welcome everyone and thank you for tuning in to tonight's work session work sessions are conducted to provide the city council with introductory information opportunities to provide staff guidance and to facilitate initial conversations on a topic no votes are taken as such there is not an opportunity provided for members of the community to provide comments or ask questions during a work session those interested in providing comments to the city council on any City related topic are encouraged to participate in the community comment during the regular meeting via Zoom that begins at 7:00 information related to joining the zoom conferencing Services can be found by clicking on the meeting agenda all right hey Lori Could you um could you turn on your camera please Lori or her audio Lori Sarah if you're there could you turn on your camera please hello Lori Lori hello can someone on the staff side of things Brent would you mind giving her a shooting her a text laori it looks like you're off mute um but we'd love to see your face there we go all right um all right um item number two on the agenda the strategic planning summary Mr Merrick thank you so I'm going to share my screen here can everyone see that yes y um so something kind of new that we haven't done in past strategic planning exercises is is kind of do a summary of the day uh we've typically gone right into the action plan and kind of two things have provided us with the opportunity unfortunately uh we're wen't able to have Christy M join us um I think keys to this is the day goes by so fast that sometimes we often forget like what we talked about and so this is an opportunity uh to verify uh as a group that yeah this makes sense but also an opportunity for council member to to hear not just from staff what we heard but to get a little bit of background from the council that participated and then to make sure that this is something that still um meets the smell test if you will and then from this discussion then we'll work on creating that next step that we're used to doing related to the action plan so and Brent I just wanted to pop in and say thank all the council members who did all this hard work and I apologize I couldn't be there um obviously the council knows but we had a family medical emergency so um I I'm looking forward to hearing more about it through the presentation and I just want to say again thank you to everyone who did all the input here and um I'm sorry that I couldn't be there to join you that date so the breaking this down into five separate themes um because there is you know lots of activity uh broke it down into 5 are has related to Communications and engagement Community Development Downtown Development infrastructure management and organizational development and again once we can verify with the council you know that these kind of communication or these initiative themes or what we we use the term a lot during the session threads um are still consistent with your thinking then we can work together on an action plan and I Envision an action plan where we give you probably too many things to do and then for from there you kind of screen it down to for some priorities kind of using the old adage if you have if everything's a priority nothing's a priority so there'll still be some heavy lifting moving forward uh so getting into Communications and engagement uh really trying to focus on internal and external uh educational opportunities recognizing there's a lot of jargon a lot of processes that we're we're used to on an annual basis um but even as we kind of come and go through you know in and out of the organization new Commissioners to come on there are a lot of things that we could probably take some time to educate ourselves on and each other with and so um taking opportunities uh to do that uh which kind of folds into communication and engagement strategies of of planning and resources so how do we communicate how do we engage with residents what are our expectations what are resident expectations um one of the examples was developing a communication strategy and policy um the third uh education and marketing of water service and uh one of the examples that I think might be helpful helpful to council member mock is we used an example of uh a recent candidate for one of the commissions talked about their water bill and how it was um shocking to them and so as a staff we looked up their their water bill which was about $75 a month and then recognizing that they moved from the C city of Eden prayer we did an analysis of what their water bill was with the city of Eden Prairie it was about $35 a month and the conversation really revolved around um is the perspective of that former Eden Prairie resident now a Carver resident and then so for example uh $75 could be considered a lot if you were paying $5 previously uh but some folks who are probably already in Carver look at their water bill compared to their Center Point Bill and Excel Bill and think $75 is reasonable and this understanding the context to that and the layers within that do we need to maybe talk a little bit about that and then also talk about some of the challenges related to some of the social media posts we've had related to discolored water and the cost of water just trying to maybe change the narrative regarding our water service or or maybe influencing in a different way it often feels like we're apologizing for the level of service and the quality of water and the cost of it more than we are promoting what we do as a city um inclusive and welcoming community and engagement of residents I would couple that with um looking at the data that suggests that the City's population um 75% of it uh approximately is new to Carver since the year 20000 and what that means how do we welcome uh residents what are their expectations compared to to folks that have lived here longer and then that kind of um moved into you know wanting to have large community Gatherings and building the kind of the social network or fabric of a community Through Gatherings but then also understanding how do how does the city manage those expectations if there's you know we were um somewhat fortunate in that there there tends to be just kind of the Carver lions are the facilitators of that but as other community groups uh Sprout up uh throughout the city um are they what types of expectations would we have from them and discussing you know Equitable treatment and uh sharing of resources um uh and then finally just kind of managing Community expectations for for Carver at 5,000 kind of us we've you know been following this track and now we're going to we're going to hit 5,000 we're planning to hit 10,000 by the end of the decade what that means kind of as maybe a new era for Carver as it relates to Communications and engagement so with that that's quite a bit so I just kind of wanted to to stop in and check with the council to see if that's what you experienced and have a an opportunity for council member mck to give some first blush reaction to what she heard chrisy do you have any questions comments thoughts you know I think as we get a little farther into the presentation I'll have some but um just looking at this this overview right here it looks great L Council does anybody else have any questions or feedback to Sher R see Joyce shaking her head see Lori shaking okay three other headshakes okay I think we're good Brent okay so then moving on to Community Development um really focused on excuse me the difference between uh life cycle and affordable housing in that I think a lot of the conversations that at least I feel like I've experienced you know listening to council conversations and Planning Commission conversations has been centered around what I would call and I think by definition would be considered life cycle housing that kind of want to have that entry level single family home you know that's in that maybe 250 to 300,000 range you know and I I think it was council member Henry that mentioned you know the opportunity to have a home at 800,000 so housing choices at varying price points at all stages of Life uh the former uh kind of that 250 to $300,000 home wouldn't technically meet uh what folks would Define as affordable housing which is based on area median income and so we thought it was important to to identify the the distinction in those two pieces but then kind of moving to number three is kind of educate ourselves as an organization both Council and Planning Commission on what tools are available to promote life cycle housing and also affordable housing um kind of leading into exploring Partnerships you know with the Carver County CDA Minnesota housing so