[music] [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Good evening everyone and welcome. Thank you all so very much for joining us here for tonight's city council meeting. I will call this council meeting to order. It is Monday, May 4th, 2026. We will begin as we typically do uh with the presentation of the colors uh and because it's respect for law week, we are going to turn it over to Bloomington's honor guard. So, I'm going to turn it over to Deputy Chief Damon Bitney to call them in and we will we will please uh we will get this underway. Deputy Chief, >> for those that are able, please stand. Officers, present >> 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. Officers, order You can be seated. Thank you. >> Thank you all. And a special thank you to our Bloomington Honor Guard for that. It's always a nice way to start a meeting, especially this week where we've got a couple of proclamations specifically related to our police department. uh it being National Police Officers Memorial Day and Respect for Law Week. So, thank you so very much and thank you for all of our uh men and women in blue who are joining us this evening. Great to see you all. Thank you very much. And as I said, thanks for everybody being with us tonight and thanks to everybody watching online. Council, our first order of business is to approve our agenda. And as I've talked about a little bit earlier, we got a long agenda tonight. Under introductory items, uh, past the presentation of colors, we have five, count them, five proclamations. I think it's a new indoor record, uh, for proclamations here in Bloomington. The first one is a proclamation for National Police Week and Police Officers Memorial Day. We have a proclamation for Respect for Law Week, proclamation for Small Business Week, a proclamation for Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month proclamation, and a proclamation for uh building building safety month, which is May of this year. Under our consent agenda, we have seven items. I believe Council Member Nelson has our consent business tonight. We have seven items on our consent agenda. Hearings, resolutions, and ordinances. We have one public hearing this evening. Item 4.1 is a privately initiated city code amendment disregarding tower standards updates. Under organizational business, we have uh four items. Uh item 5.1 is an update and a timeline set for our 2026 Bloomington Center for the Arts strategic plan and operations analysis. Item 5.2 is an update on our 50 plus programming and community health and wellness center proforma. Item 5.3 is a study item on our parking supply. And item 5.4 for a uh a discussion on on street parking overview and a potential policy changes there. We will then wrap up with our policy council policy and issues update and adjourn this evening. And as I mentioned, council, this is it's a lengthy one and I would ask the council to uh keep your your statements and your questions on point and and uh limit yourself if at all possible in terms of the numbers of words you use this evening. And I would ask the same of staff. Just want to make sure that we can get through as much as we possibly can at a reasonable hour because we all know the timber wolves do start at 8:30, don't we? So, council, are there any corrections or additions to this evening's agenda? If not, I would move approval of the agenda as stated. >> Motion by council member Robertson and second by council member Dalisandro to accept tonight's agenda as stated. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries 6. And on that point, I will note that uh council member uh Carter is not with us this evening. Wasn't feeling well. So, she's uh she's not decided not to come and spread whatever she has with the rest of us here at the council chambers. I'm going to head down to the podium council and work our way through our proclamations this evening. Our [clears throat] first proclamation this evening is for National Police Week and National Peace Officers Memorial Day. I'm happy that Deputy Chief Damon Bitney is here to join me. Uh and we'll be saying a few words in just a moment. Our proclamation for the city of Bloomington, National Police Week, May 10th through the 16th, National Peace Officers Memorial Day, May 15th. Whereas, there are more than 750,000 sworn law enforcement officers serving in communities across the United States, including the dedicated members of the Bloomington Police Department. And whereas since the first recorded death in 1786, there have been more than 24,000 law enforcement officers in the United States that have made the ultimate sacrifice and have been killed in the line of duty. The names of those dedicated public servants are engraved on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington DC. And whereas according to preliminary data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 111 officers were killed in the line of duty in 2025. That's a a decrease of 25% from the 148 officers killed in the line of duty in 2024. And whereas the service and sacrifice of all officers killed in the line of duty are honored annually during the NLEOMF candlelight vigil. The 38th annual candlelight vigil honoring 363 officers will take place on Wednesday May 13th 2026. And whereas the first recognition of National Police Week and Peace Officers Memorial Day was signed by President Kennedy in 1962. It was resolved by Congress on that that May 15th be designated Peace Officers Memorial Day to honor all local, state, and federal peace officers who have died or who have been disabled in the line of duty and the week in which it falls to be designated as police week. And whereas in honor of Peace Officers Memorial Day on May 15th, the Bloomington Police Department will hold a flag ceremony in honor of the above mentioned at 8 a.m. at Civic Plaza, the flag poles. The ceremony will include a brief speech and the Bloomington Honor Guard presenting the rifle firing of three volleys. Additionally, the BPD will join in the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association on May 14th and 15th to stand guard at the Peace Officer Memorial in St. Paul, followed by the attendance of a remembrance ceremony at 7 p.m. on May 15th. And whereas the BPD invites all to join in the above offered ceremonies. Now therefore, I, Mayor Tim Busy, do hereby proclaim May 10th to May 16th as National Police Week and May 15th as Peace Officer Memorial Day in the city of Bloomington, and publicly salute the service of law enforcement officers in our community and in communities across the nation, dated this 4th day of May, 2026. Uh, we have uh one of the, if not the best police department in the state of Minnesota. And I I am so appreciative of the work that they do. And I am so appreciative of uh their willingness to to make that sacrifice if need be in in in uh service to this community. And it's something that we can't overlook uh just because of the reality that I just read and the reality that we face every day in our world uh now in in this time. Uh so this is an important time and this is always a a a meaningful week for us all. I'm going to turn the microphone over to Deputy Chief uh Damon Bitney. Deputy Chief. >> Uh, thank you, Mayor. And in [clears