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Airlake Airport Advisory Commission Meeting 3-13-25
Lakeville City CouncilFriday, May 9, 2025
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[Music] e e e no no [Music] we I won't be here again again yeah all right we'll take a short break while we get some technology worked out all right all right so is it anybody else online and we now have a quorum um we'll start with um Donovan Palmquist would you like to introduce yourself can you hear me uh yes we can hear you uh yes we can hear you uh yes so Jennifer be their voice has come through the up there yeah they should be coming through I thought I heard it for a second well I yeah I so no you leave you you're you're muted it's not coming through here it's these people like they have to unmute and he did okay but we couldn't hear him okay Jennifer maybe it would be easier if you just told us Who's online and where they're from thank you I will um we do have Donathan Donovan PA Quist from Eureka Township Aaron labry from Dakota County we also have Christopher Gardner I believe from mot I also see Nick mods and Kyle Fisher in thank you very much and then we'll go around the deis here and uh let's start down with the distinguished gent oh boy I'm Pat moan I'm um uh a hanger owner and a pilot and I'm also the rack representative for the airlake airport Adam forsberg with the Loft Aviation Steve gter I'm also a pilot and hanger owner at Lakeville uh John burmel I'm a Lakeville city council member Tom Fitz Henry I'm a user at the airport and represent Civil Air Patrol Tina good road um community development director City of Lakeville uh Dan Walbert on a hanger and an airplane at Lakeville all right you guys don't want to introduce yourselves hi uh Sam sefelt Mac AirPort manager at Lakeville or air Lake and I'm Jennifer Lewis I am the max community relations coordinator I'm Ryan Ziggler the recording secretary for the meeting wonderful thank you welcome everybody and welcome to this meeting uh next item on the agenda agenda discussion uh committee members is there are there any agenda items um or any other changes that you'd like to propose for your agenda today not for me okay I'll make a motion to approve the agenda uh do we have a second second all right so we have a motion and a second to approve the agenda all in favor say I I I is anyone opposed all right the agenda is good to go uh consent agenda items remember these are not individual items we'll vote on we'll vote on these as a package um so members is there any of the either of these agenda consent items that you would like to pull for further discussion okay so hearing none I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve second you have a Motion in a second uh any further discussion all right everyone in favor say I I anyone opposed right now is the time that we open up uh the uh meeting for public comment if there chair yes I'm sorry before we proceed who made the motion Steve G thank thank you and who seconded at more hand did all right good to go good to go all right uh so public comment this is the time that we allow uh the public to make a comment uh if you do make a comment come on up to the uh the podium here and uh please keep the comment to three minutes or less is there anyone that would like to make a comment anyone online and with the anybody online it might be a good idea if they type in the chat being that we have some technical difficulties yeah right you seen anyone expressing a desire to make a comment okay next item information items uh first one airport 101 the value of the airport in the community that's Jennifer and Sam thank you Mr chair uh once again I'm Jennifer for Lewis I am the max community relations coordinator and I and Sam seel are here today to share with you a some of the some of the core elements of Aviation and airlake airport and the many reasons that airlake airport is a valuable piece of the community we will T touch on these four topics I will cover the Aviation Basics and then Sam will take over with local Aviation overview and the anatomy of airlake airport and then I'll be back with you to talk about the community engagement aspects very first thing is Aviation Basics this is this is foundational information that will hopefully be helpful during some of the communications and disc discussion items that we have um in these particular meetings we already know that there's been a lot of questions and some um confusion at times about how things fit together at the airport and and some of the just the understood underlying mechanisms and framework that um they're not negotiable at the airport and so these Basics are going to help build that Foundation just to hopefully um shed a little bit more understanding for folks who really aren't that acquainted with Aviation first of all everybody speaks English in aviation it is the universal language um across the globe so um we don't have Pilots don't have to um pick up a whole bunch of different languages to fly from country to Country everybody has agreed that English will be the the language used and there's also a Time clock that's also Universal and it's GMT and UTC time um it's what time it is all over the world there are adjustments to get to your local time zone but Pilots will always use the universal clock um because you can imagine if you say I'm taking up at 9:00 a.m. and I'm landing at 10 a.m. is that which time zone so instead of um having to convert to time zones Pilots use um what we call the zulu time that's what we basically call it the Federal Aviation Administration has sole jurisdiction over aviation in the United States other countries of course have their own um rules but in the US everything um Pilots airspace flight procedures airplanes airports all all regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration and each airport has a unique code the code for airlake airport is it starts with a k um airports within the contiguous us the code always starts with a K so it's basically understood and so we when we're talking locally most of the time we just use the three-letter code and for airlake it's LVN so the full code is K LVN and we drop the k for that reason of being understood so we just call it LVN and that's why in a lot of our materials that we share about the airport we will use that three-letter code LVN airspace is public in the United States except where it is protected or restricted again um by the FAA you have certain airspaces that are going to be protected and and no fly zones for General Aviation but airspace over air Lake Airport it is public airspace and it is used by many different aircraft operators that come and go to many different airports The Regulators as I said before um FAA um in the US the FAA reports to the US Department of Transportation and they report to Congress so um in the state of Minnesota we also have some rules we have to abide by and um some of those rules have to be coordinated with the FAA but also with the mac and the Mac doesn't own all airports in the U in the state of Minnesota but the Mac does own seven of them even though we own seven airports and they're all within the Twin Cities area the Mac has a Board of Commissioners that were appointed by the governor of Minnesota to serve and represent the entire state so we have seven airports in the Twin Cities area but the the air the actual Mac Commissioners their representation goes outstate as well not just the Twin Cities area and Sam is the local ruler he's the manager of of airlake airport Crystal airport as well but we're going to focus on airlake today if we look at the big picture of Aviation the number of airports the number of public use airports has been going down what you see on the chart here is that we did have 500 or I'm sorry 5,589 uh public airports in U 1990 and that number is now 5,8 2 we also show in blue the blue columns represent the number of private airports and that number um it it's just gone down slightly in the past couple of years but um there are actually numbers for every single one of these years but we just were focusing on the past couple of years and then the data that we have just goes back to 1990 so this is a snapshot of um what the number of airport has been over time general aviation aircraft types right now the FAA is reporting that there's about 10,000 um registered rotocraft which is a helicopter U fixed Wing aircraft 167,000 and light aircraft which includes some experimental aircraft and that's 34,200 who are the stakeholders at the Mac airports and and aviation in general these are the major stakeholders aircraft operators airport tenants communities whether they're surrounding the airport or not community means everything including airports and businesses on and off the airport are also part of that community Regulators because there's a lot of different types of Regulation a lot of layers of Regulation and the process for either changing a regulation um or I would say proposing new regulation it's a very long process because there are so many different layers and so many different Regulators that that get involved in those things Aviation consumers that's basically everyone I don't know any body today that can live without aviation in some form or another we've just as a society become so dependent upon Aviation and then airport owners like the Mac we are also a stakeholder what is the value in 2023 the FAA estimates the value of aviation in the US to be represented by 26 million flight hours general aviation flight hours I'm not quite sure how they calculate that but the FAA puts out a report it's called by the numbers and that report does show that in uh fiscal year uh 2024 which basically was you know calculating everything that happened in 2023 it totals 26 million flight hours the share of GDP that Aviation represents is 5.2% and then annual earning earnings from Aviation is $488 billion that was in 2023 us jobs generated from Aviation 11 million so these are you know pretty significant numbers um we at the Mac also calculate um you know the value of aviation in our system which we'll get into a little bit later but this is the big picture for 2023 for o aviation in the US now we're going to talk about the local aspect of Aviation and Sam's going to take over from here thank you Jennifer everybody uh Sam celd again Airport Manager and so we're just kind of narrowing down from the big picture down to our uh little picture uh so local Aviation overview uh there are 132 public airports in Minnesota um and the Mac owns and operates Minneapolis International as our commercial Aviation airport as well as a system of six general aviation airports if you didn't already know that um with air Lake included uh we also have a NOA County Blain airport Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie Crystal airport Downtown St St Paul and Lake Elmo um we all except first an exception of St Paul which had a a Justified need for a longer Runway about a 6500t Runway uh we're all mandated to by the state law to uh restrict the the length to 5,000 ft for our airports um airlake airport is established as a reliever airport to enhance and support uh the aviation system and reduce congestion at Minneapolis that was a primary reason of the the entire reliever Airport System there we go and so uh just an overview of the Metropolitan airports commission board uh we do have um eight districts each district having a representative on the M commission there's four outstate representatives from Thief River Falls duth St Cloud and Rochester appointed to the board as well and then Minneapolis and St Paul each have a a mayor appointed board