that we can meet uh Redevelopment or development goals you know there there could be opportunities to redevelop properties to to meet affordable and life cyle life cycle housing goals um also discuss promoting Industrial Development job creation um I'll skip number six for now about exploring uh design standards uh outside of the uh historic district downtown historic district and then there's a um opportunity to do um an additional zoning uh for commercial industrial our comp plan identifies as CI Zone uh some cities have what's called a limited business zoning District that kind of uh parses out certain types of commercial that you might want in certain areas of the city um this kind of broad Strokes there but uh that was kind of the an overview of what I call the Community Development bucket so I'll I'll pause again and ask for feedback questions perspectives to be shared go ahead Christie um I I more wanted to comment on this one excuse me I'm glad to see this one on here um I guess in my tenure on Council I have talked about this numerous times over the years when it comes to affordable housing not necessarily subsidized housing but something that's affordable and that lower um end for first-time home buyers and things like that so I know developers when they come in they want the smallest Lots biggest houses they want to get the biggest bang for their Buck but I think that we are missing um an opportunity to provide a different I guess economic population with chance to live in Carver um and a new home so I don't know if there is something that can be done to um like excuse me incentify some of the developers to to do this or if there's something Aaron knows of that we can explore that might make it possible to actually have this come to fruition but I I think this is a very important one and at least for me personally it's a very important one when it comes to the affordable housing and having um a diversified housing stock in general go ahead Glenn um I think that Aaron Smith can kind of break down Aaron you still have that well the breakdown of the property and you know how you laid out the costs of the hamers property yeah uh for everybody yeah I think that will help chrisy to kind of see just just how it works because it was very helpful to I think everybody on the council to see that breakdown CH see I just had a slide in my presentation that um showed like the cost of the Hammer's property and then the cost of infrastructure City fees I'll send you my PowerPoint but it breaks down what a lot costs Straight Out The Gate and then adding a home on top of that just to show afford might mean something for someone but we probably need to make kind of our own definition of what that looks like some of the constraints that we have sure and um for me talking about that affordable housing is that 250 to 300 mark that Brent had mentioned um so again I don't know if there is a way to incentivize something like that to happen or not um and obviously it's not going to be um appropriate in all in all developments or in all settings but um if that's something that you maybe can look into or have some more explanation on that would be great and I would appreciate that spy that you you had that' be great thank you send it over and chrisy that's what we oh sorry Jo I see just a sec um chrisy that's what we talked a lot about was just shaking the trees and seeing what our options are out there in terms of incentivizing developers you know bringing down um fees you know what and you know kind of what we went into and Aon did a really good job of framing all of this up is you know the ideas that we come up with here might be a really good idea here but outside of this room and when we expand them a little bit more to the community they might not be as good of an ideas or six months down the road they might not be as good of ideas but I think the idea that we kind of took last week was let's just throw it all out there and see what'll stick and what ideas we can come back with I'm sorry Joy go ahead no I you kind of expressed exactly what I was going to say Christie we all have those same exact concerns that you just raised you know I express that I feel really helpless when it comes to promoting and bringing more affordable housing to this community so um we had some great discussion Aaron had some great data I mean we talked about a lot of ideas for incentivizing developers there is there are ways to do that that we can explore and also Redevelopment um and other Partnerships so I think we had a good Focus discussion here I look forward to seeing the action items that come out of this to address I'm just gonna say thanks foring into that it sounds like you guys have had had a nice discussion that day about it so thank you it's definitely something we're all interested in Lori I think I saw your hand up yeah I had a question um we have touched a little bit during the uh sessions on land trust where does that fall in here so Land Trust would be in that number three to seek Ed educational opportunities and tools for life cycle housing life Land Trust would be a a tool to use for affordable housing so under that scenario we'd likely invite the CDA to talk about their land trust program and provide some examples of how they've done it in other communities thank you right oh sorry oh I was gonna say I think we're good to move on uh moving on to Downtown Development uh a a pretty robust conversation regarding a catalyst project in the downtown meaning uh a project that provides an incentive um for someone to come to the downtown other than kind of our current offerings um on a larger scale you know example would be uh the curing Center in chasa you know it's obviously not something that excuse me fits Carver but you know what's Carver's Catalyst project um so you know feeding into that creating destinations Gathering spaces uh promoting Business Development uh there was quite a bit of conversation kind of talking about the evolution of the downtown um where you know when I first started in the community the the downtown Business Council was essentially the uh madeup of the occasional sale stores U cow junk company farmer or farm girl junk Miss Max and now you know our regular um visitors for that Gathering are the daycare uh the the insurance uh folks um help me out here chiropractor chiropractor so kind of focusing on more kind of uh daily services so you know we have the ice cream shop is open the uh the salon uh there's a a different feel and so trying to understand that and what could add to that um a really good comment uh kind of under uh VI son's Em which kind of she brought up under kind of her big crazy ideas looking at the future of the church by the river it largely sits empty right now and so should we have a internal and even maybe a community conversation on you know how that building should be used so it maximizes its impact to the downtown um similar to that impact to the downtown looking at uh Riverside Park as a a natural amenity um and I can share my slide show related to that uh chrisy that the concept would be to kind of let some of the area within Riverside Park grow up kind of in a Prairie City and have some natural Trails through it um but while keeping the boat launch the campsites and the archery um obviously progress on the certified Levy project uh looking at Redevelopment opportunities uh business incubation uh where maybe the city buys a property uh red develops the the building and then uh through the Eda um provides a a lease with a lower monthly rental rate to try to get that business going kind of incubating or helping it grow um talked about the need for a coffee shop and similar Gathering spaces and then frankly a lot of the conversation revolved around kind of the Public Services storage garage and kind of its place in kind of the heart of the downtown and what that means a lot of conversation related to the the splash pad and um I'll kind of let the the balance of the council speak to it but my takeaway was a little bit of uncertainty with not wanting to push forward with a splash pad or fill in the blank in that location until the Public Services storage issue is resolved in some form and the kind of the building is is is gone and then kind of uh readdressing it that's my takeway but this is also a good opportunity to verify that what I heard is what the council meant um and what they want the takeway to be yeah and Christie and everybody else um reel me in if I'm not summarizing this appropriately but um we got really excited about the idea having another coffee shop downtown and doing a a business incubation and the Catalyst project pulling the trigger on the the splash