"okay good evening Welcome to our December 11 work session if you join me I'm almost silenced the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge to the flag of the United States of America to The Republic which stand one nation under God indivisible with liy and Justice okay moving on to uh number two citizens comments and I'm assuming you're all here concerned about the fact that I was taken off the distinguished alumni board at Kenwood when the principal retired so appreciate you coming for that um but here uh citizens comments opportunity for people who live or work in Lakeville to share comments about issues that are happening um prefer to have it kept about three minutes to have something to share we'll use that Podium um but in uh I assume folks are here about the Kenwood landale based on you know TV and media and all those type of things Facebook updates um I'll just share from our perspective process is kind of what we would be able to talk to tonight just because we haven't seen an official as of this afternoon anything from the purchaser or developer um I will tell you that the city council takes our land comprehensive plan very seriously I want to say thing in the last year two times have we actually been willing to amend that both were denied the first time and came back with pretty serious concessions from the developer and buyer before we approved it so that's kind of setting the table where we're at if a plan does come forward from the developer it would go to the Planning Commission who would review it and have public input and then ultimately come to the city council uh for discussion and voting and we require a fourth fif vote of the council for approval so that's kind of where're at process happy to talk about that and obviously happy to listen to uh any thoughts or concerns that you guys are here tonight so I'll turn it over to whomever wants to start again if we could just keep to three minutes I'd be grateful three minutes each sorry not well three minutes three minutes yeah and I don't I don't know yeah go ahead oh sorry I should say uh name and address it helps our folks keep a record everything and then sounds good well the whole point also is we'd like to be able to follow up with you to keep you as we kind of move through the process okay uh good evening Council I'm here to speak on the topic of the possible Kenwood trip middle school lill and this will only take a minute of your time uh my name is Henry Caswell I am a resident of Lakeville at 20319 Kensington way I'm also a student athlete at Lakeville South High School one of hundreds who uses the land at kener middle school I know that you have not yet received the official paperwork for the Landa yet but when you do I look forward to my and my fellow residents and teammates opportunity to tell you that this another Housing Development is not the use for this land Community Green Space used by our kids families and school teams in the middle of Lakeville is what makes us special and we want you to keep it that way there are plenty of alternative uses for this land thank you and I look forward for further opportunities to give you much more information my name is Don Duffy I live in Bloomington Minnesota I've been on the payroll of Lake bu school district for last three years where I have served as assistant coach then for last two years head coach the Lakeville Nordic ski team this year I'm volunteering my time over the course of my time watching our athletes I've seen middle schoolers graduate up and ski in the varsity team I've seen our Varsity skiers go to state to compete I've seen our skiers leave the area and go to college and compete I've seen our College athletes return over the winter break to encourage our middle schoolers and our high schoolers to do better the property that we practice on is at Kenwood there's about 2.3 miles of trails that we maintain on a volunteer basis parents athletes other volunteers we've had donations to secure equipment to groom those Trends they're not only used by the athletes they're also used by the public for this to have occurred without any stakeholder involvement of the teams of the users just baffles me so I hope that you can do something to correct that I appreciate the letters my wife and I sent you a letter over the weekend I really appreciate your promt response thank you very much we getting off that easy I can't stand thr I stand my chair absolutely just a minute please thank you for your time my name is Amy edar e g g RS and I live at One 10 Wood Way my home backs up to the woods that is proposed to be demolished I want to tell you my back story I won't take long November 30th of 2014 I had a massive heart stroke I've been home since May of 2015 recovering in my living room basically my back door looks out the woods that is my serenity that is my peace please do not take that away I have many animals that come through our yard we see deer uh wood ducks fox squirrel I even saw a pum with babies on her back walking through it was disgusting my my home backs up to two Wetlands we have frogs that are they they go all year round until they're done meeting it's it's a soothing sound I I invite you all to come to my home and just sit for five minutes I'm sorry I'm very anxious here sit for five minutes and see what I have see what we have we've been fortunate to enough to live there for almost 20 years now and I don't want that taken away us we were told when we bought the house up that would never be developed and I don't know how anybody can promise that but that's what we were told when we bought that home thank you I'm sorry if I went over 18609 Irvine Trail leville hi Elise I live on 2098 car and we are part of the Nordic ski team as well as the cross country ski team um that use trails at Ken Ro joury I've been a part of the program using those Trails for seven years now and it's been a place um a lot of memories and um it's kind of like place where you go just to have fun with your friends and kind of take a mental break and it's helped me a lot throughout the years and I just want that to be there for the next Generation too as I leave and go to college and it all I just hope it'll be a place that I can come back to as well um I would like to state that I've started a petition called safe Kenwood's land this land States um for anyone that is against the purchase of this valuable land if they should if this um the sale should be canceled or reversed and 1,75 people from all over Lakeville other states have signed petition stating that they are against the sale of this land I am going to be a cross country captain next year and this is a great valuable Green Space to be as Ellen said as well as do a lot of great practice work for Nordic and cross country thought at Ken for 20 years I live at 17761 ja son went through I will say I taught science at kwood and we spent many hours those Trails collecting data making observations science classes and to take that opportunity away from kids best need to hear that uh we talk more and more about getting kids away from screens and getting them out in nature and something that important to us so I wrote lesson plans um we developed dichotomus keys to go out and animals and the conversations you have with kids outside are different than the ones you have inside the incidental learning and connections that you make with children out in nature are you I hope that you will think long and hard about resoning that property my name is uh Jackson thunker I live at 8355 173rd Street West um I'm a captain of the Nordic ski team but I'm also an eagle scout and a cross country Runner um I've used those Trails for countless hours uh practice hang on with my friends I think uh we're all pretty Furious about what's happening um apparently my faith in school board is at about zero right now and I think if a decision like this were to go forward I don't know if I'd be able to raise my kids in Lakeville um just