member as well as a chair appointed by the governor uh that creates the 15 member board that meets once a month uh with a couple other committee meetings on off weeks as well and then moving on oops so we have an excerpt here from a sectional chart and which is an aeronautical chart that Pilots um have to use in order to properly and safely navigate the national airspace system uh there's a a lot of information on here which um you know Pilots are able to read more effectively after they go through the proper training but um after a while it becomes second nature to look at a chart and look exactly at what you need and find the information you need based off any combination of symbols lines of different colors circles you know um and and and different abbreviations of numbers to tell you the information that you need um basically the point we wanted to make here is that flying in a congest airspace like this is a a difficult thing to do and Pilots have to receive the proper training in order to do it and I guess from the surface up to where you need to go whatever altitude or whatever Direction you're going You're you have Pilots that are looking up the information they need tuning in frequencies and talking to different controllers and talking to each other in order to safely navigate the system um um they're able to find the airspace that they're in and each airspace has different requirements Jennifer spoke about it earlier there's some protected airspaces and there's unprotected airspaces but um you're able to find what you need and avoid obstacles Know Field elevations and most of everything you need from charts like these there actually is a a more zoomed in chart that Pilots can use uh called the terminal area chart in the bigger metropolitan areas around the the country but most Pilots around the country come to be familiar with these sectional charts which are wide multi-state areas um also on these charts you'll see that there's different uh yellow blobs around the area and those are the lit areas that you'd see at night as well as a lot of different landmarks and geographical features that help a pilot navigate to and from whichever aort they're going to okay so we have some uh a couple pictures uh 1970 the airlake industrial park and then basically a 2024 picture of the same place showing the um increase in industry and the increase in buildings at the airport along with the surrounding area so it's just just uh a nice little reminder of where we were to where we are now here is a just the last couple years of development specifically at the airport and maybe uh also important to note on the east side of Cedar Avenue a few other industry buildings that went up and if you pay attention to the south side of the airport we can see our development going on in the South and then here is 2022 um moving on the rules so uh we've talked about the Federal Aviation regulations and um basically the the the fs are there to apply to all flight operations in the US and those are mandated enforced by the FAA the Federal Aviation Administration U Mac airports are open for public use 24 hours per day um we don't always see operations happening in the middle of the night but when we do uh they are perfectly legal um Pilots can arrive and depart using any FAA certificated aircraft type and the traffic pattern at air lake is 1,000 ft above the ground and uh just a note that requirement doesn't apply to aircraft uh on approach or to Landing or during the takeoff so they'll be lower during those times and there's also minimum safe altitudes published as part of the Federal Aviation regulations as well um and then noise abatement practices or noise abatement best practices at Mac airports are completely voluntary um that's where you see hopefully Pilots around the system are uh paying attention to those noise abatement procedures and we may see different around the system different complaints but for the most part if they're following the noise abatement practices there could still be some homeowners or residents that could be irritated by some of the aircraft noise but it's just a common fact around airports and then wind direction are used uh to help determine which Runway to use aircraft always want to try to take off and land into a headwind or whichever Runway would be most suitable for the most amount of headwind there's a picture of our local airlake wind sock which we try to replace uh at least once a year so it doesn't get faded by the sun okay moving into anatomy of the airport and while we're talking about the wind um the the runway designator as well is based off the magnetic direction that the aircraft is pointed so for the non-pilots that listen to these in on these meetings throughout the year when we're talking about different Runway um it's it's basically talking about the direction that they're using for take off or landing and then we have a an automated weather observation system that also reports the wind and velocity in a magnetic direction to help Pilots choose that suitable Runway um and then just for specifically Runway 1230 at air Lake 4,999 ft long by 75 ft wide and uh it's that northwest southeast alignment that we see and a lot of times we just talk about north and south side of the the runway like that and just the East West flow but um it is a Northwest and Southeast alignment and then uh moving on the the runway 30 end which as your aircraft pointed in that 3000 magnetic heading that is our calm wind designated Runway and then some other things about the airlake airport basic features uh most airports do have an FBO ours is the uh aoft Aviation um also known as aircraft resource center and they're there to provide all the basic common services for for pilots and aircraft owners uh things like aircraft Flight Training rental um aircraft maintenance