pad for downtown but I think after getting to some level of excitement we decided that there was a pretty clear like level of if then and what had to happen to make that happen so for the splash pad we need to figure out the Public Services storage solution um and then I think the other thing that was an overwhelming priority was the certified Levy project which we all understand could take some time anybody else have any other thoughts comments I have a a few looking at this um so when I'm looking at so I'm going to so downtown I live downtown so I get to see downtown on a little bit different level I get to see it more day-to-day than just you know you come down to go out to dinner or something like that um and the number of people that are are walking around or visiting places down here has grown a lot in the last probably two years um I've noticed it quite a bit more um so when we're looking at the future of the church by the river I think that's a really it's one another neat building that we have downtown and something for my big idea I guess for the church by the river is to possibly look at having it as the the Museum downtown um possibly and obviously this is just the pie in the sky you know staffed on the weekends by volunteers who come in there's plenty of uh artifacts and and historical items that sit in a lot of our houses down here that could certainly go on display but it might be another attraction as people are coming down here um to stop in and visit a place like that um and you know right now we have a lot of businesses down here that are open we have a lot of Financial and insurance that is coming in right now so that's not necessarily a destination besides if you're going there just for business it's not a walking destination you know if you're kind of tooling around town and and taking a peek at the historical markers and going into the ice cream shop or going into the um the Carver General it's not like I said it's something that you what we have a lot of downtown right now is what people specifically go to see and then they get in their car and they drive away um which again business owners and business you know people who rented that's entirely you know their prerogative of what their business wants to be but I think we could do more or better if we had some other businesses or attractions down here that were open on a more consistent basis or something more than just a drive up and leave just something that would attract to keep walking downtown um I would love it if someone would open the coffee shop so if someone can hear us out there please open a coffee shop um nearby uh when it see I think there was one more on here that I oh the uh the splash pad I think and for myself until we find a place and have the means to to move the storage up to somewhere else or to somewhere else I would be hesitant to tear that down for the splash pad until we have a place for all those things to go and I'm sure I'm sure that's been talked about when I wasn't there and we've talked about it as a group before um so I guess that's probably my only comments on this otherwise the rest of it seems very very self-explanatory so Glen do you have your hand up no itching okay all right I think we're good on this one Brent okay uh next infrastructure management um kind of a brief discussion on the the opportunity that the city will have to do a turn back project with Carver County I think it was council member MCN talked about the need for pedestrian facilities that would connect kind of the Bluffs neighborhood to the downtown and kind of working through that and then kind of overall the that prioritization of planning for of parks and trails um you know we have this Parks master plan we have some resources within the park dedication fund but then identifying some priorities uh within that um also discussed uh water tower resurfacing so that's the water tower nearest uh Fleet Farm uh and then opportunities to perhaps uh Rebrand that uh there's an old logo on that uh Aon Smith presented a a concept uh that the city of St Cloud uses it's um well you'll see it in the presentation um that she had but just a little bit more of kind of that Landmark plac making to like oh okay I'm in Carver as opposed to the the Fleet Farm sign uh something that we've talked about quite a bit as kind of a preview is this the future of mass transit and carver station in the community with the the operations portion of the grant the ending soon and then just kind of the new community expectations related to mass transit uh post pandemic um when we get there and then something that we talked about related to the downtown is public services storage the and the joint St space study between public services in the fire department uh which the council will likely see later this spring and then uh uh Dan Lis uh brought or presented a concept just to be thinking about best practices for technology as it relates to infrastructure whether that's streets uh water and sewer infrastructure um uh compon you know when we're designing components or looking at signalization and and looking how technology will certainly uh influence infrastructure going forward if you think about what infrastructure looked like in 2000 compared to today and what it might look like by the end of the decade and just trying to integrate those rather than trying to retrofit um on a go forward basis so I'll pause here again chrisy I think my color commentary for this is um the water tower resurfacing project sounds a little vanilla and dull perhaps when it's teed up like that but I think once you take a look at aon's um PowerPoint presentation um it is like like think the clock tower water tower in Eden Prairie but more like you know like just really like announcing that you were in Carver there is no mistaking that you are here so um it's definitely something that's enticing and I in my opinion worth looking into a little bit further um could when I'm looking at this and it says pedestrian facilities and maybe Joy this is something you brought up or if one of the council members wanted to explain it or Brent maybe a little bit more about The Pedestrian facilities sure this was um really related to County Road 40 um largely you know um between Jonathan Carver Parkway and downtown um there is you know we talked a lot about downtown and bringing people downtown well there's not a lot of parking downtown we want people to be able to access downtown via foot and bike and you know the trail that exists along the creek inside uh us fish and wildlife's area isn't wellmaintained um it was a ready mess for the last couple of weeks as they've been replacing some Excel has been replacing poles and so a lot of people use County Road 40 to walk and it's not awesome so I was just thinking about that as we think about the future of that road and especially when we do turn it back is it possible to add some pedestrian a bike lane a something just to make it easier to get people from The Bluffs and a long 40 there into downtown okay yeah that's always been a problem like the unsolvable problem to get here us V Wildlife trails Great when it's dry yeah yeah those couple of days a year yeah both of those days um can I have a little more explanation about the fire department space study I don't know why I feel like we had done something about this already but I guess I could be wrong maybe we just talked about it yeah we're so it's in process so the the council kind of um was updated on that or provided an overview of that last fall so we've been working on it so this is it's not necessarily a to-do to get the space study done because you'll have the result the the results of the study but more as a a cue to say that once you have that study there'll be something to talk about and plan for going forward okay that's all the questions I have um and hoping this is like an okay form for it where it's something that I thought of after our strategic session and that we do have a lot of unknowns with the mass transit in the carver station um but like that aside there is a lot of that parking uh lot the surface area not used but it's theirs not ours um no it's ours oh it is okay that's maybe what I need to learn more about and then two so with just kind of that it's unused but it's you know pavement um and that the perception of you know oh we have things that aren't used and then we have a need for things but I can't think of too much to use it for other than a tennis court but then I started thinking is that possibly an area that we could repurpose even if it's just temp you know not long term with without a huge investment for maybe not tennis courts maybe basketball maybe you