[music] [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Good evening and welcome to this June 4th meeting of the Bloomington Planning Commission. The planning commission advises the city council on development proposals, development standards, long-range planning and transportation issues. Some items before the planning commission are study items where we will not take formal action. Other items before the planning commission are public hearings where we will take public uh testimony during those items and we do encourage that. Uh you can do so here at city hall by joining us in the commission chambers. You can also do so from home by following the instructions on your screen. On some items the planning commission has final decision-making authority while in other items the city council will make the final decision and the planning commission acts in an advisory capacity. The planning commission is made up of seven volunteer residents of the city of Bloomington. Each planning commissioner has been served has been appointed by the city council to serve a three-year term with a two-term limit. All seven commissioners are present this evening. So, we do have a quorum. Our first order of business this evening is the pledge of allegiance. All rise. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item number one this evening is a public hearing. It's for a conditional use permit, a type two for a type two home business at 8924 Mount Curve Road. And Mr. Dylan Palmer will be joining us with a staff report. All right. Good evening, chairman and commissioners. Uh again, Dylan Palmer here to present item number one tonight. Uh this is a type two home business uh conditional use permit which is for a dance school located at 8924 Mount Curve Road which is in West Bloomington. So before we begin, I want to give you a little background on why this is even in front of the planning commission. So in section 21.302.13 uh we define our home business standards and in those standards dance school is classified as a type two home business. It's explicitly called out uh in the code. A cup is required for any type two home business in the R1 zoning district, which is where this property is at. And in addition to the cup being required, uh there's this little clause in there that says the planning commission may approve the typed home business activities and accessory buildings or garages if it finds that the proposed activities would not alter the residential character of the neighborhood if performed within the garage. And in this case, the applicant is proposing to hold the dance school inside of a garage. So that's why we're here presenting this tonight. Uh, so just a little bit about the site. This is the site 8924 Mount Curve Road. Uh, closest major road is east east Bush Lake Road. Uh, this is just south 80 of 86th Street. Uh, next the zoning and the guide plan zoned R1. The entire neighborhood around it is also zoned R1. And then it's guided low density residential also surrounded either by lowdensity uh, residential guidance or conservation guidance. Uh this is the site plan of the home, the gray diamond on the left there, and then the garage where the dance school is proposed to take place on the right. Uh showing the driveway where vehicles will park, and then the student entrance located around the back side of the garage. And then just a note for you, all the streets in this area, there's no public parking allowed on any of the streets in this neighborhood. So they will not be able to have any uh any visitors or students or anybody parking on any of the streets here. This is a floor plan of the garage itself showing the dance floor in the space. They're also proposing to add uh insulation, heating, air conditioning, and other improvements to make this comfortable for the dance students. Uh we also want to mention that they need to maintain the ability to park one vehicle in an enclosed space. Uh the there's nothing in the code that says they must have an enclosed parking space. However, they must maintain the ability. And I'll go back here to show you that they did provide us uh on the left hand side of that garage there where they could potentially expand the garage in the future. They do have room there and they are able that would be a code complying addition. uh that would give them that enclosed space. And then just some operations about the our dance school operations details. Uh no more than eight students at a time and we did recommend a condition uh stating that the classes will be held during the daytime. Again, the garage will be improved to be, you know, heated air conditioned. Uh the applicant who has joined us here tonight is the only employee and then again no parking is permitted on the nearby streets and they have about four or five spaces in the driveway where they can uh fit visitor vehicles. Staff recommends approval of this application and if you have any questions I am here for you now. >> Thank you Mr. Palmer. We'll start with questions for staff. Commissioner White. >> Thank you Chair. Um I'm just curious. I didn't notice a restroom anywhere on the facility and I just wanted to make sure that that's is that a requirement of businesses at all. >> Uh, Chair Cooked and Commissioner White, there's no explicit condition or explicit requirement in zoning code for a restroom for home businesses. I think that's I can't really speculate on to why that was never added into the home business code. Uh, however, the applicant can speak to the where they would need to go presumably just inside of the home which is directly adjacent to the garage. >> Commissioner Muster. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Since we're on this this page, if I'm trying to to reconcile the conditions of approval with this floor plan. So, one of the conditions of approval is, as you mentioned, that there has to be space for one vehicle to park within an enclosed area. So until a future garage edition is built, this would have to be modified to essentially only half have half of that floor. Correct, >> Chair Cookton, Commissioner Monster. That's correct. So what they would have to do is more or less I don't know the exact mechanisms of how they would do it, but fold up the dance floor basically to fit one vehicle in the garage. So with these modifications, I believe that that would be it'd be a possibility that they could do that before the garage would have to be built. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mr. Johnson. Anything to add? >> Yeah, Chair. Thank you. If I can just add a little bit of context to that is uh the intent here is that the uh application is not making the site legally non-conforming for our parking requirement. Um there's many homes in Bloomington that utilize their garage space for a whole wide variety of activities and uh uses in them. Um, and so the intent here is just to ensure that they're not uh creating a situation where their property is now non-conforming uh to our parking standard. Yep. Any other questions for staff? Seeing none, thank you, Mr. Palmer. This is an opportunity for the applicant to speak. If they wish to uh please step forward and uh state your case. Good evening. if you could introduce yourself to us, please. >> Sure. >> Hi, my name is Michelle Vagy >> and I'm Rob Vogy. She's she's the star. We don't necessarily have anything particularly to share, but happy to answer any questions. >> I think we did have a couple questions I heard here uh during the discussion. Anything to comment on as far as the uh parking space or the restroom usage? >> Sure. >> Uh restroom usage would be in the house. Um and then uh parking space. Yes, we'd make it so that it would be possible to park a car inside the garage um where the dance floor could either be removed or folded up and and just put off to the side so we can make room for another car. >> Great. Thank you. Any questions for the applicant? >> Seeing none, there is a signin sheet. If you could both sign in for us for the record, please appreciate it. And thank you for joining us. >> Yeah. This is a public hearing which I will open now and I'll ask if there's anyone in the chambers who wishes to testify on this item. Seeing no one stepping forward. Is there anyone online? >> All participants online are staff. >> Thank you, Miss Brown. If there's anyone in the chambers who wish to testify, you still welcome to come on up. We support their >> Come on. Come on up to the mic so the the people on TV can hear you. >> Mark and Mary Schwarz. >> We live right across um we're on Lake View, >> so we're literally three houses away. >> Okay. >> And we support their petition. >> Yeah. >> Great. >> So we're just here as support. >> Excellent. And now you get to sign in on the sheets on the the [laughter] >> Okay. >> Sign us both in. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the chambers who wishes to testify on this item? >> Seeing none, I'll look for a motion to close the public hearing. >> So moved. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to close this public hearing. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. That motion passes 70. We'll move into discussion. >> Commissioner Cunningham. >> Thank you, Chair. uh seems pretty straightforward to me. Uh I think uh there's might be a few home businesses that my wife has sent me to uh to pick up Facebook Marketplace Crafts that are not under a conditional use permit. So, I'm I'm thankful to the applicant and staff for working this out and getting this put together. I think it's a a good use of of space and entrepreneurial. So, I'm I'm in favor of this. >> Thank you, Commissioner Cunningham. >> Commissioner Lay. >> Uh thank you, Chair. Um, in I also am fully supportive of this and also would like to say that it's uh nice to see that clearly they've done a lot of neighbor uh ground work with the neighbors for all the support we've received via email and whatnot. So, I'm fully supportive of this as well. >> Thank you, Commissioner Lay. Um, I reviewed this one and I I do get a little hung up on the part about would not alter the residential character of the neighborhood. And I don't want to be the guy that's not allowing home businesses and we have an applicant here that's here in good faith and wants to be a good neighbor and uh, all of those things. I I believe that 100%. But I will say it gave me pause. And what concerns me a little bit is that there's no parking on the public streets. That's going to take a lot of work for the applicant to make sure that her customers are parking in the driveway. And that's that can be tough. And if there's not enough room and then there's a fire truck or whatever, like we've we've created a problem. And so I don't know if I'm for or against it. It's given me pause. But as a planning commission, we do have to to to take a a look at these things with a critical eye and say, are we potentially allowing a problem where if customers are parking on the street even for a few minutes, if another student in the class needs an ambulance and now the ambulance can't get through, we did that. And so we do have to be careful on these things. And so what I will say is it it's giving me some pause. Commissioner Lite. >> Um I hear you. I think the thing I would say um that in the applicants uh application that got me around that issue is the fact that the students are all children and so the driver if there are cars there even for a few minutes that the drivers of the car will be with the car at all times. Um I don't it doesn't sound like it's a situation where someone will be parking and leaving their car and so in a circumstance like that where an emergency vehicle needs to get through or something like that um by my reading of the application the driver would be if not in the car within feet of the car at any time. >> Thank you Commissioner Knight. Other thoughts? >> If not I would entertain a motion. Commissioner Cunningham. >> Having been able to make the required findings, I move to approve a conditional use permit for a type two home business dance school located within a garage at 8924 Mount Curve Road subject to the conditions and code requirements listed in the resolution. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second recommending approval. And in fact, I'm going to take a pause here. Okay, we are not recommending approval. We are making approval because the planning commission has the final decision on this application. So this motion is to make that final decision. Is there any final discussion? All those in favor of the motion say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. That motion passes 70. As stated, this is a final decision of the planning commission unless an appeal to the city council is received by 4:30 p.m. on June 9th. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Palmer. We'll move then to item number two, which is also a public hearing um for Emerald Parachute LLC at 8200 Grand Avenue South. Uh Mr. Kareem Sherard is here with the staff report. >> Hi, good evening, chair, commissioners. here to present um conditional use permit for a cannabis cultteration facility at 8200 Grand Avenue South. Um the site is located um adjacent to the Turo um corporate campus. Um this is an overview of the site where it's located. Um it's sandwiched between um West 82nd Street and West 83rd Street towards the south. The proposed location is highlighted in yellow. This is our proposed location of where the cannabis cultivation will be taken uh place. I do want to note that parking is in compliance um in addition to other standards that we have found to be in compliance as well. A little bit background on cannabis cultivation. Um I do want to note that um city council approved ordinance 2024.2 2 which established um the cannabis uh cultivation to be attributed to agriculture indoor which therefore um precipitated that uh when this application came forth this would be u required a conditional use permit um so that's why I'm here before you and I do want to note that a recent uh conditional use permit was approved for the same location for a cannabis manufacturing facility so this would be the second cannabis um um use um but there is no conflicts that we have noticed and no restrictions on multiple cannabis uses within one building. In terms of the land use guidance and zoning, this is uh this is guided industrial and it's zoned I3 um general industry. The proposed floor plan, this is phase one. Um that's going to be um constructed within two phases. The first phase will have the operations in the upper right hand corner. Um and then on phase two they will have se separated um segregated um units where things will be um manufactured. Um that's how that's the current layout for the facility. And with that there is compliance for order mitigation which has been a concern and that has been addressed. the applicants who are here in attendance will um can't speak more to that landscaping is in compliance as well as lighting and trash. So with that staff we do recommend approval through the following motion. >> Thank you Mr. Shard. We'll begin with questions for staff. Commissioner is that Commissioner Lynette. >> Thank you chair. Um question for you. Is this the same company that we issued the previous cup for or is it a different company altogether? >> Right. That's a this is a separate company. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Commissioner White. >> Thank you, Chair. Um I was just curious uh and apologies. I read this a couple of days ago, so if it was in there and I have forgotten, I'm just curious about whether there's any concerns or requirements with agricultural zoning around water usage and disposal. Um I assume if you're cultivating there's going to be a need to provide water and I just want to make sure that that's been considered. >> Yep. [snorts] I can say um there during the preapp DRC meeting there was no concerns that was raised by that department and I could let um planning manager Johnson expand on that. >> Yeah, Mr. Johnson. >> I concur. Our utility staff did not flag it uh as an issue in terms of capacity. >> Any other questions for staff? Commissioner Summers. >> Thank you, Chair. I am the So, in your presentation, you said odor mitigation has been addressed. Is that the um I'm looking at the project narrative >> phase odor mitigation strategy. Is that what you're referring to? The like that's the plan or >> right? Yes. Uh Commissioner Summers, um odor mitigation strategy will be implemented beginning um in phase one and then of course through phase two. So during at the onset of operations and odor mitigation strategy which is referenced in the project narrative that will be implemented before commencement of of that use type. >> Anything to add Mr. Johnson? Yeah, thank you, Chair Cookton. And if I can add to just that those systems are reviewed by our building and inspections division, the building official. So, similar to the previous uh business that was located in this site, that system has to be reviewed by the building official um and has sta has people on staff who are familiar with mechanical and order mitigation systems. So, they do review that. And then there's also a subsequent application that it be uh verified that it was installed correctly prior to occupancy and operation. So, it's kind of a belt and suspenders type approach with it. >> Mr. Sherrod, do we have any other cannabis cultivation occurring in Bloomington or is it all other forms of cannabis businesses? >> Um, can this will be the first one that I'm aware of? >> Okay. Commissioner Summers, >> can you verify for me, including the setbacks, about how far from the houses behind this or behind this building? How far away will this building be from those houses? >> Yeah. So, it's um the location is right above the the rear yards to these buildings. And I I would say that the setbacks is it's just right abundu ab. So that's what that's why we definitely encouraging and th mitigation strategy that's going to be in place. But that's that's what this this effects. >> Mr. Johnson's been feverishly clicking and typing away here. >> Yeah. And uh utilizing GIS, so it's not survey accurate, but a a good estimation is that the homes range from uh somewhere between 80 to 110 ft away from where uh this tenant space likely exhausts from. So not from the wall of the commercial space but in kind of the middle of that tenant space area. Uh just judging based on the uh exchanges or the returns on the roof. >> So about 100 ft. >> Please. >> Thank you. If this is our first cultivation business, >> how do we know that the odor mitigation works for this business as opposed to some of the other ones that our you said building inspector staff is managing? >> Mr. Johnson. >> Yeah, forgive me, Chair. So, if uh uh Commissioner Summers, the system that they install uh has to be approved by the building official before they install it. And so typically there's some review back and forth um in terms of them getting all the specs of the system that they're proposing um thinking about the space. They go through some calculations on the mechanical side of things. I have no idea uh how all that works. Um but I'm just kind of relaying uh what the process is by the building inspections division. Um so they would do that same uh process with uh with this use basically. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Johnson, in your long history >> Yes. Sorry. Here at the city of Bloomington, we've had other odor mitigation >> requirements. Correct. I think I'm recalling a pet daycare facility and maybe uh other things. Is that correct? This isn't the first. >> It's not the first chair and commissioners and uh restaurants is the most frequent frequent use that have uh um installed or deployed odor mitigation systems. And I would say of all the kind of different characteristics or dynamics of things that we review um from land use and development, odor is probably one of the most subjective or um varies from person to person um who's kind of consuming that odor is you'll get wide ranging opinions. If you have 10 people kind of in the same area, they might experience an odor very differently amongst the 10 of them. And so that's one of the challenges behind um kind of this uh area of study or this uh science if you will is just that um kind of humans experience it very differently. So uh based on the research I've seen uh odor mitigation systems have been very effective in uh cannabis related businesses. I saw um reductions as much uh north of 90%. Um, but that's not to say that one individual might experience it differently than um than just a typical um person would. So, it's a it's a tricky one, I guess, is what I would say. And the same goes for restaurants, you know, friars, fry oil, hamburgers, all those we get um sometimes get complaints. Not too frequently, though. Yeah. >> Commissioner Cunningham. >> Thank you, Chair. Mr. Sherard, just we we're talking a lot about city compliance. This is a cannabis business, so it's still subject to essentially the code, the compliance with the OCM at the state level as well. Right, >> Commissioner Kahim? That's correct. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Monster. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to note that this is actually the second indoor agriculture for cannabis that we've seen. Um, we saw one in January on West 86th Street and I think we had the same conversation then regarding odor. Mr. Johnson, can I get a confirmation on that? >> In one minute. >> In one minute. Okay. Any other questions for staff? We can come back to Mr. Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Sherard. >> Yes. You're welcome. Uh this is an opportunity for the applicant to come up and speak to their application if they wish. Uh please step forward. You [clears throat] could introduce yourself to us. >> Um my name is Clarence Ratari. Um I'm the owner. Um I would say that smell mitigation is always been a top priority and a concern um for me being a grower. So again, just being here in the city and doing it legally doesn't mean for me it goes away. I wouldn't be here if odor mitigation wasn't a thing. Um, and I can just speak to that fact of it. >> Great. Thank you. Anything else we should know about your application? >> Um, no. I just appreciate the opportunity and the time to be here. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions for the applicant? >> Okay. >> Seeing none. Thank you, Mr. Rtori. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Johnson. >> We Thank you, Chair. We did have one additional uh You're very sharp, Commissioner Monster. Uh we did have one additional cultivation application at 333 West 86th Street and also a multi-tenant industrial building. >> Uh Mr. Johnson, is that one in service or is that still >> uh it is not in service yet? No. >> Okay. Okay. This is a public hearing which I will open now. And I'll first ask if there's anyone in the chambers who wishes to testify on this item. Seeing no one stepping forward, Miss Brown, is there anyone online? All participants online are staff. >> Thank you very much. Final call for anyone in the chambers who wishes to testify on this item. >> Seeing no one coming forward, I'll look for a motion to close the public hearing. >> So moved. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to close this public hearing. All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion passes 70. We'll move to discussion. Commissioner Cunningham. >> Thank you, Chair. Um I'm inclined to uh you know follow staff's recommendation here uh zoned correctly, guided correctly in compliance uh some good conditions in place uh to ensure compliance throughout the lifespan of the business. Um and I think it's putting otherwise well apparently vacant industrial space to use. So I'm in favor of this. >> Thank you Commissioner Cunningham. I too am in favor of this. And this comes up fairly frequently on the planning commission where there's a bit of an unknown like is the odor mitigation going to work or not. And we're not inclined to doubt an applicant uh who's come here with an honest application. They say they're going to address it and uh we have no reason to think they're lying to us and they are um a business here in the city of Bloomington and they've earned the benefit of the doubt and our trust and uh I will be supporting this application. Any further discussion? Commissioner White. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, generally I support this as well. I think, you know, this is a increasing trend that we're seeing here in Bloomington and other communities uh around Minnesota. Um, I will just say that I think this is a little different than the other application that we saw in January and that it's closer to residential. Um, I believe the other facility was completely surrounded by um commercial and industrial. So, you know, I do think that that is a valid concern to pay a little extra attention to the odor mitigation being so close to residential, but I think it it uh appears that the application is in order and that um every effort will be made and I'm sure we will hear about it if it doesn't work. Um so, I thank the um the applicant for being diligent. >> Unless there's a complaint in the next two weeks, you'll hear about it and I I will not. Commissioner Monster. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, again, I I echo what everyone else has said that I'm I'm generally in support. The the zoning is proper, the the guidance is proper. Um, if I may, I do have one question, >> please. >> Um, just to clarify, Mr. Johnson, um, I'm looking at the list of conditions as they're written on the resolution. um and prior to CO is verification of the installation and function. Does it have to be repeated as an ongoing condition or is that covered as part of just property maintenance generally? >> Yeah, thanks for that question, Chair Commissioner Monster. typically wouldn't do like an annual inspection uh for example for something like that. But what we do have the benefit of is that if there are increases in uh complaints from neighbors for example, we do have the ability uh to inspect and uh then our inspectors could evaluate whether or not the system is functioning properly. if it's not functioning was a condition of the conditional use permit. And so if they are not uh you know meeting that requirement then certainly it could be a cause for revocation of the CUP or some type of code enforcement action. Um so that would that would kind of be the the backup or insurance policy if you want to frame it that way. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Commissioner Monster. Commissioner Summers, >> I feel really hesitant about this application. Um, in many of the other times that um, we have talked about cannabis, I've been really in support um, including the agriculture application from earlier this year. Um, and I'm looking at the land use and zoning to the north,southeast, and west. Um, and we've got foundry, metal manufacturing, plastic manufacturing, and manufacturing landscaping. So, I feel like this application is pretty different because those houses are really close to that building. And what feels complicated is that we are witnessing kind of the boom of these businesses and the excite I am excited about the opportun opportunity to fill those spaces with products that serve people and people are really excited to um provide for the public and um I am in general really worried worried that um people who are in the neighborhood might be dealing with something really different than they're used to. Um the and it might also be that I have not had things come back that are issues with odor mitigation. So what I am feeling into is being a little bit nervous and a little bit worried but also feeling like staff has provided some of the context as to why the finding was made that um the odor mitigation is not just resting on the applicant to decide but is a partnership between the applicant and the city. So, um I feel [clears throat] this is a really hesitant support from me. Um and yeah, I'm just naming that. >> Thank you, Commissioner Summers. Commissioner, >> thank you, Chair. I'll just throw in my two cents here after listening to everybody. Uh I fully support this application because I trust both the state licensing body I think the OPM it's called and OCM sorry uh OCM and the uh the city of course and everything that uh city does. Uh I think consistently so far we've voted in support of this. I know it's a new industry legally. Um, and so yeah, I just wanted to voice that and I definitely understand Commissioner Summer's concerns um when I did hear your concern. I think of like restaurants for example in on Grand um that have apartments on top of it that have like deep fryers and they have odor mitigation system and residential right on top. And so I I again I trust that uh the licensing body, the state and the city will ensure that uh the order is mitigated. So that's my two cents. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner. Any other thoughts? If not, I would entertain a motion. Commissioner Len >> in case PL 20200068, having been able to make the required findings, I move to adopt a resolution approving the conditional use permit for a cannabis cultivation facility at 8200 Grand Avenue South subject to the conditions and code requirements listed in the resolution. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Have >> a motion and a second to adopt a resolution approving this conditional use permit. Any final discussion? All those in favor say I. I >> I >> opposed. That motion passes 70. This is a final decision of the planning commission unless an appeal is received to city council by 4:30 p.m. on June 9th. Thank you very much. We'll move then to item number three, which is a study item. The city of Bloomington is the applicant regarding the urban forest master plan update. Mr. Dave Hansen, assistant director for parks and natural resources is here with us and I apologize. We have a a second speaker who I'm unfamiliar with. If you could introduce yourself as well. >> Yes. My name is Dustin Jacobson. I'm the city forester. >> Welcome to you both and we're happy to have you here at the planning commission and excited to hear this presentation. >> Thank you. >> I'm excited to get started here. [snorts] Thank [clears throat] you for the warm introduction. Look at that. I think I got it. All right, slideshow from the beginning. Um, yes, thank you for the warm introduction, uh, chair and commissioners. Uh, Dustin and I are going to go through a bunch of slides together. We'll take some turns. Um, at the end, we were happy to entertain questions and comments and and, uh, provide more information and clarity. So, that I'm going to turn over to Dustin then. >> Yeah. Uh so city staff and Davy resource group have been working to develop uh this datadriven plan uh that will guide urban forestry uh for 20 years into the future. Uh so we have a lot of information to share. Uh we'll try to get through it a little quickly but obviously we can dive into it a little bit at the end if we have any further questions that need to be addressed. Uh today we'll provide kind of an overview of the process and uh that we did to develop this urban forest master plan uh and major findings that we did in the process. Uh the urban forest master plan provides a vision, goals and recommended actions to support the city's forestry operations for the next 20 years. Trees speak directly to many uh Bloomington's mission and vision statements. In our community engagement, uh people name trees as a reason why they love living in Bloomington. Uh it's very much a part of the the environment here uh that people move to our suburb for this uh amenity that we have. The urban forest master plan process kicked off last winter. The plan was finalized this spring and presented to the council for adoption in the end of June. The planning process directly engaged 231 residents and stakeholders in Bloomington who provided input via a variety of methods. At the February farmers market, we presented the goals and actions of the draft action plan for community feedback where we heard overwhelming support in general here in Bloomington. uh the residents understand the value of trees. Over to me. Um when we talk about the urban forest, we mean all the trees across Bloomington, both on public and private land. So throughout our conversation tonight, when we refer to the urban forest, we're talking about all the trees. Um part of the project uh Dave Resource Group completed a urban tree canopy assessment of private and public trees in Bloomington. Um to measure trends in canopy cover citywide. Um as this slide shows, current citywide tree cover in Bloomington is 35% 35% uh and this all was done on based on 2023 high resolution aerial data. Um this image shows uh that uh the tree canopy cover varies in Bloomington. Um the