earlier this year a deer gave birth in my yard because there's no place for them to have the kids anymore um and I haven't even been managed properly so they're all trapped by a golf course um and the deer almost died so so you know I think uh it's pry important that we realize what we're doing to our land thank you I'm Mark ERS and I live at 19141 can way M and I've been there for nearly 20 years now what I understand most of the school board members had no idea what this land was even used for I don't know how they managed to sell it off without anybody knowing but they were obviously deceived by it um it may be too late for that one of my largest concerns is safety because Kem way is not much more than to go path right now Street only two years old and I've already told you guys this before but to Plum another Street in there it it's just not going to be able to handle it it's it's barely safe for me to go to work and from work Mak me your turn on cha way I mean on CH Trail and if you triple the traffic going out there it's going to be problems also I saw surveyors L last week front yards and I imagine they're surveying our streets because if they have another street they're going to have no choice but to make ours wider and that's going to solve 8et on my front yard going to take my backyard away it's very disturbing for anybody on kway thank you my name is Joanne Paul I live at 19705 Jersey Avenue and I just it's such a treasure back there for the ski team and the Nordic um are they track team and I just uh it's so hard to think what we do for our football teams what we do for our hockey arenas and we're just taking away something so valuable that other teams come here and they're envious thinking this is right in their backyard we'd have to think about busing to Clear Lake or Highland and I just look at the traffic the runoff that's going to pour into Lake Maran uh we've got um just it's it's so hard it's it's um there's just too much to lose and I really hope that this does me I'm H Josh Walter I live at 18462 exonia Avenue I'm right on honey P Street down here um I also a coach at Lakeville North I I work with the track program but I also get to see a lot of the cross country Runners and and a lot of these athletes that are in our school that use this land um and to see it taken from them is really disappointing but I also want to kind of point out that my yard right on 185th I get a lot of Runa from North Lakeville my dad lives right across the street on 185th he's on the South Side this is a designated swamp in the city where it filters a lot of that northern water coming down now that flow goes almost directly through this property from what it looks like on the map and so what other way is a lot of this water going to go from North Lakeville and get to Lake Mary um this is a watershed area I I don't know what other direction the water's going to go if we put houses in there's already already water problems it seems like not a lot of houses around there so I I think it just needs to be taken in consideration the flow of water really heavily through this area and uh how we could disrupt The Watershed throughout the whole full Lake Maran area evening city council citizens of Lakeville and interested parties my name is Rick ring Eisen I'm a lifelong resident of Lake FL live at 2008 200085 Italy Avenue very close to aners park the reason so many people are here tonight is they're counting on our city council to have the wisdom that our school board did not we're counting on you to protect a cherished piece of land that is Virgin Timber as virgin Timber on it going back before the territory even opened finding virgin land in the metropolitan area is almost impossible to find but here it is and being well used it has been used by the citizens of Lakeville for hundreds of years over a hundred years but especially by the school district and the community since the 1970s in the Kenway building opened up that land was originally designed for the expansion of that to be one of the last high schools we'd ever built in Lakefield because that building was supposed to double in size wisdom that you have I happen to be a retired teacher from the district that taught social soci so government meetings are something I have a passion about and I'm a coach and I've coached for 45 years and I'm still a coach in the district M my family's connection to it is my daughter was captain of the Nordic ski team this is a special place for our community when you take into account the runners from all three middle schools go there both high schools go there they compete there I mean where these kids going to run at they're not going to run there well they're going to be on our streets we all know what the traffic's like in Lakeville nowadays we really want them on the streets not only should this land be protected it should be preserved forever it should be put in a park along with all the trail areas it's special it could be something really neat I've served on every future facility task force in our district since 1979 never have we considered selling this land I served on the Lakeville and vision task force that talked about what's the vision for Lakeville for the next 10 years and believe me I looked that the zoning real close this was not part of it where did this come from from well we have a school board that has many new members we have a new superintendent I'm pretty safe and saying where our superintendent came from in Iowa and in Missouri they don't have Nordic ski teams right so I can understand their ignorance of not knowing the use of the land but not checking with the schools the ads the the principles the academic uses that we use it for the solar Gardens The Joint Powers Act with the city for for the frisbee golf and all the other things are there they just was playing oversight they started seeing zeros dollars and figures and if we could find somebody else to buy the land the district could still get their money and and it wouldn't become houses we have plenty of land for houses and we are a wonderful City and we know that we're one of the most attractive in the Metropol to join because we of our highquality schools but I really don't want to embarrass our school board male but they missed this one due diligence was not done by the administration and they didn't understand the value of it and what it means to our community and this is not just a use for the school our citizens are there people are walking their docks people are running those trails and we all know how much people love to get out and run and do those things at this time please listen please save the land please save our school district please save our board th this is something to be cherished and be held on to and coddled and preserved and protected this is what's in the best interest of our community I firmly believe it and I don't think anybody went into this with any malice I just think they didn't know the value and I think the school district looks at it different than the city and thankfully you guys have a two-step process you got a Planning Commission you got a city council you're you're there looking out for us thank you so much for your time tonight I really good evening my name is Nate Larson I live at 1 19172 Jewel path which would be the street opened up with this development my family moved in in 1989 and in 2017 I had the privilege of buying the property from my widowed fund I grew up skiing on these Trails running these trails and now I have two daughters that I had planned on doing this with them as well one of the things not mentioned tonight are the amount of teams student athletes and adults that train on Jewel path all year long they run up and down the street the mountain bike Team anything you can think of their out their training opening this street would endanger their lives thank you let call so I'm here on a whole different subject so okay all right yeah no problem my name is