know bike racks maybe a skate park so um when it was kind of those big Ideas um I'd like to just kind of mention that and and see if that's ever something down the road that could be a possibility or feasible yep and that that's a that's a great comment that's one of the things things that when eron's presenting on the kind of the future of mass transit and carver station one of the planks I'll call it will be how could that site be repurposed okay the threads that you'll see within that though is um and I don't know all the answers to this but there are certain conditions that will run with that property I don't know what they are right now but that land was purchased with grant money and so it's not going to be not going to have maximum flexibility that we might have with some other property that we bought but a will be we'll dig into those um conditions and then present a series of options for the council to consider so a very very well-timed comment thanks and then moving on to our last area organizational development uh quite a bit of conversation related to uh Financial staff resources um recognizing all the work that Kathy does but also recognizing that you know in a lot of ways Kathy did sign up for the amount of of work that she's doing in the complexities related to a community that's growing fast that is probably well over 5,000 at this point you know has some really kind of complex Financial uh requirements and recognizing that she's really the only person that does Finance work from a technical level um and so a lot of conversation related to the need to have a finance director and perhaps moving that up in our long-term financial plan also discuss it Services strategy we ALS we have um and software integration we we have Marco that does our it work we don't have kind of somebody on the ground that helps us kind of with the day-to-day and so one of the examples of an accident plan was to to look at maybe partnering with a a neighboring City or looking at our um service plan with Marco to have kind of a more boots on the ground approach whether that's a you know once every other week or once a month uh piece that can have them help us whoever that then be um to look at it Services integrating software Etc um also talked about long-term staffing needs and and just in general and communication ations and the fire department and talked about how I mean Communications has changed you know it seems to change kind of year over year and how much uh we're investing uh through Bolton and mink and other resources to really have quality Communications I feel like the look and feel of our Communications has really changed within the last two to three years and I I believe the expectation for that is only going to grow as our community grows um and then also looking at the need you know not today or tomorrow but you know recognizing the demands of having essentially a volunteer fire chief uh you know where we have as a community the same expectations that we would of any other department director and we're fortunate to have uh C running the fire department right now um but as as the community grows and resources become at a premium having a plan to look at having somebody in that position fulltime um you can see trend lines as we look at larger communities if if the city does hit 10,000 by the end of the decade you know we're likely going to be in a position where we're probably overdue for a position like that also looking at inclusive processes recognizing that we do have a a bunch of new residents and new people to our community and do our processes aligned with getting that word out to people that aren't familiar with our our systems and processes and communication methods um to to look at ways that we can recognize some of our biases and look at ways that we can include folks that maybe we don't see uh on a usual basis for uh committees commission assignments volunteering Etc um we also discussed uh the City attorney so Larry we're going to put you on mute fulltime here but uh I'm just Kidd the uh just recognizing that at some point uh even though we'd like to have Larry permanently that at some point he'll be looking to retire and what a significant role he's had and that position has on how we do business as the city and so you know wanting to be ahead of that and engaging in conversations so that we can be thoughtful about an intrical part of how the city does business also the promotion of Partnerships and shared services um to be in a position where you know we don't have to buy everything ourselves you know it would be an example is there a way that we can share that type of service um also maximizing the resources grant writing and then finally sustainability uh which kind of leads into the green step cities you know how can we be good stewards of the environment and um you know not waste resources um you know one of the the kind of the digging deep examples specific examples would be could be look at you know a a lower cost electric vehicle for Building Inspections you know there's obviously electric vehicles that are very expensive there are also some that are um relatively inexpensive and would that be something that the city wanted to to invest in so with that I'll pause again and look for verification and feedback perspectives from the council yeah I think the one thing that struck me I think it was um Lori Christie who asked the department heads like literally if we would add one staff position what would it be what do you think is the number one priority and everybody said Finance director um so that was that made an impact on me that's the exact question I was going to have that was the one oh that was the one um one I was going to address so um when we're I think Brent you had talked about that Council discussed moving it forward in the plan I don't know exactly where it lies in the plan right now um we do have I mean Kathy has been fairly open about talking about a retirement date and things like that is this going to coincide with that or is this going to come in before that well that would be probably an action plan step where we'd have a conversation with the council what your comfort level is uh I would say that you know and I this is what I shared with that c um I think we probably needed a finance director two to three years ago independent of Kathy's retirement plan um you know the example that I use that we've resolved to to various extents with this kind of um kind of job sharing world but at one point when Kathy's father has the way you know she came in do payroll you know the day after because at that point we didn't have anyone else that can can do that level of work um know we have somebody that can back up payroll but there there are things that really she only has the accounting background to be able to do um and if you think about how tenuous that can be in an organization our size uh looking at you know we need to look at upgrading our software for accounts payable receivable um our budget Etc and I would feel guilty assigning that task to to Kathy to to lead up by herself so right now it's planed for 2023 you know to have that position in my mind you know if we had the budgetary capabilities I'd like to add that in 2022 and have that person work side by side with Kathy and and then have them select the financial software that they wish to choose you know eliminate some of the Consulting work that we have in the finance area we you know do a monthly Finance meeting with ABDO uh that comes at a cost um know some of the long-term financial planning that we do can migrate over to that position but again there's always in a growing city there's always a lot of needs and so do you have the financial capability to to meet that demand is is another but that hopefully that provides a little bit of context for you thank you so looking at a finance director do you have an idea um in you know today's number what what kind of um salary that would look like yeah you're we're probably you're probably at uh right around $1,000 and then as Kathy then you know Rees eventually are we looking to hire someone so let's say Kathy's here in the middle and this Finance director is is here um once Kathy are we going to hire more of an assistant to the finance director is that what we do we talk about that at all or what that looks like for the we haven't second that deep in the detail but okay the strategy would be to keep a position like cath's okay you know to so refill that once she retires to do you know the work that she's doing um so but you know part of it is once you once you have somebody sitting in that chair you you'd kind of rely on them to to provide some feedback of