lighter shade is less coverage and the darker shade is um higher coverage. I don't think there's a lot of surprises in there. Um the lighter shade, the lightest of the lightest shade is the area near Pen and American at one and a half% canopy cover. Um and then a high the high shade the highest or the darkest shaded um areas are along Nine Mile Creek um representing 63% tree canopy coverage to measure change. Um they they went back and they looked at the same data from 2013. Um and over those years, Bloomington added roughly 390 acres of new tree canopy um uh for a total of about 4.7% um increase. Uh what what makes this remarkable is this is about the same period that emerald ashbor was discovered in Bloomington and we are losing all of our ash trees during this same time period. So um it's a combination of new trees and then of course trees grow. But this canopy analysis measured all of that. Um, canopy by zoning. Uh, the residential land contains about 5,000 acres of tree canopy and has about 2700 acres of possible additional canopy area. And we'll get into what defines additional canopy area later on. Um the cons conservation area, the next slide or the next bar down um includes our parks and green spaces, whether it's fish and wildlife or three rivers. Um that's about 2400 acres of tree canopy and approximately 800 acres of additional room. Um you can see um the dark green bar um in the residential and the conservation areas if you look really close, I guess. Uh but that that represents the canopy change that we talked about um different in both areas. Uh they also measured the tree canopy specific to street right ofways um and found out that within the street rightaways the canopy cover is 15% average across the city. Um this canopy increased by about 95 acres during that same time period. um primarily from the growth of existing trees. Um tree planting in the rightway is very limited in Bloomington. It's prohibited by ordinance, not encouraged, in fact discouraged at this time. Um and at the same time, we were actively removing uh infested ash trees from from the rightway. So, um, also important to mention is that, uh, rightway tree canopy includes trees that are planted in the right of way between the rightway line and the the street. It also included canopy that stretch over that boundary over the street from a private tree that's beyond the rightway line, if that makes sense. Um, Dustin's going to talk about priority tree planting areas. Yeah. So, as part of the tree canopy assessment, they evaluated uh possible planting areas uh in Bloomington, then car categorized by priority level. Uh possible planting areas included bare soil, grass, uh low-lying vegetation where there's not currently trees. Obviously, this excludes ball fields um and areas that would not be desired. a lot of open area that uh has other uses uh that wouldn't be uh good for for trees to be located in. Possible planting areas were prioritized based on the ability to reduce those urban heat islands, capture storm water, improve social equity, human health and well-being. Uh there are many other benefits that trees provide. Uh but these are the benefits that are easiest to map. Possible planting areas were subdivided then into individual planting spaces based on the size of the tree uh that the area could hold. So large, medium, small uh what would fit best into that location. Most planting areas uh were on private land totaling about 13% of city land area. public land and rightaway containing planting sites uh totaled about 4% of city land area each. These sites represented maximum planting potential. They should be evaluated closely on the grounds uh to determine suitability of trees. So this is uh you know possible interference with utilities corners um you know sighteline issues that could be a potential issue as well when we look at the priority uh of these possible planting sites. Planting sites on private land and rightway are pretty equally distributed across priority levels. So planting sites on public facilities are most uh mostly very low priority for urban heat, storm water capture and social equity. You can imagine um obviously where people are living the homes doiciles uh that's where you're going to get the most benefit of human health. Uh aside from where people are recreating. talk a little bit more about Bloomington street trees or trees that are in the rightway. Um Bloomington did or Davy Tree on behalf of Bloomington did a smart tree inventory um that using a car similar to that with some ground mounted LAR or vehicle mounted LAR. They drove all the streets in Bloomington. They captured 2,000 or 24,000 um rightaway trees growing along our streets. Uh once again, some of those were in the rightway and some are growing into the rightway. We'll talk more about that. Um if you follow that flowchart, um you'll see that at the end of the evaluation, the the inventory identified 56 trees that were picked out or selected for removal. Um and another 256 trees were identified for uh pruning or um other work. Um that's that's the level of data that um that was captured. It it captured um pictures. It geoloccated them and we were able to follow that flowchart and end up where we field evaluated trees that were outliers and determined that that was the work that needed to happen on 24,000 trees in the rightway. more information on the smart tree inventory. So, it as the car went by, it took five photographic images of each tree. It gave it a unique identifier. Um, it gave it its latitude and longitude uh within a fraction of an inch. Um, it created a digital twin on the right which we can manipulate and spin around and look at in great detail. Um, it's a super highly technical process that I don't fully understand, but uh um it gives us all kinds of data uh that will help us make informed decisions going forward. It it certainly helped us know what we have out there. We know that we the precise number of ash trees we have left on the the right away. We know which trees that need the most work. Um, and and better yet, it's a repeatable process. So, we can run this scan again in the future and measure change um and see what work needs to be done next. Um, I already talked about this. All this data can be used to efficiently plan and direct our limited forestry resources for efficient forest management. um as an industry um we're still learning how to apply all of this. Um even the people at Davy Tree are learning how to apply and utilize all this information. Um, one of the things that it's going to allow us to do is move from a a reactive way of managing the rightway canopy where, you know, something fails, we go out and take care of it or we have to uh regularly inspect and look at this. We can rely on a scan like this to help plan our work. Um, we are among a handful of communities in the United States that have done this. There's only one other one in Minnesota that's done it so far. So, it's it's really new emerging technology. Um, other things that we learned about the uh uh rightaway tree canopy is the makeup of the species that are out there. Um, unfortunately, a lot of the the big players here are not great street trees. Silver maples um get really large and can fall apart. Um they have shallow roots that can heave up sidewalks. Um Norway maples, blue spruce especially, is prone to wind throw and just like we we know now what's out there. We would not want to duplicate this going forward and look to plant different varieties of trees as we think about planting rightaway trees in the future. Um there's a lot of room to optimize uh right away tree planting and avoid some of these species. Um benefits of trees uh the inventory and all the data that we collected um does calculate the benefits of trees. If you add up all the pieces of that pie, the annual benefits from those categories that just our street trees provide is $183, $170. Um trees, you know, we all know that trees do a lot of pollution mitigation and storm water benefits. Um they provide shade and cooling, all that stuff. Um that's the good side of this. The struggle is like Dustin mentioned conflicts with utilities both above and ground below ground sight lines things like that. All those planting areas that were identified were identified by space without consideration to the potential conflict. So, as we go forward um with any street tree planting programs, um there has to be a a really robust system um and process in place for ensuring that each spot is is is viable. um talked about the makeup of species and now that we know what's out there. Um diversity and uh a variety of species is is always a key to having resistance to catastrophic um impacts like some of these pests have brought um Dutch elm disease, emerald ashbor. So adding a diversity out there um brings a lot of uh resilience to the canopy um whether it's in a park in the community or on the uh uh boulevard. Um part of the plan will be that uh a complete analysis of um trees that are viable in our our uh our climate and we'll we'll have a a long list. Davey will provide of of choices for us to make as we we consider replanting. All of the data that was collected in the U smart tree inventory um was put into an application called uh uh treeeper. >> Yeah, [laughter] >> I was going too fast. Treekeeper software, which is here's a screenshot of it right there. Um, part of this can be made into a public dashboard. So residents can can view trees and and we can share uh a little bit of information like is clicked on there on the right hand side. Uh people can learn about the trees in their neighborhood or maybe the tree in their yard. On the back side, we can track all our inventory and manage it. We can manage work orders and workflow through this system and and keep track of the whole um whole urban forest. All those um ecosystem services and benefits are also calculated in this application and could be put on a public facing dashboard as like a side panel to show the value that trees are providing. forestry operations. Uh compared to more than 500 US cities, uh Bloomington has fewer full-time equivalent staff members uh that conduct tree care. Tree care is most reactive in response. I kind of mentioned that before. We respond to emergencies, branches down, complaints, rightaway encroachments uh reported to us. In recent years, most tree care uh conducted by parks has been removal due to EAB or emerald ashbor. Uh in the future, we're expecting to see these numbers decrease uh as EAB moves through. Uh similar to 2025, parks uh if parks are able to redirect those resources into tree pruning, uh that will help better care for our public trees uh preventatively. So, doing some of that pruning ahead of time, identifying weak branch attachments and such, uh, will weed out some of those problems in storm events, uh, cleaning up afterwards. Uh, park expenditures track with tree activities. Uh, over the past three years, 77% of parks forestry expenditures have gone to tree and stump