fuel provider as well and Pilot Supplies and and sometimes Charter as well and then our hanger area we have uh about aund and I'm looking it up here about 106 air um building leases at the airport with about 130 based aircraft and basically um the Mac is there to make sure our aircraft tenants or hanger tenants have access to the aircraft at all times and uh aside from this one storm we had at the beginning of March we've been able to maintain everything open um as much as possible we were however closed for about 14 hours during that last storm just unable to keep up with the inch and a half um per hour of snow that we were getting but um most of those aircraft hanger storage buildings are um just that they're just for aircraft storage and incidentally any else that a hanger owner could put in that hanger without impeding the movement of that aircraft in or out um weather monitoring our Southside weather station is our awos automated weather observation system and uh Pilots usually use that before taking off and When approaching the airport to get the pressure altitude wind wind velocity ceiling visibility all the important information and data that you need to safely operate that aircraft okay moving on these are some aircraft types that we commonly see most commonly see at air Lake um and that's it comes out to be about 95% of just small piston propeller aircraft but we do have other aircraft that we see um as well including couple jet operations um or a few jet operations per week uh as well as some twin engine uh transing aircraft here and there and Flight Training some helicopters and some turbo prop aircraft moving forward some of the Technical Systems at the airlake airport I want to talk about include the lighting and uh navigational AIDs that we have as a benefit at the airlake airport um these are information that Pilots uh or Pilots need to look up this information they're able to look up in chart supplements uh specifically this airport and Facilities directory and they're able to get information they need on how to tune and properly navigate to the different nav AES and and what type of lighting we have at the airport so first of all uh we'd like to pause here and allow for this video to play which was um provided by Tom fitzen Fitz Henry and Al alwin so this is an approach to Runway 30 and one thing to pay attention to which I'll talk about here in a little bit you have the approach light system there with you can see it's commonly referred to as r lights that guide you toward the runway off to the right you see a green and white light that's our airport Beacon that is constantly rotating throughout the night you can see the green threshold lights to help identify the beginning of the runway the white Runway Edge lights which are red as you nearing the end of the runway they transition to Red the set of four papy lights which is our Precision approach path indicator off to the right side of the runway to help the pilot come in on a nice Glide path there's the orange wind sock to the left and you see those blue lights to the right and left those are taxiway lights to help the pilots identify which surface they're on does anybody want to watch the video again um nice smooth Landing by Captain Fitz Henry sorry Colonel Fitz Henry okay moving forward I mentioned the papy which um you know acronyms in aviation are so common that we sometimes forget what what the acronyms stand for but uh moving forward Precision approach path indicator lights they're for Runway one2 they're off on the left side as the pilots are approaching and for Runway 30 they're off on the right side of the runway and uh they're an additional I guess visual navigation tool for Pilots to help come in on an an appropriate Glide path all red means you're too low and you can see I'm on the ground there so they're all red and if you're too high they're all white the real light Swit which we've had an issue with for a long time at air Lake for Runway one2 we actually replaced these last summer so they're brand new and now we're going through a warranty claim on them uh to try to get those working but but yeah real Runway and identifier lights they're in a a well-lit area of the city they're there to help assist the pilots find the beginning of the the runway that they're wanting to land on okay we have an airport Beacon this is uh an older oldfashioned Beacon that's still a big incandescent light up there um but yeah it spins all night long when it's dark and one side of it has a green lens on it that gives you the green and the white to help Pilots identify initially where the airport is that they're looking for and then find the runway environment from there um it's also to help confirm to them that they're landing at a um a civilian airport a military airport would have uh a second white light in there and then um there's different colors for sea SE plane base and uh horts but uh specifically for air Lake if you've ever wondered why there's a green and the white light uh spinning around that's to help the pilots navigate to the airport so something very nice about the airlake airport is we do have four different instrument approach procedures and that those help Pilots uh on a basic level just during Flight Training to help keep or Pilots can gain their instrument rating by flying to air Lake and uh and flying these approaches and then in periods of inclement weather they can use these instrument approach procedure charts to help navigate down to a safe landing when there's low clouds or low visibility um it's a benefit to be able to have an airport like air Lake that has a what's called an ILS instrument Landing system it's a Precision approach and the Precision approaches help the aircraft descend down lower than some of the GPS non-precision approaches or I'll talk about I'll show you a picture