what is needed so maybe it's um as a speculative piece maybe it's not a an accountant maybe they say we really need a second Utility Billing clerk slash accountant you know I I'd want to rely on their expertise in that area to kind of die agnos or were maybe a little bit um weak as far as resources allocated and then uh design a position that that meets those needs thanks for that explanation and I guess the other council members if you have anything you want me to know from your Viewpoint I would love to hear it go ahead Lor I do um I would support um adding that position in 2022 even though I know that's not the intent of this meeting but the the reason is I think that would be great to have the um future hire work side by side with the current head of that department or ahead of that area and be involved with making decisions for the software integration um I think too with some improvements in that area with the sof uh Integrations that um that might take the load off of some of the administrative things um so that's kind of my reasoning anybody else with thoughts or comments chrisy I'm I will admit my bias because of my professional background but I think the communication Staffing um and having a dedicated resource for that is something that's super important you heard me bang on this drama before um and I think I'm getting I'm pulling everybody along and I think we're closer every day but I think just the addition of the help that we have had um just to you know everybody in the last couple of years has been able to see just in the the graphic look of our Communications has looked a lot more pulled together and making sure that we're singing from the same sheet of music when we're talking about different aspects and there's so much more that we could be doing in terms of you know promoting our water letting folks know what goes into development so that it's not a punch to the gut when that empty Field behind your house goes up for sale so that they understand the process that's involved and that it's not the city gobbling up all of this land um so it it will step down off of the the soap the communication Soap Box um but that's just a little bit more insight from where I was ad go ahead Courtney if you can help me out a little bit then since we were talking about the finance director are you talking about the finance director being able to provide some of this information or a Communications person as well a Communications person as well so that's Finance is number one like literally on that list um and then Communications is the fourth line so I was just addressing a different area okay sorry I just wanted to make sure that I was right no and not a hybrid of somebody who's good with math and write a social media post that would be a good combination right I guess you know my comment was the thing that struck me in the discussions in the presentations from the staff is that I think both for the finance director position as well as Communications a lot of people are doing this job meaning either a lot of people are pitching in or we're all trying to do Communications work or we're having Bolton and M do it or we're having some of our external accountants doing some of this and could we focus it a bit better right we have a lot of it going on and a lot of people are doing it could you know these are these seem to appear to be really mey roles that it deserves that kind of dedication plus you know I know we're concerned about Kathy's retirement too so um that was kind of what hit home for me is we have either a lot of Staff doing that in addition to what they do dayto day as well as external folks that we um pay or leverage their services to do that for us too yeah I think that's a really good point Council M MC Nate you know be I mean some of the stuff with a finance director you'll still see like Paul Steinman on a night doing the bond sale and adill still has to do the audit um but you'll get away from is Aaron Larry and I working on a project and doing a a bunch of calculations and math and then taking the C taking it the Cath and say we think this is right you know and on top of all the day-to-day stuff that she's doing and so um you know there you know we did multiple tip districts you know a few years ago we're do you know we're doing uh construction projects and you know we've had conversations where um you know we're I think we're fortunate to have cath because if we had somebody else that would I would say like had 5 years of experience with that same position and PID um we would be in trouble um and we're very fortunate to have Kathy's years of experience and familiarity with uh the city and our finances um but I think we're a little bit on on borrowed borrowed time we have you know obviously back stops where we you know check things and we have you know ABDO helping us quite a bit on on that to help um you know but there are there are some pieces there that uh I'm appreciating this conversation because I think in the long run it'll it'll help the City by having somebody with that level of expertise in the area of fin okay just to just the last followup then so tell me if I have this right so obviously we could add staff we would love to add staff everywhere but the council kind of consensus was that when we're looking at the finance director the communications and the Fire Department chief that the finance director one came in first at this point in time and to move it forward more quickly this is kind of the summary of all of all this based on feedback from staff yeah okay okay thanks and Christy that is the 45 minute Cliff Notes version of 12 hours worth of work so I don't know if you've had a chance to sift through those videos but it's a significantly more explicative as to how the sausage was made here sure no problem I appreciate everyone's comments and helping me come along with this for tonight so thanks so that concludes my presentation if there's anything in any of the slides that isn't uh hitting the same note that it did during the strategic planning session I'd appreciate that feedback I know and this doesn't need to be like the the last chance to do that we'll have another opportunity during the development of the action plan um but you I think it was Aon Smith that you know brought up a good analogy related to like sometimes things sound really good in the council chambers and then when you um are in a position to implement those or tell somebody they can't do something they don't sound as good and so if anyone's having that feeling about what they saw in this presentation tonight like yeah maybe now is not the time it would be a great time to have a conversation on that if like I I just don't think that would be one of our priorities or I'm having a hard time getting my hands around this um even if it doesn't lead to something coming off the list just to kind of um give ourselves the space to have that discussion to to to identify those areas I have a question on this slide then um along those lines so for number nine for sustainability um we have green step cities listed here we know we've already implemented that and we have the steps already I guess involved with that do we is that something that we need to have as part of this strategic plan at this point in time if we're specifically calling out green step cities which I mean we we're in the program and we it's already laid out so is that something that we need to focus on at this very point or is it something maybe we work to with in the next one I guess that what you I should have mentioned this when I made my comments previously about organizational development I believe the comment there and Ain raised it in her presentation is um the potential to maybe not this year but maybe next summer get to bring in an intern just to help us dive into green step City's document more of the things that we are already doing um just so that we can kind of make more progress against those types of goals and really dive into it um but thinking maybe an internship type opportunity within her team did I capture that right Erin yes and I'll also say we are contemplating uh Community Development in turn just in general so not specifically to Green steps sure that absolutely could be something that falls in their role and then something else that we discussed quite a it um during the two days was that a lot of the green stuff work we're doing at this point like the smart irrigation system that we just worked on together that's a green step point so just adding that into some of our daily conversations not making it something that we tackle um to say hey for the next three weeks we're working on green step only but thinking