Amy golly go l y and I have at 949 178 Street West leville um I grew up in Burnsville and that was a wonderful Community when I grew up but I think if you ask pretty much any Resident of Burnsville now they regret the amount of growth that took place in that City I don't know if anybody that I graduated with that lived there and stayed there afterwards because they grew so fast and so far that there's no open land there anymore the school district suffered the city suffered the land value suffered um so I just think it's so important to keep that openal land it with the uniqueness of L here so uh brenter with a 111 937 Jewel p um so I have a long stretch of property that butts up against that land um it's directly connected to basically so it makes it one large woods so I'm lucky enough to partake in that that scenery daily it's up right my back door um grew up in like f my whole life Rick greenisen the longtime swim coach was fantastic being here to have him here today support us what I don't think a lot of people mentioned today is that it's not about the people here today it's about the future we're not talking tomorrow the next day 10 years from now 20 years from now it's it's going be gone I think the school board 20 years from now be like what we had all that land they gave it away I think they're think we're complete idiots so I think it's not about the people today which it is but the future I think is what we're really gotta think towards so thank you one more thing if I could please back up right there next I just wanted to say my grandchildren when they come over they love to go to gry and house and take a nature walk they love to go out and play in the woods and they go on nature walks and on these trails and they find the most interesting things and bring them home to us whether they're trash or not it's Treasures in their eyes so that would be so sad if they lost that because they love coming to Grand and grand house taking maor walks my name is Sophia eisinger and I live on 19237 Joel path and I'm going to middle school next year and I'd like really like to like join the chat team or like the ski team or something and it just would be like it'd be sad when they if they take away that place and they wouldn't have any more sports to do there so let you talk and then if anyone else after this issue gets brought up wants to we so can I pass out some there's seven copies there okay I'm Don Cher I live on on Avenue like that I moved here about 18 months ago and after I moved here about six months later I got a letter from the city that I'm I have to connu to Water and Sewer this was very news to me it wasn't disclosed to me um and stuff like that so um it you the first letter there that you see in the correspondence that I got sent to this by the city and the past owner didn't inform me of any of this stuff a lot of the it's not a small project 60 Grand project for me to do and U I'm not getting any very low luck so far out of the previous owner and the city had commitments with the previous owner I had no idea that maybe could have been disclosed if it would have been um recorded other than just shoved in the file someplace or maybe somebody would have just given another look at before they sent information to the title company so I'm here looking for some help it's it just gotten really bad I guess the one thing I'd like to bring up is on page two there 2012 is the last communication the city had with the previous owner we supposed to report to the city every three years make sure it wasn't compliance I feel the city kind of dropped the ball on this all of a sudden I'm getting kind 10al for it and the one last comment I guess because I don't have a lot of time but um number four if he sold a house he he's saying forgot this maybe because since 2012 the city never followed up with them unfortunately you know and stuff like that but uh when I did purchase the then I before I purchased the property I know one of my neighbors said they did talk to the engineering department this because it wasn't mentioned in the disclosure he did look at it the engineering department said don't worry about that oh um I'd like to visit with you sometime on this if I need more time at least you can glance through the paperwork you can see what I've got what I'm looking at love to have some more time sometime yeah so I did get an email from our city engineer really this morning and hadn't been able to go over it yet but I will definitely set up a time for you and I to connect and then feel free to reach out to other people in the council yeah and it it we did I seen communication from um you're a City attorney and stuff like that I think it's something that we just need to see if we can't work whatever okay yeah thanks for coming thank yeah we'll be in touch good luck everybody I'll let you okay any other public comment okay well I want to just on behalf of the council and you know they're obviously welcome to share anything they want to but we want to express our gratitude all of you for being here we are listening to you as I said we kind of have to go through a process and see what the developer and purchaser wants to do um I'll just say from own perspective I did walk the land last week and so I know it well um so I appreciate you guys sharing your personal stories I want to share at this time you share the process for disal so the the process would be that a plan would come in from the purchaser developer that would go to the Planning Commission Planning Commission is a board of appointed people that act as like a Judicial body to review our land comprehensive plan and so they will give a recommendation based on the presentation from the developer and getting they'll have public hearing public input and then make a recommendation to the council either direction then we as a council have similar well Media city hall public comment and we would make a decision on the land request would [Music] disapproval um so we would have to have a legal reason to to not do that and currently if they are going to residential it's not zoned for that and um part of the issue is to protect the taxpayers we will have plenty of reasons to be able to talk about that because we don't want to get sued um so there's there's a legal aspect um that we have to make maintain and kind of preserve our comprehensive land plan that what public open space you should probably come to the podium yeah if you want to just ask question yeah okay yeah public open space is at the design so I forgot to mention you know this the city does have a joint Powers agreement with the um school district for our our um Frisbee Golf Course and so it's it's a land that the city has more vested interest than others I just I'll say that Dan can you please come to the podium yeah yep no no Dan Bell and Steve noton volunteers first buil those Trails Dan was doing um he had a science club and he had some designations for some of the areas of Nel area I don't know if that was DNR or where that came from but um is that something we're going to be looking at too I would imagine I don't know anything about that but I will make a note of it and we'll connect with our plan be both record was looking through Dan's old files because his desk is still back in the Science office she was going to find if she could PT paperwork regarding that but I think he had set some of that up for us thanks Howard Schneider I live on 19634 Jersey Avenue and I guess two comments first I really do want to thank you again people have said that I mean the openness to listen to Citizen comments here about this issue we've had students parents grandparents like myself speaking about this so it's really a wonderful unfortunate a wonderful contrast to how the school board has conducted this business I did mention to you when I walked in uh related to Dan's comment about the process um what I saw in the six minutes that they're only publicly available to us from the