removal. uh fluctuations can uh vary depending on plowing or changes in EAB activity. So, you know, we have a very snowy winter and we're doing a lot of plow events. Uh we all chip in to do those types of things and so that decreases the amount of tree maintenance that we're able to do. Um as well as obviously when we have a surge in uh disease decline uh then we have to sort of bump up uh the resources that we're putting into removal. Uh among three among 463 US cities including uh Midwest cities and cities of similar size to Bloomington. Parks forestry expenditures were below average in 2023 and 2025. Uh so in between there uh the 2024 budget we actually came in about average and that was a that was a high point for us. So when we were uh at our at our leanest uh struggling to do as much as we possibly can that's about when we reached our our average expenditure amongst other cities uh in 2025 uh 0.52% of the total municipal budget uh to be $1.26 $26 million for all forestry activities uh by a street and park maintenance. Uh there's a lot of public demand for forestry consultation from the city. Uh I can attest to that to that personally. Uh most of these are about rightway and private trees. Um so public request percentages are for 2023 and 2025. Bloomington's tree ordinances date back to the 1950s,60s,7s. Uh these are some key areas of misalignment between written code and current practice. Uh resolving these issues uh include updating code, changing practice or a combination of both. Uh obviously we you know have to respond to certain things and kind of over time I think we've uh you know try to make things happen for for what Bloomington residents uh request and getting those in alignment with uh what our code would be would be extremely helpful. So after all of the engagement and uh data collection um we came up um narrowed in on some some action plan goals. So number one staffing and resources needed along with future data collection to ensure sustainable maintenance practices will equal better trees at a lower ultimate cost. Um, increased planting on private property and adjacent rightway um is a way to support private tree stewardship. Um, aligning Dustin just talked about aligning policies and practices. Rightway planting, how we approach private trees. Um, our emergency response plan needs to be reviewed. Um, a pest emergency plan needs to be reviewed. Um there's tree preservation um codes out there. Tree protection, protection for public trees has not been updated since the 60s. Um aligning urban forestry with community goals. So establish goals for equitable canopy growth. Measure the canopy every 5 to 10 years doing canopy analysis and uh a rightaway tree inventory. Um and then with the priority planting areas, invest in planting where it makes the most difference. Um increase the resilience of the urban forestry. I talked about that. Increase diversity. U make the public aware of of the importance of this. Share this plan with the public. That's all all part of that. um and expand forestry partnerships. That includes with uh um local groups, volunteer groups, um um community partners, um wershed districts, um energy companies, >> Henipin County, >> Hannah County, we have a lot of partners out there that that we work with on trees. Um just in the way of uh policy discussion that we had with the city council, we talked about uh rightaway tree program. We offered up those five different options. Number five being uh like a full service municipal program like Minneapolis has where trees are actively planted, maintained, taken care of by the community. um down to the status quo where um we would maintain the existing trees and uh and uh discourage planting on the boulevard. the uh the council's feedback was generally around um two and three so four uh like a targeted citywide program but start small with a permit process um that would involve us or uh require us to develop that sort of way of finding the viable spots and weeding those out that would be full of conflicts with utilities. Um and then the city's role on private property. Um so EAB has changed from uh a pest that can be managed to something that is no longer manageable and and frankly um it's a dead tree problem. So we we have backed off on managing EAB on private property in the same way that we did Dutch elm disease. couple of reasons. We weren't able to cover the city completely equitably with the staffing that we had. We're no longer managing um a past. Um we do still offer a contractor and um a way that we can help residents hire somebody um and make payments on that. Um but we have we've uh we've ceased marking them actively on private property or scouting for it. Um um it has freed up some time for all those inspections and things that we've done. Um I lost my spot here. Um as far as private property, we will continue to um offer the tree sale. Um we can look at making enhancements to that. Um we will look at how we interact with um rightaway trees on private property or adjacent to private property. Um right now the code says that those trees are the responsibility of the adjacent property owner and it's a mix of who takes care of them. Um overall, uh the city council's in in favor of an equitable and consistent approach, uh to managing these private trees going forward. Um, and one of the things that came through loud and clear, and other communities do this really well, um, is provide resources to residents to, um, help them manage their trees to to, uh, show who's responsible for, you know, what the responsibility is of owning a tree, how to navigate um, problem trees. Uh we are often called out to um evaluate and provide opinion on private trees by one neighbor over the other. And that's just a place the city doesn't want to be. We don't want to be um making judgments on private trees. We don't have the staff to do that. We don't have the ability to do a thorough enough inspection. So um there's ways of of uh navigating that homeowner to homeowner. Um, so we we intend to provide resources on uh available to uh residents to help them navigate problem trees. And I think that might be the end. Yeah. So the next steps, our final design draft is being done right now. Uh we do have a steering committee that we need to um get back with and provide a a similar update like we just gave you. Um we're going to go to the park commission um next week actually and uh then the city council at the end of the month for final approval. With that I think the end of the slides so happy to entertain questions. >> Great. Thank you Mr. Hansen and Mr. Jacobson. Great presentation. I'm sure we have questions. Um I'll start with a question. Um, as the Nine Mile Creek uh work has been occurring, um, I haven't followed it super closely, but one thing I do recall hearing about is that it uh, we perhaps overtried and we're thinning out parts of the NM Creek. Can you talk about being overtreated and is that an issue in other parts of the city? >> Yeah, great question, Chair. Thank you for asking that. Um when you're talking when the the context of the trees that we're talking about and have inventoried and are managing, they would be in the developed part of parkland. They would be um in people's yards. We have also natural areas like the creek corridor um like the river bluff certain other large parks that we have have wooded natural areas. Um those are managed under a under a different plan. And so we have a separate plan for managing 1,00 or,100 acres of river bottom property and then we have a natural resources prioritization plan that that guides us on all the parkland that's outside of the river. Um what has happened in um the natural ecosystem over the years um generations um decades is is the lack of a disturbance regime that used to be there and be present that would um keep certain species in check. Um that's one thing. So think of fire or large grazing animals. um they were always uh a key to keeping everything in equilibrium. So, we've eliminated that. We don't allow wildfire to go through our woods anymore. Um the grazing animals that had the the largest impact are gone. Um and then you combine that with invasive species like buckthornne. um you end up with like this really thick thick canopy and what has happened is um the desirable native vegetation is [snorts] suppressed from all the shade. Also some of the keystone tree species like burr oak um really long live tree there's a great population of it like a remarkable population of it in the creek valley uh their regeneration is suppressed by all of this. So when we talk about um the NMI Creek project and various tree thinning percentages or it's it's about opening that canopy up to get sunlight down to the ground to create better vegetation. So in that case, you know, those might be fine trees, but they're in the wrong spot. And that that sort of right tree in the right place kind of runs through our entire plan um from end to end. So when it we we talk about the NM Creek restoration, uh some of those target plant communities are Oak Savannah. Um some of those target plant communities are uh oak woodlands or hardwood forest. >> Oh, sorry. Um um so all of that will require some form of mechanical tree removal in general. >> Great. >> Thank you. Thank you for the thorough answer. Other questions for staff? Commissioner Isa? >> Uh thank you chair. Uh and thank you for the detailed uh slides and presentation. Uh my question is on in regards to the action plan goals uh number two where uh it's stated to support uh private tree ownership. if if you could dive a little more into that and maybe you did with the uh slide on the city role on private property. I think it was two 2A if that may have answered it but um kind of your thoughts on how or if you could explain that further. >> Yeah, thank you for the qu the question chair commissioner. Um I didn't go into a lot of detail on support of private tree ownership. Uh I I mentioned things like resources for private property um to help residents uh understand their trees and and deal with issues. Uh part of this plan is also a a proposal to licensed tree contractors. So we would have a list of um already vetted tree contractors that people could rely on to do their work. um continue the tree sale, perhaps enhance the tree sale and enhance tree sale. So, a a more subsidized tree available at the tree sale could be a way that we target um those prioritized neighborhoods, those kinds of things. as well as I mean sorry to expand on it too just a lot of the stuff too I think about is just hiring the proper arborist the company you know where do I go to um like we mentioned kind of some other cities uh have a little more how-to guidelines on their sites uh where do I look what do I look for insurance requirements uh that type of thing trees in the law um you know in terms of dealing with a with a neighbor that has some sort of a a tree issue that you'd like addressed. How do I how do I talk to them about this type of thing? Um so