of a VR as well um the those approaches bring you down as well in inclement weather but at a higher minimum descent altitude compared to a Precision approach which bring the aircraft down to about 200 ft above the ground so here's the ILS uh a couple of components there are the localizer which for Runway 3 ILS Runway 30 the localizer is actually on the opposite side of the airport pointing down the runway and into the Final Approach path and it just uh the the different uh I guess uh radio waves that go out those uh balance in the airplane's um instrumentation and the pilots are able to line up hopefully right on center line when coming in for the ILS and then there on the left is the Glide slope and it's the same concept it's helping Pilots while they're in the clouds with no visual visual of the runway come down on a nice Glide path toward the landing surface you might hear us talk about maler and those are the approach lights that you saw on Tom's flight and uh I Love This Acronym it's the medium intensity approach light system with Runway alignment indicator lights but you can just call it a Mouser and those are all these ILS components are owned op and maintained by the FAA okay about 2 miles east of the airlake airport in uh field we have another antenna owned and maintained by the fa which is the v a very high frequency Omni directional range and that's the main navigational tool used for the VR approach which is a non-precision Approach at the airlake airport okay and Jennifer will take over from there thank you so all of these p pieces are connected they are all important pieces of accessibility to the airport the Mac does um take very seriously the ownership of the airport and all of the facilities um that we're responsible for to keep it safe and that's you know Sam's job is to make sure that the airport is accessible because it is a very important Transportation a asset for the community but for the Aviation Network as well it connects airlake airport with basically the rest of the world um there's a lot of training that takes place at the airport not just flight training but there's other types of training um people are learning skills there um maybe they're Aviation related skills maybe they're not but their the airport has many different types of businesses and education opportunities that take place um there's also jobs we talked about some of the the global job um impact of Aviation but the local job impact is also important and we'll talk about those numbers in just a minute access to services and resources a very important piece of the role of airlake airport I don't REM know if you remember as this group but we did recognize um an aircraft operator who was able to come in and land at the airport for a medical flight in inclement weather um that that flight did rely on the the tools the navigation tools and the Lighting systems um that Sam was just talking about but then Mac also um was able to keep the runway clear and open for that operator to get to the airport and get that patient to where that patient needed to be so we think about all of the different services that the airport provides but there's so many different ones that we're even not quite aware of we'll talk about a couple of those later and then events I think many of you are aware of the events that take place at the airport we have um flying breakfasts we have uh pan Prague we have other types of um Gatherings at the airport where fol F can use the airport as a gathering space but also they can um have a gateway to Aviation and learn about Aviation and have that exposure to the airport and aircraft and all that Aviation has to offer so let's talk about a couple of those specifically we have an aircraft viewing area that is um a space that is open all the time we have folks there that will just hang out and watch Airplanes or conduct maybe you know a couple you know personal meetings maybe a picnic or lunchtime or something like that but it is a space that is always available it is actually on the on the very sort of Northwestern um access area of the airport we have events like um what you see in the middle picture on the top row that is um pah Prague taking place and um where you can learn about how Aviation is used in this particular picture that's the sheriff operating they do um land and take off here at the airport but we also have um medical operators we have um mosquito control and we have some other um services that are provided by helicopter as well as helicopter training um every pilot has to receive training somewhere so um the fact that you know this airport does have the opportunities for training is is very important not just um for pilot education but as um Community um to enhance and strengthen the community opportunities we have some farmland and that's what you're you're seeing in the upper right um corner there um the Mac owns the airport and the land but we also lease it out um in this particular case we're leasing it to a farmer it is a non- aeronautical use but it's still very Val valuable land and we are um helping the community benefit from that by letting it be farmed um in the background of that picture you'll see hangers um lots of different types of activity are taking place but each one of those hangers has some um tie to Aviation whether it's a a based aircraft park there or whether that's a facility that can be used by a visiting aircraft um for some reason in the lower left corner you'll see um another picture of pan prag and in the picture you'll see it's kind of a unique looking aircraft um Aviation has a very rich history in this area but in the entire Twin Cities and so celebrating that um keeps us connected with where we've been um not just in aviation but how Aviation has helped us get to where we are right now as a society in the middle picture