school district the school board and the key leaders there apparently think it's pretty much a done deal except for possibly minor design changes and I think that's on their misunderstanding I didn't mean to accuse you of having staff anding them or what's that phrase getting ahead of their skis so I would hope that in some future discussions uh you've already begun that to make that clear that you have a process you summarize that briefly but I would hope that can be communicated because they really um were quite clear in their comments one board member asked so that would be that road would be the responsibility would be a city road and there would be that new roundabout and they would take care of all those good things like road maintenance and snow plowing and the answer was yes so um I hope that you can disabuse them of that notion but again thank you so much for being open to listening to all these citizen comments and I'm sorry I was out that land on Friday you so missed each other well I I will say um I think it's been a long standing position of our parks department that we would be disappointed if the land was sold because of that relationship so I'll just leave it thank you a tough position that school district's been put in because they really set out to do a good thing and I don't think they really realized what they were walking away or or s fing away but it the timing of the announcement of the sale couldn't have been it more destructive for the last Ley came out in the weekend paper that it was sold when you consider all of the kids that have run on those trails and skied on those trails and the people in our community who walked those Trails have used it as kind of this Jewel in this park the number we passed question one for the for the new Elementary but question two came up less than 150 votes from passing and that's about 3 $3.3 million it's like $33 million over of operating funds for our district over a decade and that voted that was voted down and when I'm out in the community and I see people I voted no I voted no what are they thinking they got to be punished and I'm like yeah you punished our kids yeah you punished the school board you put them in a tough spot you're going to make their job harder but then punish the kids but you know what I understand why they voted no and I understand why we didn't get that Levy and that article was probably timed if you can do those kind of things to you know to kind of put a pat on the back for our district and it was really a punch in a gut really hard so you know there there's a lot of factors and I know you'll be talking to the district but if you look at it and you talk to people there were a lot of mist mistakes made just a ton of mistakes made on this process because the district could have ended up with the same amount of money if they had decided to go forward with preservation as opposed to houses you know and that's really the best interest for the use of the community so again counting on your wisdom here and you know I would love it if lenar would go wow we didn't know that that land was used that way we didn't know that either maybe we should just walk away wouldn't that be wonderful that would that would save everybody the embarrassment and take this off your agenda too so you know sometimes good things happen just because you know it's a wonderful life isn't it all really last call again thank you um we're going to move on to our item three and that's our legislative priorities draft you're welcome to stay or not it's if you're gonna head out I'll probably just take like two minute break to let nice job how you doing but the concept or is there a contact plan thank you okay Mr K and M I believe team y yeah I'm good yeah the count says you're aware every year we do legislative PR 2024 is no no different so um court has put together some draft ERS for you guys consider and I'll turn over what you on some that we've changed in the last year's version thank you so as Ellen said it's kind of a routine um document together every year um so that we can um keep our legislators updated as well asers and evidence couple key changes this year school resource officers and earn safe time um there were several items that were changed in the last legislative session so um those um are are new items in this document couple other items that have been updated um just uh differences that have changed from 2023 to 2024 uh the regional Public Safety Training Facility storage of rail cars um the County Rod 50 and I35 Bridge um uh cannabis usage um as well as um some other items so I'll open it up for questions um more discussion okay Council are there any or a couple items that I wanted to flag but I don't we want to go Section by section or just want to jump around I would just recommend I want to see has coms that's works fine so let's uh we'll start with State mandates local authori so it looks like we pulled the salary and compensation limits out that was repealed y that was repealed um B post office improvements just added changing our number there population C school resource resice offic probably is some language from the league of cities probably anybody have any concerns um Public Safety Training D um added a few paragraphs there I think it's very clear on fact that this project for variety of reasons it's a little bit bigger than when we first talked about a couple years ago if anybody had any there okay on the first thing that I kind of just said flag for the storage of railroad cars um I think the red stuff is fine the sentences the project includes construction uh we don't know if that's what a long-term plan would be so if we could just be less specific that would be helpful so just that they just the sentence about the 90 car storage 30 car trans load because I'm funding those numbers maybe different so I just didn't want to call that out and just leave it just pull that sentence out if that makesense good um anybody else real okay um 15 and 35 there's some pretty big connections there um I I just wanted to verify that the way we're describing this is up to date with where we're at with state Federal funding because I I've heard commissioner Holberg talk about this on a few different occasions so I just want to make sure the messaging is the same and or or complimentary um so I would say it's up to date is what we know it today so it's changing you know right pretty rapidly but at think get stays it's pretty generic so do you have any I can't hear him he's just saying he thinks it's up to date from I just want to verify that this is how you're describing uh this project as well I think that's fine okay great thank you the dollar amounts keep changing so every time we do a document with the dollar amount then it changes so are these top six in just random order or they are FR spe order the six are are priorities but they're no particular a few years ago we had kind of had them ranked and then we decided to kind of have ones that were very specific and then having a bunch of other information so if you were saying with legisl okay it used to be one page now it's a page cour the county has this as number one the 50s yeah three uh okay moving on to the local control specifically about adult use cannabis there's a whole bunch of new stuff in there I think we've talked about quite a bit I feel comfortable with this language I don't know my only comment was on the last bullet it seems redundant to say the city opposes any proposals to diminish local control only because talk about in the first priority as well yeah to me it implies that the city is against it and we may may very well be I just don't know if that's how we want the yeah I get that I my only my biggest concern is the legislators as they talk about this the the phrase they always use was well we've been tweaking liquor laws for a hundred years we're going to tweak cannabis laws I'm okay with being redundant just because sure well I'm comfortable