through small steps we can add into our day-to-day work to achieve some of the goals then um then maybe for number nine are there a few more words that we should add to sustainability just so it has a little bit better explanation um if someone else outside is looking at this or do we feel comfortable with it now that it's been explained to me I understand but when I first looked at it didn't it didn't present itself right away as to what we were looking for with that or what that necessarily meant so I don't know if it needs if it could be rephrased or if everyone else feels comfortable with it that's f too it's a good question Christie I'm okay with it as is because I think it's a catchall because it covers not only like the green step cities program and moving forward in that through the steps and also making sure that the stuff that we're already doing qualifies and that we're keeping track of that but also things like um what Brent had mentioned about do we want to look into getting an electric car for the building inspector so that when they're toling around town we have a green source of getting them from place to place um and just kind of other things like that so I think I'm fine with Su sustainability as a catch all just because we don't go into a tremendous amount of detail with any one of these bullets okay that works for me okay so then our without hearing any additional comments we'll work as a team to develop a pretty significant action plan list for the council to choose from and then uh get additional feedback if you want to add additional action items but we'll just work through that process through future work sessions until we land on a a spot that feels comfortable for the council to move forward with I have one last question about um something that was in there it says so PR promoting large Gatherings and events is that like promotion of this community room for rental is that what that was intended or is there something else invol I missed I would say yes and so it's what you just said and then there was a a conversation about should the city get into a permitting process for large events so um if the um kowas Club from uh Norwood Young America wanted to use he card for a festival would we just let them use it or should we have some type of Permitting to say what are you going to do for garbages and parking and and law enforcement Etc or do we want to maintain how we have been doing it so I would say both okay and chrisy I can provide some additional information so um Chewy from the bait shop approached me about wanting to do a I think think it was a glen is it carp fishing can you fish for carp in the river is that something you want okay thank you um so apparently there are carp fishing tournaments and it's a huge big thing and it's very like at the end there is a presentation and people drive by and weigh their fish and grown men cry he assures me it's supposed to be outstanding um but he wants to do a carb fishing tournament and he's trying to figure out if there's a way to make it go along with Steamboat Days up until this point generally when folks approach us be it a a Jeep show or a c fishing tournament the answer has always been sorry we only really do sting booat days and that's because it's kind of the official unofficial city celebration and that's why but what if we came up with some kind of more regimented um more you know regimented process for permitting these things so that if somebody wanted to have some kind of event that would be allowable as long as they met the conditions and then Carver becomes more of a event based community so potentially in summer you come to Carver in June because it's the fishing contest you come in July because it's the Jeep contest you come in August because it's the I don't know the Strawberry Festival um something like that so just something to think about so that when these folks have ideas for events and stuff that could bring folks downtown and into our community to spend money and to have fun we can potentially accommodate right uh okay and this is kind of specific now that you brought up too so um he was given my email address I had not heard from him yet um so for Steamboat Days obviously that's an event and we have a plan and we have a lot of volunteers who work on it so to add something in without you know checking I'm just putting in that two cents right now and having it be part of going through the committee um would be um difficult I guess for us um but I understand what you're saying about permitting um and doing things like that for certain events that make sense so okay that's all I have on that question for now thanks all right um all right um moving on to the Timber Creek development overview Miss Smith everybody see my screen yep perfect so tonight I'm going to give you a pretty quick overview of Timber Creek we are recognizing that this is a really big project um the biggest residential development Carver has seen so we're hoping to give you a little bit of a preview tonight to get you to start thinking about it so not making any decisions tonight I'm just going to H some high points that we've worked through at a staff level and then some changes that we've made since you've seening that concept so again just a time to get your eyes on it so the next time you see it it's not that you have to make a formal decision on things like preliminary plat approval and rezoning so first the basics preliminary plat for this project are anticipated by Planning Commission in April and then we're anticipating that it will hit hit City Council in May so as you'll recall the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing which requires the notice to 350 ft surrounding the project on the resoning and preliminary plat uh some other Basics the developer is summergate out of Lakeville you probably know casy the Builder right now is slated to be lar number of lats is 349 and then a quick review of the process so you'll remember about a year and a half ago we did an eaw or an environmental assessment worksheet for this project due to the size the number of units triggered that process to start we've seen a concept plan and that annexation is complete both with the township and state so Timber Creek that property is now fully within caror City Limits something that's important to know about preliminary plat approval is that is when the developer typically closes on the land so that's when they say I know what this project is going to look like I'm willing to stick x amount of dollars into it and I'm going to move forward with the purchase and after preliminary plat approval the developer can apply for a grading permit so what this means is that they can start major Earth work on the project after preliminary plat which is sometimes surprising when people say do they have full approval no they're not through final plat but we do agree to a grading permit after preliminary plat so you'll remember the eaw process it was long out a lot of checklists a lot of people do review uh the notable comments that we've addressed so far is that an archaeological survey was required prior to planning that has been completed with the state and then we had a lot of discussion about traffic on Monro and and Ironwood and the JCP project which I think has informed a lot of the work that we've done in the past 12 months and then you'll see on the screen right now is a list of the permits and monitoring that's required for this project so the size is really scary but there are so many groups that have eyes on this project that I can confidently say it's not likely something major will slip through the cracks which I think is usually one of my main goals at least so hot topics that we've worked through at a staff level we've been through two plan review with this group done two full comment letters one of them was like eight pages long so we're crossing the te's and dating knives with the development team a big one is Monroe Drive location and layout something interesting is that the Hammers property is also developing right now uh so the concept that we just reviewed just west of Meridian Fields so how do those two projects work together for minro Drive what do potentially a cost fo look like for them what does an agreement look like um Ironwood Park configuration which you'll see on the screen on the next slide big one is street names that we go back and forth quite a bit on so we hope that when you see preliminary plat plans you are not disgusted by any of them because staff has tried to vet them pretty hard uh we're working through Park amenities and trails I'm really excited about the trail system here we'll see it on the next slide