that they have the resources they need to kind of get through that uh without our intervention um but can proceed through it uh more comfortably. >> Commissioner Lud, >> thank you chair. Um and this is a 100% personally motivated question. Uh this morning I was playing golf at Highland Greens and where obviously there were a ton of trees removed. How does it work when you interface with Three Rivers or the county when it's their land? Do they come to you and say like these are the 30 trees we want to plant? Are you does it fit into your plan or do they come to you and say what 30 trees should we plant to fit into your plan? Like how does how does that work? That's the first question. And the second question is are there um is timing of like if all the 30 trees are planted at the same time the likelihood that they would and they're the same species that they would all hit the end of their life at the 30 year at the same period is that factored in also if you can talk a little bit about sort of how those decisions are made. >> Okay. >> Do you want to take the Highland? >> Yeah, I'll take portion first. >> Thank you for the question. uh chair and commissioner. Um so Three Rivers also does this really well. They don't they don't consult with us on what they're doing on their their property, but they have their own plan and they are I I would say they're ahead of us in some of this natural resources planning. Um I do know that at Highland specifically, um those were all ash trees. um when they took it over all those ash trees were in really really rough shape. So they didn't really have an opportunity to do what we have called staged removal which we've been doing since 2012 since it was discovered in St. Paul. We we would go out and actively look for ash trees and parts that weren't doing well and remove those here and there without as as minimally disruptive as possible. And we'd also do some pre-planting. I know I know Three Rivers wasn't able to do that at Highland, so that was a a big change. So, >> and I know I I just kind of uh unofficially piped in a little bit uh just when they were removing all of those to you know, you're planting additional trees in here after these come out. Correct. And you know, just kind of nudge nudge and uh they certainly took those steps as well. Um I think it's obviously in their best interest to do that. Um we've done that like David mentioned uh through the years of our kind of preemptive planting as well. Uh so we're you know likely we're going to end up with a little bit of a a cohort of similar ages over this last 10 years. Um the benefits though is that we do have such a wide diversity of trees that we've been planting. So obviously we're going to have some trees that are going to on the faster growth rate. They're going to capture that kind of main overstory role uh quicker. Uh but then as those other species fill in behind it, um with varying levels of of age uh longevity expected out of them, um I think we'll we'll still be okay. I think if we were planting all of the same thing and we did have all the same growth rates, same longevity, we'd be in a much difficult uh much more difficult situation, you know, at that 60 70 year mark uh which tends to kind of see things slowing down. >> Uh question, when the city removes ash trees, is it a one forone replacement? Are we always replacing that tree or how does that work? >> Uh we do our best. Yeah. So obviously a lot of our removals have been in rightaways. Um the difficulty in being that we can't replant directly back in the rightway due to ordinance. Uh but we basically were doing onetoone within our park system uh as best we could in those open spaces that we identified that wouldn't uh conflict with ball fields and other uses. Um and we we actually stayed pretty close to that 1 one uh ratio. Um it started slipping a little bit, but obviously um you just start running out of space in in uh our park system that we you know we'd be planting on top of each other or not able to trim around and and kind of conflicting with other other uses if we were to stick with the one to one for that. >> Thank you. Commissioner Cing. >> Thank you, Chair. Uh, two, uh, very not related questions. Uh, so I'll I'll break them up fully. >> On the pest page you guys had, do we have spotted lantern flies in Minnesota yet? >> I know they're close. >> Not that I've heard. >> Most scared I've been on. >> That also worried the council a little bit seeing those numbers. And uh you know that's those are meant to just kind of represent uh the potentials. Um you know uh Longhorn beetle is another one of those that's uh you know could potentially affect a lot of different varieties of trees. Um but encouraging numbers that we've seen in places where that has happened. They've been able to to really hone in on where it's located and control it. Um so some of that uh those pests are better able to be uh managed as well. Um and certainly like I wanted to point out too in this is and the benefits of having uh sort of the survey that we've done and species uh counts is that we're now we would be able to proactively go after these species that would be identified. So, uh, a pest that, you know, goes after, uh, birch trees that now we have a a full system that I can map out where birch trees are, we can go out and inspect them on a targeted basis looking for that type of pest. Um, if it is found in in Minnesota, >> yeah. >> Yeah, emerald ashbor has been enough for me. I I could I could go till retirement if I don't have to deal with another >> big one like that. >> Second question unrelated at one of the goals of this was to promote private tree uh you know development ownership. Uh can you talk a little bit about the annual plant sale for those that don't read the spring Bloomington briefings? And then has there been any consideration given to expanding the marketing of that program? >> Yes. [laughter] Um, what I'll say is, uh, we've had we've had great success with it over the years. Uh, kind of how we've operated. Originally, we were doing more of a system, uh, you know, ordering the trees. We get them wholesale. Uh, we package them up. We, you know, manage the orders for residents to come pick up on a event, you know, kind of relating to Arbor Day celebrations. uh during COVID we actually moved to doing deliveries and with overwhelming success doing that. Uh so now we are definitely kind of I think we've found that's uh certainly a great opportunity to to get that done in a shorter time frame. It's very efficient. Um I think resident satisfaction with it has been pretty well received. um you know my goal would to be to add more diversity to the offerings and and try to you know expand out uh different things. Uh I think the challenge is that you know that staffing internally that capability to move that type of product. Um you know the infrastructure necessary to to increase too much beyond kind of what what the levels we are right now. Um I've certainly looked at what some other cities do and making partnerships with other groups. um you know like we've mentioned like tree trust and uh groups like that too that they actually uh will partner with other cities to offer both a spring and a fall uh tree sale operation. So, um, that's definitely in my on my radar screen for how how we can kind of manage this and, uh, you know, uh, bite-size pieces that we can manage, uh, and and increase our capability. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Muster. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Excuse [clears throat] me. So, first off, I just want to say I absolutely love that you all are tracking trees as assets. Um, that way you can follow the maintenance sort of through their life cycle and and know what's going on. Amazing. Um, I have two questions. >> So, for the permit process that could potentially happen, would that include both planting and removal permitting? Um, chair commissioner. Yes. So I I didn't look at it that way, but if if we are going to be making investments in rightaway trees, um then we would probably need to that goes to the tree protection part of it. So it all predicates on whether they become officially public trees um or not. We've looked at a variety of approaches from other communities. Some communities require a permit to do any work on a boulevard tree. Um we just don't know exactly where we're going to land on that. Um, I can see pros and cons of all of it. Um, certainly I I think the most important thing is how do we come down on that tree ownership and true responsibility of the rightway trees. >> Um, my second question was um, in terms of resources that'll be provided. You talked a lot about how to deal with existing trees, how to deal with problematic trees. Is there a a sort of forward-looking goal of putting information out there for right tree, right place? So instead of going to Menards and finding one that looks cute, you actually find the right one. >> Yes. Uh another great chair, Commissioner, great point. I should have mentioned that. Yes, that is definitely an important part of the resources we would offer and they're readily available. We just have to put them in a place where everybody can find them. Like the University of Minnesota puts out all kinds of information on these these topics that would be really useful. Our job is just to gather it up and make it readily available. >> Thank you. I would sorry to jump in at two. I would say that that also would be my intent with the permitting process. I think uh that would be a good opportunity to jump in if [snorts] you know somebody was suggesting this is what I want to plant but then we can kind of work with them and you know potentially direct them towards maybe a more uh a better fitting species for that location. So if there were to be utility uh interference or something, we can plant something smaller or maybe less uh labor or interference prone I should say. >> Mr. Johnson, anything to add? >> Yeah, if I can add to that just a perspective from the development side is that we do have a supplemental uh landscaping uh guide book which provides a whole series of recommendations around uh species. It's not the most accessible document for residents, uh, I would say probably. So, we definitely could develop more of those resources. But if I can share one anecdote just about kind of looking over the spectrum of my tenure here in Bloomington, more of the landscape architects and designers who are doing uh, design work for development, uh, the amount of natives and species that are more appropriate for uh, this location and our climate here has really increased and I would say in the last 5 years. So, I'm seeing it on the design side where there uh there's much more emphasis on native species. >> Commissioner White, >> thank you, Chair. Um I have a question, but I al just want to say big fan, huge. Um I love the Bloomington tree sale. I have bought, I think, four trees and planted it, and in spite of my inability to read the