with being redundant in the fact that what if this is the only section they look at I mean if they're looking at the document they look at the table of contents they flip to it do you know what I mean and so if that's the only thing they look at then you want to make sure that the statement's there that you know that we keep our local control as much as we can um the letter B this was another one that I had issue with I gotten retailers reached out to me and they totally understand our perspective about protecting um you know kind of our our Enterprise and we're just concerned about the red area that we had added I was comfortable with just taking taking that out if everyone else felt that was okay and just maintaining that first part but wanted to have discussion about it so you're proposing removing the red text yeah just leaving it the way it's always not always at least the way it was last year how does this proposed change enhance this section it's meant more for Education there's a narrative out there that 32 beer and 32 beverages are going away and that's just not the case and so we wanted that to be out there honestly it was a confusing narrative to me I I was trying to figure it out I mean I was like so I got really confused by The Narrative of what it meant for the no low and what you know Etc so we can take it out that's fine oh I I I agree maybe just take it out okay I don't know how to correct it can I make sure the minutes show that I'm staining on any discussion on this topic I've got a potential conflict of interests with my employer so be participating in discussion that okay um letter C elections um we've got a couple new Provisions in there I'm comfortable with these I think we all know how expensive elections are to maintain so okay um oops I jump too far uh met Council governance no changes I did have a comment about that though okay because there is a task force currently running at the moment I didn't know if I want to call that task force out and seek a voice in that decision or recommendation I don't understand the full process of that task for task force I mean I guess my take is that task force composition is the composition is pretty established I mean they've already been meeting for several months they're they're still taking public comment we could subm we could submit a letter stating our using this language if that word I know represent Cosmic onic we have a local connection okay uh nothing new to revenue restrictions there data practices anything that anybody's concerned about that part this is similar to voting expensive to do this so having other governmental support is important over and then earn sick and safe time I think this is obviously something we've talked about quite a bit local business communi has talk about so having that in there I think is important thanks STI do next because there's not red line that's the end of the doc have feedback input commissioner okay um how would you like to share this so in past Year's had the first work session in January uh we've invited our delegation would be before the session starts this year so that us kind an issue started it's usually harder to get them there but we could invite them and have them at the top of the agenda have a discussion with them we'd always we also include our County Commissioners as well as Council and or federal delegation as well um sometimes they they're able to send some I think we should I just like the fact that we've able to dialogue with them and they can ask questions and you know and get a better understanding where we're coming from good well done good job with exception to the item that I can't comment on yeah real is oh just kind of in this realm now that the federal Congressional schedule's been published for 24 we're looking at uh hosting like a symposium or Forum on the 3550 project where we would invite electives on all levels um from Burnsville you know Lakeville Scott Cony you know so we'd invite the two senators Congress woman Craig and then anybody else that has a interest in this part of the region and that upgrade of 35 from Burnsville down to 185th and to do a dog and pony and trying and get everybody on the same page talking the same issues because it's kind of complex and it's moved u in different ways and we' really feel like the time is now given that that project was the highest scored project for corridors of Commerce and the whole state that did not get funding so we're kind of getting up there so okay that' be great um all right moving on to B potential housing programs and I'll turn over to's leader to good road to give us staff and maybe kind of tell us what you want us to think about yeah what we're hoping to start doing tonight U mayor and council is to start um having a conversation and hearing how you all want to prioritize the direct local housing aid so as you know the legislature passed a very large um a billion dollar um bill for a variety of Housing Programs some of that is through a new Metropolitan Regional sales team that will trickle down to communities that are over 10,000 in population so Lakeville will receive a distribution this first year in 2024 of $385,500 assistance to households at 115% of area meean income or Ami for any projects related to home ownership or 80% of Ami for any projects or funding programs that we create for rental so I just threw in the staff report for a household of four what those two Amis are so at 115% we're talking about a household income of 143,50 and an 80% Ami for rental is um for family of four is 94650 um in the packet was a more detailed spreadsheet that included the Ami based on your household and this is $ 2023 um I have or 2023 I don't have the 2024 Ami amounts but I should shortly um again I wanted to also provide some information I got it from deed that kind of spoke to our types of Industries in Dakota County it's not Lakeville specific but it's um rounded out to Dakota County um just with some salary data just so you can kind of relate what kind of incomes do people have in our different job categories and how do they compare to these Amis and I think a lot of times you'll look at 60% 80% and certainly 115% of Ami is really not being as low as I think a lot of people expect um it's still um a healthy income but then when you compare that to what people's rents might be um what down payments might be for purchasing a home it does start to be a struggle so just wanted to provide some context so you kind of know the types of households um that these dollars are aiming to serve um cities must spend each Year's allocation within the third following year so we have three years to spend um we'll have to be submitting reports starting in 2025 um to provide documents mentation to the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency as to how we used our funds they'll verify that we're using it correctly just clarify yep it's considered spent though if we put it in a trust fund correct I so we buys ourselves some more time try okay yep I believe that is correct one more quick question about that does it accumulate so if this is an annual tax and we have this much and we have this much left over what we get the next year it's just like State okay yep exactly good questions so I put together General categories of how we could utilize this funding um based on you know and this I'm not that we're not limited this list you all may have ideas I didn't think of um so we're open to you know this is why the point of this conversation I broke it down categories of affordable development related either owner occupied or rental preservation of affordable housing again owner and rental home buyer syst and then kind of another category so the development that one's kind of the obvious one city funds could be utilized to create new affordable housing so whether that's at the Home Ownership or whether that's the end um at the rental you understand what those AMA Ami goals would be um but