too and then the development team held a neighborhood meeting with Copper Hills so we recognized that they were going to have a lot of questions and we wanted to get out ahead of it before the public hearing at the Planning Commission so last month we had about 30 people join us on a zoom call it was really um I want to say it was intimate but can a zoom call talking about a residential development be intimate but it was um Casey was there and then John Bender with Westwood and people were able to ask one-on-one questions to the group which you don't get in a preliminary public hearing setting so it was a really effective meeting and I think has everybody more at ease moving forward with the project so this was tough to get on one screen because the project is huge but this is a layout that they've provided for us uh something to focus on right now trail system is in yellow so you'll see that there's a really robust trail system from ironwood Park extending down to tumber Creek so thinking about um ha Ridge the trails along the Ravine are likely going to be similar pretty nature based a little bit scary in some spots don't bring your stroller and keep an eye on your kids but there is beautiful topography in that area that we are working on to figure out a trail system purple is sidewalks so making a connected neighborhood not only via Trails but also sidewalk to give good connection also thinking about Caro Elementary all um kids that live in this area would be walk to school so thinking how they can get there safely and effectively from a couple routes if a family feels more comfortable keeping their kids in the neighborhood instead of up by inro giving them a couple of options so I'm going to scan you'll see uh the less clear image is the concept plan that we reviewed and then the clearer is closer to where we're getting with preliminary plat I want to highlight three pretty specific areas that you'll see are significantly different um when I saw the town home area that culdesac made um me I really disliked that culde act it felt like a lot of pavement I didn't like the layout it was just going to be a culdesac with several private streets off of it and they didn't feel like that was an effective design aesthetically or something that would work well so you'll see at the preliminary plat that area looks really different there are some private streets in there that are a little bit longer offer parking just knowing a town home development there's typically not a lot of on street parking because the streets are usually a little bit uh narrower and they're private so how can we allow some parking in that area so there are some uh pull off parking spots you'll notice in the concer plan there was some parking for the park along minroe drive we flip that down to Ironwood understanding that um topography near minroe is really tricky and uh there's an area of the park in Ironwood that we anticipate that we'll be able to program a little bit differently we want to work obviously with the Parks Commission on figuring out that area to see what might go there what might make a good Park amenity for this area and then third is the area along the Timber Creek Ravine nothing super significant to report here except for the lot layout looks pretty different in a really early concept we saw some uh properties on the Wagner property that were going to be uh large executive Lots but they were only accessible if they had septic and well not something that we're choosing to move forward with as at this point as a city you need to have connection to City Utilities so three major changes right now that I want to highlight um Ironwood Park the town home area and then the southern portion largely uh the concept does look pretty similar to preliminary plat so what you saw previously it hasn't changed drastically um I want to say it has because we put a ton of work into this project but it's typically the things under the street under the ground that are changing pretty significantly so I'll go back to this one so you can get a better View and I will take any questions quick that we can talk through again no decision I wouldn't um I I would caution you from getting into the nitty-gritty at this point just because that's not what we're trying to do in the work session especially without the development team here eron can you explain again what was I think Circle two the parking at Ironwood park I'm going to move all of our faces so on the concept can you see my mouse yeah okay so we had a little parking lot up here oh up there okay and we flipped it off Ironwood here the Topography is really steep in this area Y and we're rethinking um some Park amenities here that might be a better spot to have parking instead of just that one practice field that's up in the corner of Ironwood Park okay and the practice field stays it uh changes a little bit so you'll see that the pond and uh infiltration area creep in there a little bit so we're still trying to figure out what this area could be used for if the practice field gets shrunk down a little bit but also highlighting The Pedestrian Bridges we have in that area with a better trail system that will take you into Timber Creek okay thank you that's clear for me Council any other questions go ahead Joy um other than the town homes uh can you comment is it one um style size lot of single family homes or are there a couple different varieties so there are a couple different varieties what we typically have been seeing in prds lately is a mix of 60 foot wide lots and 65 foot wide Lots it's the same for this project so Mak okay and so there isn't necessarily the villa which is fully maintained corre single family got it okay and then say it's anticipated that the town home area will have an HOA for during things sure maintenance all of that and then streets right since it's town homes they will be private in that area Okay that was my only question all right laor I saw your hand up I had a question and I know we're not as I have a question about Copper Hills the second addition so right where like the C and the O start in the word Co rails second what is that why is that not developed is it Wetland is it the topograph uh topography or does it need to be a filtration Pond why is it just empty it's an existing Pond okay any other questions Lor nope all right uh chrisy go ahead uh Erin I'm assuming the the circle on the bottom left if I call it the ex is that the executive Home area uh it was was okay lots are just the typical 65 foot lot at this point okay so we'll talk about the lower leftand Circle then um that if you look at the previous planet has an in and an out um and then now it's become a circle so is there a reason that we're not going to connect in that area yes the Wagner piece in that spot is so steep that it's not anticipated that we suspect there might be the potential for one home site there but that would be an an engineering feat just based on the topography so we don't see it uh we don't see any option for development on that property in that area okay and in that section there's an out to the east right what was that there's an out to the east right a future the concept plan here and then here so again on the right yeah there the you can't see where I'm pointing um like at the bottom of the D if you will of what that cuoac looks like is that not a road yeah yes so this is the fingle property not contemplated for development Right Now Yep this is White Pine Way in oak tree we do anticipate that white Pineway will extend through fle into Timber Creek we just don't have this middle piece today okay and then Aaron it looks like there's a retention Pond holding Pond that either it has disappeared on the new map or it's not in view is that still there or how did we mitigate that can you tell me generally where you're looking okay so if you look on the the the left hand side of the screen here so when we're about the the in and the out that doesn't exist anymore there's that the Blue pond that's right below the last houses and then if you go to look in the circle there's no Pond there and if there is it's maybe it got cut off but it doesn't look like it exists any longer it did C get cut off because I wanted it got a little bit shaky having this large enough on your screen but it is anticipated that there is a pond in this location it's just not on okay sounds good thank you Glen any questions n at this time okay so again Planning Commission likely in April uh City Council in may we just wanted to give you a look at it now so you can say oh yeah I remember some of these features and then we'll move forward with the preliminary plan thank you inen um not hearing any other