there it's um just an aircraft that is operating um using the airport and um it's not significant in any way other than it is a we don't see a lot of twin engine activity here at the airport but we do embrace all Aviation any pilot that's able to use the airport for whatever purpose they need to use it for um as long as they determine that this airport can provide what they need in terms of Landing surface and takeoff surface and parking area um our Airport is open to them and the picture in the in the lower right is just just a reminder that airplanes come here and they go they come and go from the airport they are coming from somewhere and they are going to somewhere and there's a lot uh of value in being able to have the freedom uh to come and go wherever you need to because as you know commercial service is not available at every airport and it isn't always convenient um for you know getting people to where they need to go here are the numbers for airlake airport and I will fully acknowledge we're not quite there yet with our updated numbers so the um numbers you're seeing there are about a year old um the economic value is 13.2 million for airlake airport we had um this this chart says about 38,000 operations but we actually know in 2024 we um we had 20 we had 42,000 operations we've got equipment based on the Airfield we've got 139 based aircraft and the annual operating revenue is 431 uh million, 30 431,000 and um if you're interested in the number of Lights we've got on the Airfield there's a count of those there at 212 I will also point out um so some services that there it's in small print here and it was you know the logos appeared on the previous chart but I can't say enough about sort of the I'll say it's a little obscure but Civil Air Patrol is a high service provider that does benefit not just this airport in this community but everywhere um they they provide a very valuable service and um EAA also provides a very valuable service um flying young people and training uh and um sorry networking and mentoring Young Folks they have a young um Young Eagles program that introduces people to Aviation if they would you know don't have any other opportunity to do so EA welcomes them and Embraces the opportunity but they also encourage young people to continue that on one more thing that the Mac does to promote general aviation throughout our uh System including airlake airport is to show um this is a very high level overview of general aviation at Mac airports but we created a video a couple years ago it's about three minutes or so long I'm not going to share it with you today but I am going to tell you it is available on YouTube it is also available on the max website but it is a a very very broad um explanation of generally Aviation and I offer that to you to take back to your communities um to you know share that for anyone who has a question about what's the mystery of general aviation this video is a great tool of course we are recording this this meeting today and you may also share that but we've been talking for about 30 minutes and this is a three minute video so you might want to go for the shorter version at this point Sam and I are both happy to answer questions wonderful anybody have any questions for Jennifer and Sam that was a great report thank you it's uh very informative well next on the agenda is the Lakeville seaf frequency change update from Sam okay well just as an overview on what got us to this point uh it was in I believe September that this group uh requested through a vote uh that we look into changing the frequency um due to unsafe conditions out there in the traffic pattern with the current frequency that uh airlake shares with about four other airports uh within earshot uh FCC applications were submitted in October FCC approved a frequency change to 22975 on January 1st of this year how we came up with 122 975 was based off of a a survey of all the airport seats within 100 miles and what we found was 12375 was by far the best frequency it didn't share any airports within 100 miles um but at the same time Lake Elmo airport was going through the process as well and they um the second best frequency I should say this first was the 122 975 so we had a top frequency to pick from which was not shared by anybody and then a second best which was shared by only New Richmond in the 75 milei radius and uh being that Lake Elmo was by far a lot closer to New Richmond than than than air Lake um they they took the one 122 2 97 or the 123 075 and then we went with the the second best option which in our Viewpoint at the time was the second best option so we put those applications through FCC approved January 1st FAA approved on January 6th the changed on February 20th um so following this uh the New Richmond Airport did put out a um a request that we revisit and re-evaluate in their opinion we would not see an improvement being that both airports have a lot of based aircraft and are busy um at that time we our evaluations were that yes they they do have a lot of based aircraft they weren't uh by far as busy as as their Lake and that we would benefit from a decrease in congestion with this frequency um but being that they New Richmond did raise a concern we wanted to do our due diligence and and not just make the change just because but um satisfy our neighboring airports concern that this could decrease safety instead of the overall goal was to make things better and not worse so um that's what we've done we've paused we've submitted uh communication to the FAA and the FCC that we' like to hold on on moving forward and and that's what we're doing at this point some other options that could be a good decision we do have another the third best option was uh 123.5 which is shared by Redwing and the helipad at the Mayo Clinic um but Redwing is also a busy