we could utilize our funding for construction costs Gap financing demolition site acquisition those kinds of activities that would lead towards development so imagine a partnership with a affordable housing developer um who might have some Gap financing they may come to us and ask us to utilize some of these funds for that project oftentimes when it comes to development projects you're going to need an accumulation of a couple of years for us to have the kind of funding that would be worthwhile for those kind of development costs and I think that gets to the mayor's point of setting up a local Housing Trust Fund that the money can just sit and accumulate and we can utilize based on a plan and priorities um that you want to implement but that is a tool um second really kind of gets at our NOA or really preserving all of our naturally occurring affordable housing and so one program that we currently do is um every year we have probably around it varies 100 Grand to 120 Grand that we utilize our cdbg funds those funds are then utilized by Dakota County CDA to fund a home improvement loan program now the Ami is at 60% through the cdbg program and I think the maximum loan amount is 30,000 so the count CDA already administers that program we hand off our dollars they get that money out to Lille residents using that allocation what the CDA would like to do is expand that program and they're calling it an enhanced housing rehab program where they would have broader reach up to 115,000 Ami and up to $50,000 in Lo but what they're asking for is if we if they create such a program they're asking for cities in Dakota County to commit to some dollars from our funds in order for them to be able to staff up and administer that program but it is an option versus creating such a program ourselves or replicating the work of the CDA other preservation efforts could be a very similar program geared solely at seniors CDA does do this uh they have one program um but we could create a program that's geared only towards seniors any kind of maintenance repair um or amenities that need to be offered to senior housing to keep people keep seniors in their housing for as long as possible so maybe it's a loan that goes towards a a ramp um grab bars things that make their hold more accomodating we could also create programs specific to rental Rehabilitation um we don't have a lot of older Apartments um but we have some and as we age those will also age and so we may want to see some improvements made to Mechanicals um exterior improvements Etc again it gets a little trickier when you're dealing with multiple units because then we need to deal with the in in income verification but it is certainly possible um the CDA does do a similar program through their hope um so again wouldn't have to be something that we would replicate but we certainly could using our dollars and then the last one is um also related to Noah home buyer assistance so creating some kind of a down payment assistance to get folks into our more affordable um naturally occurring affordable housing so whether that's you know a grant um a very low interest loan spread out the cost it's something that helps a homeowner get to the Finish Line I preface this with um really wanting to dig in into exactly what Minnesota Housing Finance Agency is doing with all their dollars they're Staffing up and trying to figure it out and this is one of the buckets they really see um adding a lot of their dollars to we might not need to replicate it we just might need to advertise it that program exists at the state level to get that in the hands of our residents again we're limited you know it sounds like a lot of money 385,000 but it's going to go very very quickly other ideas I threw in here um improvements um grants to help residents with minor property code violations this is something that's becoming a little bit more common in some of our communities around us that are a little bit older and residents running into um problems with you know whether it's a a failing fence or something else that they're getting code violations for but they just simply don't have the money to fix is there a pot of money that we could create that rad ask a question I mean I'm not suggesting but just for reference so would that also qualify for helping the homeowner out that needed sewer and water connection okay um radar mitigation um this is becoming uh a very common Improvement it's something that's automatically taken care of in our new home construction but not um in our existing housing and um it's rampant across Minnesota um I think it's becoming a more common Improvement um we could partner with homeowners and um share in that cost you know maybe it's a a matching Grant or something to that in um effect and then lastly kind of a way to control these buckets is to create um a local Housing Trust Fund any governmental unit can do that um you can do all of these programs within a local Housing Trust Fund um I've not developed a local I have not worked for a community and led that effort but I've beening doing some homework um it doesn't seem too overly complicated coming up with a plan understanding how we want to utilize these dollars so that anybody who comes to us and apply for them understands um kind of where they stand with the kinds of projects that they have um the nice thing about a local Housing Trust Fund too is if the council were to choose to Levy in the future utilize your H Levy tool um you could Levy um a specific amount of funds to um beef up along with the direct local housing aid um any additional housing dollars um you can also take donations and other resources uh to utilize all within this funding umbrella Dakota County CDA has had a um trust fund for years they call it their whole program they are seeking they're on their own seeking guidance as to whether local dollar local Aid cities are receiving could be utilized um through their trust fund but then allocated only to the that Community it feels complicated but they're researching it I do want you to know that the CDA is hosting the mayor manager meeting in January um about collaborating on all of this and they probably have other ideas as well and I think they're even submitting a proposal to our city administrators and managers as to how they would like to to see the ability to partner I think in some levels it makes sense to utilize and partner with their resources rather than um replicating things like the Home Improvement loans um but there are things we can certainly do inhouse and so tonight I just want to hear your thoughts um am I missing the mark do you have other ideas things that you think are just gaps um in our housing resources so that we can start to put a plan together to utilize These funds early next year thank you this is great um my initial thought is having our own local allows us to do a lot of different things and have flexibility so I would think that that was the direction you want to go to because we could probably use that to on the county or not um I'll just share with you guys some conversations I've had with the Regional Council Mayors um on what other cities were thinking about and then also some conversations I had with entities in the community had a conversation with 360 communities they said this year alone they spent over a million dollars on emergency rental assist um that continues to be a need in Lakeville and other parts of Dakota County and so I think that's something we should think about is partnering with them and maybe helping to beef up that fund for them um something to explore another thing that's been working in Edina and Roseville is partnership with Habitat for Humanity where they take older homes the city buys them and owns the underlying land in a trust and then um habitat fixes up the house and then sells it to a family who you know has a mortgage and then the city gets paid back so it's kind of a tool um to help people buy homes instead