perfectly clear directions you sent the first year, the tree is still alive. So, um, thank you. Um, I wanted to just talk or ask you a little bit about, um, climate change. Uh, I think, you know, that the information that we've been seeing come out from the the state climatologist is that by 2050, our climate is going to look more like about two to 300 miles to the south. And I'm curious about what impact you might see on the tree cover because of that and and what you might be doing to adapt. Absolutely. Yeah, I can jump into that one. um that has been kind of a forefront in my my views actually over the last 10 years really um in some of our species selection uh sort of our choices that we've done in our park system um that I've had the leeway to do some of those um additions that would you know potentially be more zone five um species that you know kind of had been dribbled out like yeah we And we have urban heat island already. We have the potential, you know, being in the metro area gives us a certain protection uh where we can be maybe a little more adventurous with some of our species. Not as adventurous enough that I'm willing to like quite put them on to the tree sail in case they fail. Um but a lot of that has been happening. Um in case you followed it, well maybe the story's coming out. I'm jumping ahead of it, but we did plant uh three chinkapen oaks, uh three northern pecans, and three uh black gum trees uh actually on the far east side of the plaza here and three kind of towards the entrances by the police station. Um and so far they are looking fantastic. Um we've been doing a lot of things that, you know, we kind of watch to see how they make it through the winter. can they survive some of this? Um, but that has been a big part in kind of looking at sort of those climate modeling goals. So, even on the more conservative side, um, we're seeing a lot of those species that we have a greater ability to plant. Um, and so part of it is, uh, sort of the buzzword is maybe assisted migration. Uh so some of these trees and species that are to the south are expected to move north because of the climate changing. So we're sort of just helping that along. So we keep that sort of uh uh canopy growth happening in advance. But a lot of it too is is going into sort of our what we existing have. Some of the bur oaks that have survived over the last 250 300 years in 9M Creek have seen consistent climate changes over that 250 300 years. They could potentially have the genetic stock that would make them better adaptable even to that future climate change. So you're thinking just a plasticity in survival uh what they're able to do. Uh so we're kind of keeping those uh you know benefits that we have of the existing trees we have and sort of their flexibility and that old growth um and bringing in sort of new species that can supplement. >> Commissioner Lay. Thank you, chair. This has been really interesting. Um, and I'll just make a plug for on the information sharing. So, my side, one of my many side hustles is I work at Bachman's. And, um, like a lot of the people who come in to buy plants, shrubs, trees, etc., they're really looking to the people working at Girtton, Bachman's, wherever for recommendations on what's going to succeed. Um, and I think if there are things, for example, where the city would like to see more of a certain variety planted or less of a certain variety, um, there's probably some utility in sharing that with like the big tree sellers in the community as well because, um, I would say in my experience, 85% of the customers don't have a specific tree in mind. they come in saying, "I want to plant a tree in my yard and I want it to succeed and I want it to be low maintenance and here's what I'm look here's um what I'm working with." And so I think if there are things that would be useful particularly for the big nurseries to know what it is the city is particularly interested in in particular areas. >> Absolutely. I'd love to comment on that. Uh Commissioner that's also a problem that we deal with. Obviously, we have to receive our products from nursery growers as well. Um, and what I'll tell you, certainly in the last five years, um, and in the last two, you know, especially since the USDA has come out with some of those, uh, recommendations and, uh, you know, our climate change predictions. Um, I've actually heard from a number of growers, you know, what are what are you looking for? What are you trying to do? Some of it is even in projects that we've been doing internally with the city, uh, Bryant Park, uh, pushing, you know, can we supply some more of these sweet gum trees into the landscape, uh, where some of these landscapers have to then import them from Illinois and they're looking across different regions for some of the supply for that. And as we build that sort of base where people are requesting it, those nurseries are going to follow. Um, you know, and I think that's kind of part that we can work on together. Um, and getting, you know, the whole industry kind of growing with it because obviously the nurseries are going to grow what they can sell and uh, and I think as we can develop stuff that's going to succeed, it helps all of us. Mr. Johnson, if I could uh bring it back to planning for a bit here. So, can you for the folks at home just speak a little bit to when we have a new development application that comes before the planning commission, we require some form of tree planting along with that application. Correct. >> Correct. Chair Cookton. So, what they have to provide us is a landscape plan that demonstrates compliance with our quantity uh or our amounts of trees and shrubs um and sometimes perennial grasses um that our code requires. And so they provide that plan for upfront review. And then before they get a building permit, that plan gets approved. And then uh before they get their certificate of occupancy, unless it's in the middle of winter, all that material has to be installed and staff performs an initial inspection. And then one year later typically, or at least one following one winter and one summer, um kind of the most abrasive parts of the year for the new plant materials, um we perform a second inspection to make sure the material has survived. um that period of time and then the city also collects a financial shity. Um say the developer walks away from the project or is uh not to be heard from again, we have some uh financial resources we can use to fulfill whatever uh plantings that were not installed um uh to get that done. So that's generally how our process works. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Uh not to put our park staff uh on the spot here, but uh are we doing enough? Could the planning commission be doing more to support trees with new development? Well, I don't I [laughter] thank you for the great question, chair. Um, I don't Nick is a great resource for us. Um, >> um, and I think we work really well together. Um, I'll have to think about how the commission could help out in the future. Certainly supporting this initiative and um, is is a long way for that. We're not asking for any kind of action tonight. Um but uh we we appreciate support um within the organization and out in the community. So >> we have taken some swipes too in in our ordinance to uh kind of address some additional uh plant materials too. I think you know some of the the wording and definitions for like some of the species recommendations. um it's you know kind of tough to get um you know that broader pallet of some of those species that we'd like to see maybe that are maybe a little more on the fringe. Um I think you know attempting to make wording where it allows that flexibility of you know beneficial species that might not be native. Um, but it's it's a tight tight rope to try to walk there. So, obviously, we don't want to have another, you know, encouraging buckthornne hedges um type of situation that we're we're encouraging uh plant material that's, you know, if it's not native, it's not invasive and it's not uh going to be a problem in the future. >> Anything to add, Mr. Johnson? >> Yeah, thank you. One thing I was going to share from a policy perspective that one thing that is intention or that we do navigate a little bit well two things. One is when you're trying to promote more compact uh urban infill development um it means more impervious surface typically and less area for landscaping. So that's something that we're kind of monitoring and um can be intention uh can be intention at times. Um another thing is just fire protection and public safety. If there's a lot of uh trees and plant material in between buildings, sometimes the fire department um you know raises some concern or wants to review those plans to make sure they can uh navigate that plant material and effectively help people. So these are the things we're looking at. Um on the constraints site piece, we do have an option to pay a fee in lie of in our code if you can't get all the material in on site, but we very rarely use it. Our preference is always to get all the plant material in that site. Um, I think one of the only times in my tenure that we used that was for the XL uh substation at Nicollet and American because you can't plant trees in a electrical substation for legitimate reasons. Um, but yeah, we're still thinking about our landscaping policies and how kind of more urban development um, uh, interacts with that. So, >> and just a a side thought on that, Mr. Johnson, we have a a very large shopping mall on the east side of of Bloomington where I imagine it's hard to get a amount of trees that would normally be satisfactory to us and there's potentially additions onto that mall. How do we how do we handle Mall of America and getting a decent amount of trees out there with a huge imperous surface like that? >> That's a Thank you. That's a good question. Um I'm a little bit uh going on the fly here. uh but to a certain extent I believe they are mostly compliant with a lot of our uh plant material requirements because they do have such densely uh planted perimeter areas and um on portions of their site. Um any new development areas, for example, when the water park uh project came through for its development entitlements a few years ago, that has since expired. Um but they did provide us landscape plans that would have been uh compliant with our code. So it is uh possible uh to still be in compliance even with more dense uh development that has a lot of impervious surface. You just have to be thoughtful and have good designers kind of fitting all those puzzle pieces together. Um yeah, I like trees too. So um sometimes I have to go back and forth with other folks who uh would rather see some other [laughter] design solutions on some sites. >> No, thank you. And I don't mean to pick on our our partners at Mall of America. They they do a great job and it's it's great to hear they're at least close if not in compliance with what we would expect. That's wonderful. Any other thoughts, Commissioner Isa? >> Uh thank you, Chair. While we're here on the policy side, uh should throw in there on the chart or the slide that showed kind of the five different options just thinking ahead of policy. Uh >> was it street trees? >> Um let me back up here. >> I think four was like a citywide option. Five was >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. >> Yeah. The action plan goes out. >> I don't know if it's the best time during this um questions or if it's for a discussion, but I just wanted to say I definitely support more of the four, five um five if feasible, but more leaning towards four because um I I believe it's an investment um long-term investment on, you know, health, environmental, and so >> I guess it wasn't a question, but yeah. Thank you. >> We we look forward to running for council and having your say on that. >> Yeah, >> certainly appreciate that too. I think uh in in our presentation to the council that was widely discussed too and and we brought in a lot of numbers in our uh in our study that Davey did in terms of kind of what the what the cost would be to to provide that level of of service. And I think that's kind of why we ended up in the four position to do like walk it out a little slowly and and kind of versus the big the big dive into the sort of the Cadillac program of you know birth to death care of the trees and and such. >> Commissioner Müster. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um and this this is again on sort of the policy front. Do So, and for Mr. Johnson, more so than more so than you folks, I'm sorry. Um, if a new when a new development comes in, the landscaping requirements, do we just allow the landscape architect to propose whatever they want or is there anything in our code that says X% has to be native or beneficial um or you're limited to certain species or anything like that? >> Yeah. Um, thank you, Chair and Commissioner Monster. It's not a requirement in code. Um, but this kind of supplemental policy do or landscaping policy document I mentioned it's more guidelines than hard and fast rules but it talks about what types of trees should be along the perimeters of sites or in parking lots and you know what Dustin was talking about actually our first collaboration was uh identifying the native species that fit well or are salt tolerant or those types of things. So no there's nothing in code that says it has to be a certain percentage of natives. Um we did make a amendment to our code some years ago that uh brought in perennials and the intent of that was to try and encourage more natives. So giving them credit um because it's you know technically it's not the equivalent to a full-size shrub. Um and so that was one adaptation we made uh some years ago. Um but I think that that's certainly a potential area to explore in the future is whether or not you just want to uh get more uh aggressive with some of those things. Another thing that some cities do, we don't typically do it here unless we see unless the planners kind of flag a problem on a landscape plan. We don't typically seek uh adidance or review or guidance from our natural resource staff. And the reason being is that it's just they don't have they have they're at capacity with all the things that they're already doing. Um frankly, so we can't have them review every landscape plan that comes before us. But if we see something that looks a little bit uh funky or fishy, um in those instances, we would have them look. And they do review tree preservation plans. they do specifically do that. But no, I think it would be uh an area of opportunity um to look at um how we uh specify our planting requirements in terms by species in the future. >> If I could just add a final thought to that, if we can put a pin in that for a work plan in the next two. >> Yeah. >> Other questions for staff. Seeing none, Mr. Hansen, Mr. Jacobson, great presentation. Uh, come back us and see us uh, anytime. >> All right. >> Come back and see us anytime. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Item number four this evening is the consideration of the draft planning meeting synopsises synopsis from May 7th and May 21st. We'll start with May 27. Uh, May 7th, 2026. Commissioner Cunningham. Uh before I make this motion, do did we have any I know uh May 21st we had some absent commissioners. Uh do we have any other do we have any absences on the 7th? >> We did not. >> All right. I move to adopt the planning commissioning meeting synopsis for May 7th, 2026 as posted in the packet. >> Second >> motion and a second to approve the meeting minutes from May 7th, 2026. All those in favor say I. >> I. I >> opposed. That motion passes 70. We'll move on to May 21st. Uh with that, commissioners Len and Monster were absent. Commissioner Cunningham. >> I move to approve the planning commission meeting synopsis for May 21st, 2026 as posted in the packet. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second for May 21st. All those in favor say I. >> I. I opposed. >> Abstain. >> Abstain. >> That motion passes 50-0 with two abstinations. Our final item this evening, item number five, the city of Bloomington policies and planning commission issues updates. Mr. Johnson. >> Uh thank you, Chair Kton. I'll preview the next two upcoming planning commission meetings. The next one is on June 18th. Uh there's one public hearing uh preliminary and final development plans for an expansion at the Seagate Technology Campus. They're proposing a two-story uh about 70,000 square foot addition to their um innovation and technology campus at 7850 Nord Avenue South and 781 Computer Avenue South. It's along the border of Edina in Bloomington there in the northwest part of the city. Um there's a study item on the review of multifamily uh residential performance standards in the zoning code. This is a work plan item. And then finally, there's a study item plan to review uh the minor policy amendments associated with the miscellaneous issues uh ordinance uh process that we do every year. Looking ahead to July 9th, the meeting will start with the oath of office uh for newly appointed uh commissioners starting their new terms. Uh the second item on the July 9th meeting is a reszoning final site and building plans and a type three preliminary and final plat to redevelop six single family residential lots into 33 town homes at East 86th Street and 16th Avenue South approximately. Um and then the third item planned for that agenda is a conditional use permit for cannabis manufacturing [snorts] at 300 West uh 83rd Street, an industrial site. Um, other updates I can share for you this evening is that the public engagement continues for the Bloomington 2050 uh, comprehensive plan and we'll be out and about um, at a few events uh, upcoming out in the community at the June 6th farmers market. For those that don't know, the farmers market has started here in Civic Plaza. They have a market on Wednesday evenings and Saturdays. Um, and so they will be uh, planning staff will be attending the June 6th farmers market tableabling for the comp plan and then tableabling at Bloomington Pride. That's on June 14th and then tableabling at uh Junth which is here at Civic Plaza on June the 20th. And then on the city's Bloomington 2050 uh website, there's also an online survey that uh Dakota and other staff laser focused on the comp plan are encouraging everyone to take to try and just get as much engagement going as possible. And then my second update is that the city council appointed uh Maline Summers uh to fulfill uh her technically her first term, term zero last time. Um so uh and that would run from uh July uh 2026 through June of 2029. And then uh new member the city council appointed Robert Coleman. Uh, yep. Who's spoken before the planning commission a number of different times um and has expressed interest in uh serving on the board. So um he will take the place of uh planning chair KTON. Um and so the same length of term um from July 2026 through June 2029. So they took that action at the June 1st uh city council meeting. And then finally, my final update is just that uh Der Navaro, a planner on our staff who's uh been on the Bloomington team in various roles for uh a little over five years. Um she took a new job with Ramsey County as a planning analyst to work more on housing uh focused uh tasks and projects. So, I'm sorry to uh lose her to Ramsey County. She's been a great member of our team and has added a lot of different value on a number of different projects. uh served in the building inspections team, planning, and the city's HRA. And so, she's uh contributed a lot to community development over that five-year period, and I just want to wish her well and thank her for all the work that she's done on behalf of the planning division and community development department. Um so, those are my updates uh for this evening. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Uh just a note on our new commissioners. I was uh pleased to sit in on the review board of those applications. And if anyone wonders at home, did existing commissioners just get automatically reappointed and I can assure you that is not the case and Commissioner Summers is welld deserving of her seat uh being retained here on the planning commission. Congratulations to you and Mr. Coen is also welld deserved of a seat on this board and I I trust he will u serve the city well. Um, and for those who uh did not make uh an appointment to the planning commission, we had a lot of really good applicants uh before us. And I know people it takes multiple times to get on the planning commission. That's not uncommon at all. And so uh for those who are disappointed, they they were not appointed this time. I certainly encourage you to keep trying because I'm telling you, there were more people in that room I would have appointed if we had more seats. And so it wasn't a lack of qualification. It was a a lack of opportunity. And so there will be more opportunities to come. And so I encourage those who didn't make the cut this time to continue to apply to the planning commission. This is an opportunity for commissioners to uh address any items that were not on this evening's agenda. Is there any miscellaneous issues? Uh Commissioner Isa, >> thank you. Cho, I just wanted to also thank Miss Navaro long before I was even on the planning commission. She would always answer my questions. I think she was in inspections or environmental. But yeah, thank you. If you're watching this, she will be missed. >> Mr. John, uh, Chair Cook, I did forget one item. I usually email you all to update you on city council actions on items that were before you. Gallery apartments at 7900 Xerxes was approved by the city council on June the 1st as well. So, just an update there. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Any other miscellaneous items this evening? Seeing none, that concludes this June 4th meeting of the Bloomington Planning Commission. Good night.