questions from Council we will move on to WM water system oversizing Dan just to give you an idea of where we're at for timing you want to leave about 10 minutes in between the meetings you got 10 minutes are you up for the challenge yep I saw that so yeah back back to speed talking here so we'll do okay I'm disabled for sharing here Brent can I share here okay I'm gonna go right here all right so I'm I'm just gonna lead this off with uh just a real quick refresher about you know why why this would be coming up here it's it's a you know an offshoot of the comprehensive plan so hopefully everybody can see a comprehensive plan right now yep right okay so when you just to remind everybody when we do these big comprehensive plans what we're doing is we're building building out what we would do in the future so as developments occur we're trying to say all right where do where does our water system go how how big the pipes need to be where the crossings need to be as as your city grows the what the comprehensive plan is effectively saying what needs to go where so this all fits together in the end so part of that is is is uh understanding what we need to tell developers as things happen and so most things are are kind of U they're built out by developers and then uh effectively connecting connecting from one development to the next we will build out our comprehensive plan every once in a while there's some things that has to happen which is oversizing where you have to make a pipe bigger than the would normally build it or we have in this case we've got a couple of Crossings over 212 so ultimately what we are identifying is that in the future you're going to need a couple of Crossings uh two to three Crossings what we have long term as development occurs you need that Amun of water flowing across 212 to to keep this a reliable system so what we have going on here is is we have uh the potential hammers development and that is introducing uh decision point for us because with the Hammer's development it comes uh comes a water pipe that's going to come up to one of those uh programmed Crossings over 212 so effectively with hammers there's going to be a pipe right next to 212 and we have uh ultimately a need to cross 212 for your long-term plan it's for it's for reliability your system if you have a breake under 212 you don't have water on the North side it it It ultimately is is uh it's it's going to be a necessary piece of infrastructure but the Hammers is what's triggering it right now we already have a pipe going across 212 with the raw water M for the well to bring the Well from the north down but now we have a contractor that's about to drill one pipe under 212 and we have a long-term plan that says we need another pipe under 212 and we have an opportunity to invest in that pipe right now is really what the the gist of this is and so the the pricing is is generally going to be favorable to do it uh to do it with another contract and it's also an opportunity based discussion so Aon do you want to kind of walk them through a little bit about this as far as uh what you've what you've observed for uh your the needs needs for the uh uh the decision making timeline here because part of this unfortunately means we have to make a call on whether or not we would do this um as a active change order so Aaron do you want to grab it yeah yep so as far as the the existing contract we have with the water system Expansion Project they're going to be getting started here um next week they're they're going to be mobilizing out to the site to get ready to work on that 212 Crossing for the 8 in raw water M that's that's one of the first things that's going to happen so really if we want to consider um doing this second Crossing with the with the contractor we have on board already to do this work um we we need to get uh give them some direction on this soon otherwise they're going to be long gone and um the directional drill contractor is going to be out of town so um in order to make this work um what we would do is if if council is generally um in favor of exploring this more I would request change order pricing from that contractor and would bring it back back to the council at our April 5th meeting um for you to consider formally you know with an actual change order price but you know what what we're looking at in general is we're thinking this is probably in the tune of 100 to 125,000 to make this connection right now and in a nutshell this is money that would be spent at some point in time we feel the recommendation is is uh really steming from an opportunity because of hammers and the fact that there's some cost efficiencies to actually doing this now so money spent now we feel is going to be money ahead for the city on a connection that ultimately would be a city connection there's really no developer that would fund a crossing of 212 for a development purpose it's it's really a city connection forist on reliability so any questions that would help this understand why Council what are your questions oh sorry Glenn I'm on a screen where I can't see you so you may be waving your hands I'm not ignoring you but go ahead all right it's $100,000 over and above we've already allocated correct it is yes it's new $100,000 yes a mobilization of a of a totally different drill team at any time in the future going to cost at least 20 to get them there yeah I'd say that's a pretty that's a pretty accurate ballpark it's in there um and we're we're expanding it to a 12 in instead of a eight is that what I saw no it's it's a new Crossing it's a it's a it's a new 12in Crossing got it got it all right um and when are they on site within are they going to be there next month is that what I'm hearing Aaron yes sir um they're actually going to be starting to come out to the site next week and getting some of the pipe views and ready to go for the 8 inch Crossing so they're they're getting ready to go here very shortly Glenn um if if I'm not mistaken anytime you want to upgrade and and oversize it for future development it's an absolutely good thing because of what is all going to be coming down on uh the West Side um of JCP within the next few years um and I do not want to cut anybody short on water because we've and heard what uh what happens to Residents when um hey you mess with their water and then you chargeing for it so I would like staff to bring together the numbers so the sooner the better um for the simple fact they're going to be there and if we can knock this out and get this taken care of in conjunction of everything that we have going on um I think it's a win-win for the whole water system so that's I'm just one vote but that's kind of where I'm headed with it all right thank you Glenn Joy go ahead um just really quickly I support this for all the reasons that you all listed it certainly makes sense I just want to confirm that no matter what the state does with 212 and expanding it our pipeline underneath it is not going to be impacted there's no risk right I'm seeing nodding from Aon okay yeah we worked with the county on the Expansion Project and they're well aware of what we want to do here so perfect yeah that'd be a bad day a pipe and then said oops sorry sorry guys yeah we don't want to be there so okay thank you right Lori any questions comments no questions my only comment is thanks to the uh engineering firm for bringing it to our attention and um have confidence in their recommendation Christie same thing I just I'd like to see you come forward yeah um I think you guys did a good job this makes a lot of sense for just like Joyce said all of the the reasons that you outlined in the memo let's see uh if we can go ahead and make the most use out of those folks while they're out here okay thank you 10 minutes well done Dan I'm impressed um all right folks why don't we if you guys are okay let's hold over the trail pet waste stations until our number two meeting for this evening um and then we can do everything else a little bit later on got it that was intended oh okay um is that okay go ahead sorry no I was gonna say is that okay with everybody and I would assume so if you were about to make a motion Christie yeah yeah I was going to make the motion to a Jour all right I'll second we have a motion by council member Mock and a second by council member mcnight I am just remembering that I did not call the role at the beginning of this meeting but we are all here um uh could the clerk please call the role yes Council council member Henry hi Glenn Henry council member mck hi christe M council member s hi Lori s council member m I Joy MCN Johnson I Courtney Johnson all right motion passes we'll see you all at 7