of just starting from scratch for Habitat so I think that's an interesting concept um I do know that the county at one point owned like 20 or 30 homes that habitat is acquiring right now in Lakeville in particular they were County rentals that are now owned by habitat that 30 might be high but it's it's a number um so there's that conversation but then the other things I think in there is good and and lastly um personally I think we've gotten to a point where having a conversation with the county about another senior CDA apartment probably makes sense I don't know if that's where they're at but I think if we build up some of this we could be pretty helpful that's just my perspective but want to open it up for can I ask one question Tina a little bit um I I don't recall the how the formula works for this I noticed that much smaller well not much smaller but smaller cities in Dakota County than us got double as much money is it based on existing affordable housing or do you know that yeah it it's a very complicated and I can send you an additional PowerPoint if you'd like um but it is um largely based on cost Burg households so like you said um our our amount compared to burnsville's amount there's is much greater in their population bit less than us so it's based on the amount of cost burden largely based on the amount of cost burden households but if you'd like I can give you more data on how that calculation was put together if you're interested like to see it I'll s it okay I didn't want to get into that nitty-gritty in this memble but I do have it the other idea that I that I had you mentioned the program that um helps seniors stay in their houses I was thinking of kind of the opposite of that um I think there's a number of seniors that are looking to make the transition into independent living but might need some financial assistance for that um that would open up existing housing stock and also I think we've got vacancy in our existing senior housing too cost and things like that yeah like a moving cost or a first month rent or something like that think my neighbors that have been in their house since 1967 and they just they're getting sick of shov and and uh you know because those are house those are desirable houses I think too for the most part because they are a little more affordable many cases excuse me for uh my thoughts went to this home buyer assistance for a couple reasons um that's I mean that's how I ended up Lakeville was I I got some home buyer assistance for a firsttime home buyer um and I think we'll always be a little stronger if we partner um but my feeling is and I agree with the mayor that whatever we can do to be unique to Lakeville um I I think we we can do that and I I also agree with this naturally occurring affordable housing and I you know there's probably some people that are in houses that they've been in there for decades and they don't really know how or have the means to get out so whatever we could do to help get them into the next stage or level of housing um in in our Community I I think would be good uh and then the final thing that I would really consider is just uh maybe grants or something to uh do renovation not naturally affording naturally uring affordable housing you know if I'm going to buy this house uh all the carpet is shade carpet and uh what are you saying you know hear I shouldn't say the appliances are avocado green and you I'm just saying if it if it needs a serious makeover from 50 60 years ago um some people can walk in and see that and they're very good at doing it themselves other people walk in and see it and go boy I wonder if I have enough money to be able to do this so I I would say to me those are the three things that jumped out for me there was a I took advantage when I was right out of college there was certain housing crisis there was tax deferred where you get $7,500 you paid back 500 a year for 15 years yeah but it was to do that kind of Renovations do some renovating new carpet new cupboards appliances those types of things um well thank you for all these ideas I think really is a combination of multiple of them sweet spot but the metric that I keep thinking about is the flowchart that was presented at the manufacturers uh appreci Workshop about the flow of uh people who live here and work outside versus how many folks are living outside of Lakeville and and and work here I mean the data is showing that our our wages are lower than the cost of living average wise and so to me the metric that the needle that I'd like to see move is how many folks are living and working here um so folks that can afford to live and work in Lakeville um and and so I don't I don't know what the right combination there is um how do you keep them here if they get some kind of assistance and decide to leave their job after a year Well no I mean part of it is that there are jobs here um but but I mean we loaned them money based on the fact that we wanted them to live here in Lakeville how do you keep them here I think if some of the some of these programs I think get to the idea of that initial transition cost um that could keep them here if they can just get here initially um I think there were probably other ideas that rental insurance as will bur Insurance rental assistance I think some of those programs could help with that I nothing's a guarantee but I think part of the guarantee is trying to is always having programs that pay us back in some way if we're going to initially assist with something like that there was one thing on here that I didn't see I don't know if it quite fits with the the work of this money but um several times there's been a a fire or natural disaster where a home needs to be rebuilt or there's uh temporary housing that's needed for folks I know there are some resources out there for those situations but maybe this pool of funds could assist with rebuild or temporary housing if needed I think I'm hearing that local option number one maybe kind of take some time to think through maybe a couple of targets and where we want to put the money once it's accumulated a little bit is kind of I'll go through and kind of figure out what it what it'll take to create the trust fund and I know there's some Community engagement that's recommended through it um some prioritization you know coming up with a plan um we can start working through that in January um but I think I have a good idea of the direction that you're looking for and it's kind of what I expected so but some of these other ideas are great um Ral assistance I think is really important um I think who work towards seniors and I I like your suggestion Dan of of even you know helping people be able to move out when they're ready because that is super valuable housing for that person home that young family now probably not a lot to contract number right now but there's even probably some Community safety issu she tied that too yeah we'll get our first allegation next speak yep yep so it'll be distributed kind of like State thought it's December this year is it this year for 24 you might be right might be right after Christmas yeah but again we have three years um so we don't have to panic we don't have to rush um I do think we'll probably get some you know it'll be interesting to see the proposal that the CDA puts out um but again what I'm hearing is create programs that are unique that we need right here in the L yeah so my only thought is is um you know how are we going to get the most bang for the bug because if we split this out in six different ways so you know as we continue to come forward I think we need to decide you know targeted on one or two yeah I agree yes probably for sure which to me the metric is greatest impact as well you know great I think just another way what you just said but yeah I like the idea of transitioning I've always said the domino effect in this community is you know there's that roadblock where there's people who can't