airport with lots of aircraft so we're just trying to make the best decision with all available information before moving forward with this change we know it's not a if the option uh for a different frequency comes up in the future that we can always make this change again but it we don't want to just do nric reactions and change the frequency all the time we want to find the best frequency that we can have for the long term so um that's the update the last time I updated this group was just that we were submitting the uh application to the FCC but now we've had a lot of updates since then so just wanted to keep everybody in the loop on that we are still on 1230 for the time being so if you have any questions on the process there I can answer that right thank you Sam any questions for Sam all right we are moving through this our next item is a Lakeville housing and population growth given by Tina goodroad I'm going to go through an annual report that we do every year um based on put together by our Economic Development Department um give you a good idea of what's been happening in Lakeville over the past year um we've had a lot of activity as you can see as you drive through town um building permit valuation total over over $257 million um you can see how that compares to previous years um it has slowed down a little bit our Peak was um definitely during the covid years when we had such a huge residential boom um some of our largest projects you can see happen in the industrial area with the sweet Harvest Foods building um private sector invested over 75.1 million into commercial and Industrial Development alone not including residential um the sweet Harvest Foods building in the previous year and then the RL Cold Storage which is just behind the sweet Harvest Foods building came in with the largest building permit valuation of 32 million and then you can see the other ones below um each of these are kind of scattered around um different areas of the community residential continues to be really hot in Lakeville um we were number two in residential permit numbers we had been number one for about 10 years in 2023 we finished at number three and in 2024 we B ped back up to number two just behind Woodbury um so we remain um consistently high with residential development we completed the year with 285 single family permits 100 detached Town Homes 49 attached town homes and one apartment um of 89 units and that is um the uh the um Historia um condos up by the hosana um Church campus residential building permit valuation totaled 155.0 million so so that accounted for 60% of the over overall building permit valuation which is good it's good to see a balance um that not all of that revenue is coming from residential um and again we rank number two in residential unit totals um so the first was um permit totals in unit totals we ranked number two also just behind motanka median home value in Lakeville as of 2024 was 41,100 number of households um Rose to 2,881 and we have an average household size of 2.9 the map behind this box represents where that residential activity is happening so all those little red dots um represent permits residential permits that were issued across the city and again the airport is to the South we' have had a lot of institutional development um antlers Park was the big one in 2023 um in 2024 um with it opening um Grand Prairie Park off of 185th um will is under construction if you've seen activity as you're driving down Cedar Avenue um this project received multiple building permits for different elements um including um the main park building challenge course covered grandstand um dugouts for the new baseball stadium and pickle ball court so many of these elements including the splash plaid will open this this year with the remaining open um everything being done in 2026 we have a lot of business growth happening in Lakeville um this slide I like um it just demonstrates all the different types of entities both industrial commercial medical that are um have called Lakeville home over the past year medical continues to be a big investment um in Lakeville um there is spe several different specialty centers that are listed on the left side of your screen um that includes children's uh Minnesota Specialty Center um the Alina health building opened last year um we've had several chiropractic offices make Lakeville home and then some expansion um to some of our existing uses we also have new dining options and a lot of new retail options one of the things that we love to do in our department is celebrate new businesses we do this in conjunction with the Lakeville chamber we attended 25 ribbon cutting so that just reflects the amount of activity going on in Lakeville and we had three groundbreaking ceremonies Lakeville employs 21852 people as of second quarter 2024 when we do our state of the city presentation we'll have some updated numbers on this um that equates to a 3.9% increase over 2023 count and a 31.4% increase in the last decade so again you can see that addition of all of the um both industrial a lot in the medical area that's really driving that employment growth and then it lists um on this Slide the top employers um Lakeville Public School District Hive heride Food Solutions BT manufacturer some of the top um Levi's unemployment is also low um at 2.4% compared to the county at 2.7 and the state at 2.9 and again these are numbers from end of 2024 um it's probably one of my my favorite slides it really shows and demonstrates where all of that activity is happening um so you can see in Orange all the commercial permits so this would be either new construction or additions remodels um at existing businesses um as well as new construction um the purple represents um City activities so any um public facilities and then the red represents any of the residential