $200.