downsize or won't got this glut maryin we will pay for your moving comp you're willing to sell your house okay any other comments can can I just a little bit here so the board has not made any final decisions on any plan so okay I feel kind of like there might be some misinformation my apologies if it came from the staff or having a work session I think at the January meeting we'll be looking for feedback or input at the county manager meeting in the CVA around housing um so but I I want to make sure that I can accurately represent that your inclination is to not turn your money into the county or whatever that you're going to do your own programs and uh possibly use some County infrastructure right if necessary to expedite or have efficiencies yeah I think that would be accurate we wouldn't be just turning it over the county but partner potentially or whatever yeah somewhere in here talks about thr a proposal or like well I have not been advocating I've been saying that that was my sense that Lakeville would be you know doing their own thing and maybe partner you know on similar programs for administration and stuff but not that came more from CDA staff okay because I'm looking at this it has a name it has numbers and I'm just kind of like whoa we haven't talked about this so yeah I just wna okay thanks um and then we we at the county of course are struggling with some of the most difficult housing issues with shelter and you know we you know so we continued the workforce housing uh the the pro uh two latest ones in Lakeville when we actually did the analysis of how many of them lived in work lived in the workforce housing and actually worked in Lakeville and it was like less than 20% actually you know so some of these things there's some real challenges out there and I think you would probably see the majority of the county dollars going into these areas where the reality is is we have tried new things we built uh a single and a studio Gateway up on Robert Street in West St Paul trying to cater to that retail worker restaurant worker and what we're finding is that and that doesn't have any services and that building but is lots of issues so we're finding that some of these lower price points come with a real need for services and other things with them that are very expensive and we'll probably you know look at investing in some of those things as well and then we did put in a policy where we would save in our family Town Homes one unit for families experiencing homeless we've been doing that for about a year or whatever quite frankly it's not going well and again um people just need it's very hard to go from a homeless situation without any Services plop somebody in an apartment or a town home and say go for it it doesn't work so we're really trying to look at that Paradigm of service and progression if you will with incentives for moving through the housing continue but that with most challenges I think we will end up spending and then also seniors we haven't done a senior um think since uh the one behind Cub that's the last senior building that we've done but but the issue of opening up uh affordable housing for young families Etc is a goal as well so that would be another area that we used to do we kind of got away from it but I would there's interest in refocusing in that as well so if you got a good spot for a senior we like come near grocery stores in the doctor's office Library whatever Ken that would be something I'd say if you're interested in seeing your housing start looking for a spot we're not next up but if we had like spot we might get a project okay thank you again um we'll now move on to items for future discussion if there got one more meeting of 2023 next week City Hall committee or city administrator updates person now we just uh the final phase of the HR Director search so hopefully there's an offer this this week Co I'll go ahead I'm just well I just wanted to add on um so we're going to have a closed session at the next meeting um for the uh for the administrators uh review but we are scheduling it for 5:15 do you think we need to move it up even more to five or I mean how much time do you think last time we we were at 5:30 and it seemed like we were a little bit rushed um so at this point we're tentatively at 5:15 but we wanted to ask the rest of the council what you thought if you thought you wanted to move it up to 5 or 4:30 or something I think if we it's just my take if we have 45 minutes with us and 30 with Justin so 5:15 it'll be fine okay kind of just we I think part of the challenge last year we were not paying attention we just let it go too long once the cut off hard cut off six o'clock this is good for Public Public Safety Committee um we just had uh a presentation the police chief pres presented a photomy program officers um that would give people training to especially with the Cannabis cases now get people training for what kind of problem did you say labotomy oh yeah said labotomy the police no they received training from the BCA much like the Dr training and the intoxilizer training to do blood draws for evidentiary purposes okay the only thing I add is uh on tomorrow's school board agenda I believe they'll have um the accepting of extending the renewal of hassi Arena the hassi family has uh made that commitment for 10 years plus another renewal of 10 more after that and then it'll come to us for and then also the Arena's board so um part of the fam's commitment was to ask the city to work with some local people to help do some matching fundraising to go along with it so working on that but agreement will be able to read it grateful for their continued support of um this is not a committee update it's just more something that wasn't such so few things are not advertised on social media that I just want to put this out there I had a chance to fill uh aoid where Luke was asked toh talk to folks that were turning a hundred years old at uh Hills and Luke did a great video uh for them and then I just got to sit there and and meet people and they were just so um enthusiastic about having City officials there to to honor them and their stories about how long they've lived in this city how much they love this city and just the idea of turning a hundred um and how much life they've lived was just a really a neat opportunity and so it's something you wouldn't have seen on Facebook or put on any newsletters put it up nice job on the video too they all clapped and he wasn't there but they yeah I had like I don't want to go like one of them one of them is was Bob lon's mom so if you guys know who Bob is his mom wow wow the best part was everyone had their own cake with their face on I love [Music] it I provide One update long as I'm here I thought CIP was going to be um on the work session and not but that's fine Hamburg and 50 lots of accidents we had a three-way free vehicle I don't know two weeks ago final report is due out December 15th for improvements it'll be recommending a roundabout I'm trying to Fast Track it with no City cost share so as soon as that report comes up then we'll look for in January trying to get it on the agenda um to provide the dollars for the preliminary engineering um we already own two corners when we did the first project so we're hoping there won't be a lot of RightWay issues but that one's been a growing problem it's not an oval about I don't know if they can like I I don't know what shape it would be to take the two corners that we already own but hopefully there would be any in order to aonic that so thank you we appreciate the effort of no City contributions because I just hope three other Commissioners agree with me yeah I mean so you guys that weren't here that that was a project that had been done in C some City and it just the technology of lowering or changing the elevation did not improve the traffic safety like we thought it was okay with that I'll take a motion all in favor you guys next week than"