so there really is activity scattered across the C City one of the things that we do in our department is really promote Lakeville um when we do that we do promote the airport as well um we really try to do a lot of Outreach to um prospective business owners um one way that we do that is reaching out to Brokers so we have a lot of activities take place um at attending broker events um we participate and plan a Southwest Suburban Summit that happens every May um we sponsor real estate Journal activities and just try and get in front of folks um to um you know advertize the amount of available land that we have um we still have over 600 acres in the industrial park um looking at opportunities to expand that um so it's something that we spend a lot of time on um in our positions we did complete an economic development strategic plan you can find this on our website um this lays out the foundation of activities that we're going to be doing alongside our Economic Development commission over the next four years and one of the things that we're kicking off with that is a business retention and expansion program visits which is basically um a partnership with the chamber um and the city to um complete um business visits and we're going to visit with industrial businesses as well as all of the non-industrial so our medical commercial our hospitality and so forth and I think that's probably on this slide so that's really our um focus this year um we'll be also um looking at our downtown plan and doing some updates to that as well as an industry cluster analysis any questions I know that was kind of quick thank you any questions look like there's any questions all right thank you you know it's it's remarkable how when we saw the uh airport piece we saw the economics of Aviation we see the growth happening in the community and I I'm grateful that we have an airport um I think that's a going to be a significant um Factor as as we continue to grow and then seen it as a community resource too in the events I'm sure if Christa Jack were here she'd be um they F some chamber events out at the airport and it's been just a valuable partner so we're grateful thank you for that presentation um a airport manager update from Sam okay I just have uh about four things to write an update to um the maintenance building office is uh starting its renovation on April 14th April 15th sorry um and basically that that project consists of uh almost an entire gut a demo of the entire inside they're going to replace three walls and replace the roof um that's about a 60-day turnaround on that project we don't have because of that project we don't have an early uh tenant in Airport US of barbecue this year it's now rescheduled for October uh specifically October 6th at 4:30 p.m. before the snow flies um airlake uh Airport is does have the 225th Street Paving on the budget this year uh the current status is that it's going out for uh an rpz Alternatives analysis to the fa and that's another acronym it's the runway protection zone so that's basically the first step um to review before obtaining any approval to do the work and then the planning will start and we'll talk about bidding after that but that's the current status that we're in and then the other goals for this summer are just to continue the coordination and and communication with the FAA in order to in order to get the environmental assessment started we do have um we we do we we have received some updates from our Mac AirPort Development Group that uh the team members there and the fa are having um some positive discussions as well as discussions with all four pipeline companies that have um the the pipelines underneath the runway so um everything's kind of moving in a a more positive direction than we've had over the last couple years um but at that point that's the only update I have for those projects thanks Sam any questions all right um well that uh takes care of item five item six is member announcements do we have any member announce hearing none well I guess uh just there' be one um o July 6th is the Lakefield lions are having the flying breakfast at the airlake airport and um I guess it's going to be very similar to last year we are still working on the uh uh uh pance aircraft that come in but um anyway that's coming I know of um the EAA is having a a flying breakfast at least currently scheduled for Father's Day I don't know any details on that particular one but um that's best I know they were considering moving it to Mother's Day but I don't I haven't heard any anything uh definitive on that at the moment but um yeah well today we had a visit um you're not you're not muted today we had a visit from uh Gary black from Arista and we're actually in the process of purchasing a Sirus simulator and uh adding a 10day accelerated instrument course to the airport with a Sirus simulator so that's uh would be very exciting so it drive airport operations up maybe we could beat a NOA so and then I do have one question for you um Sam as you were aware we had a an aircraft uh you know that was had a flat tire or whatever it was on the runway um my suggestion to the Mac would be to maybe invest in an airplane skate you know we can possibly maintain it at the FBO but that way when an aircraft is stranded on the runway we have you know better equipment to actually remove it okay I can definitely look into the process involved there any other member updates thank you thanks for those items uh review the meeting schedule uh we have our next meetings on June 26th September 11th November 20th uh Jennifer are we to assume that the location would be here or we GNA yes okay we are planning to have the meetings here and I'll be coordinating with the city on those all right thank you um well uh that ends the meeting we are now adjourned [Music] [Music] [Music]