throat] honor of, uh, trying to keep things short, I'll do that just to make sure we don't go too long on time, but I do want to thank all the members of the police department that are here and kind of want to just be real brief on what that week means to us. Um, it's truly just a time to take a pause and remembrance for all those that have fallen uh for this profession. It's literally a remembrance. And then that's what we're asking just kind of think about for those that we serve just during that time whether you like, don't like, or how whatever your position on police and and first responders just think that their family members, the people that wanted to do this, they're doing it for you. And so that's just a little bit of a time just to think and kind of remember all the sacrifices that have happened. And like I said, we can't thank enough for the people that have gone through this uh prior to us as far as this organization and continue to do it. It's for a great cause. And that's what this is meant for is just a little brief time for remembrance and a thank you. >> Thank you, Deputy Chief. Thank you so very much. >> Offer you this proclamation. >> He's coming over here with us. You going to take the for? >> This is the grip and green part. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you so much. [applause] >> Our next proclamation is regarding respect for law week which is May 10th through the 16th. Uh, I want deputy chief to stay up here and also two members of our Optimus Club. Uh, Optimus Club president Wayne Kger and uh, member Terry Langnus. Please join us up front here if you could. They'll be accepting the proclamation and then officer Mike Smith will be recognized as officer of the year for the city of Bloomington. Welcome, gentlemen. >> Good to see you again. Thanks for being here. >> [clears throat] >> Proclamation for respect for law week May 10th through the 16th 2026. Whereas crime and its effect upon lives and property of our citizens is of the utmost concern and the continued efforts of our local government, organizations, and individuals to curb this problem are greatly appreciated. And whereas the problems of crime touch all segments of our city and can undermine and erode the moral and economic strengths of our communities and their citizens if unabated. And whereas public awareness and determination to maintain the faith and the preservation of law and order and the appreciation of the importance of law enforcement officers and their roles in preserving social order in a democracy is everyone's responsibility. And whereas Optimist Clubs and their members continue to sponsor and support programs aimed at combating crime and respecting law through year-round efforts. And whereas each year the Bloomington Optimist Club presents a respect for law officer of the year award to an exemplary Bloomington Police Department officer who speaks to the professionalism and core value of the department. Respect demonstrated through our compassionate and honest service. And whereas the Bloomington Optimist Club is honored to present the 2026 Respect for Law Award to Detective Michael Smith. Officer Smith serves with dedication and carries out the mission of the BPT by always being respectful while keeping our community safe and employing the department's core value of respect demonstrated through their compassionate and honest service. Now therefore, I, Mayor Tim Busy, do hereby proclaim the week of May 10th through the 16th, 2026, as Respect for Law Week, dated this 4th day of May, 2026. Uh, President Kger, I'm going to turn it over to you. No. Oh, I'm >> Terry. Go ahead. >> All right. I just wanted to thank everyone. Uh, we're honored. The Optimus Club is honored to be part of the Respect for Law. we have been for years and uh have nothing but the utmost respect for the police officers and the and the folks that serve our community. So, thank you again uh for allowing us to be part of this. >> Thank you for being part of this and thank you for sponsoring this each >> Thank you. I [clears throat] just want to thank the partnership. It's been a phenomenal uh relationship that we've had with you and we thank you so much for this continued uh partnership uh for this amazing award. Uh you want to stand up, Mike? So, for those that don't know, this is Detective uh Smith. Um, and I'll just say a couple brief things. I've had the fortunate uh uh time to be for his entire career. He's a little over 15 years and I've been able to see him kind of from the beginning to where he is at now. And I can tell you he is a true example of what we want uh for someone in this organization, not only as an officer, but just as a human being. He's a wonderful person uh that makes both our Bloomington family much better as well as his own family in the community. And one thing, one note that I think is very important on this is that these awards, specifically this one that Officer Smith was um put up for was by his peers. So, not as not only is it something that we've recognized his leadership and the things that we think are important uh within the organization, but his peers did. And so I think that is a great honor to one be nominated, two to accept it, but even more so to me that his peers are the ones that said, "Hey, this is the guy that we look to uh as an example within the organization." So on behalf of the chief and the rest of the department, congratulations, Officer Smith. [applause] Officer Smith, why don't you join us up here? We'll take a picture or I'd be happy to turn the microphone over to you if you'd like to say anything. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. Microphone's yours. Go ahead. >> Uh, sure. Well, I plan on speaking on the 26th at the Optimus Club dinner. So, um, I will just say, Mr. Mayor, um, city manager, council members, and then to the Optimus Club, thank you for the support. I really do appreciate it. It's, uh, very humbling. Um, I got into this profession not for awards, um, or certificates. Uh, I just I do it for the people that are here and for the rest of the community that that isn't here. Um, so it's it's very humbling and I'm honored to accept this award. Thank you very much. [applause] See you in a couple days. >> [clears throat] >> Our third proclamation is for Small Business Week, which is May 3rd through the May 9th of uh 2026. Uh Dan Kim of the Community CPA is going to join us. Where's Dan? There he is. Come on up, please. The more the marrier. You guys stand there looking good while I read the proclamation and then we'll turn it over to Okay. Proclamation for Small Business Week, May 3rd through May 9th, 2026. Whereas the city of Bloomington recognizes the vital contributions of small businesses, which make up 99.4% of Minnesota businesses and employ approximately 75% of the workforce. And whereas Bloomington's small business community reflects the diversity and entrepreneurial spirit of its residents, including many immigrant-owned businesses that strengthen the city's cultural and economic vitality. And whereas recent immigration enforcement actions across Minnesota have created uncertainty and disruption for small businesses affecting owners, employees, and families. And whereas in response, the Bloomington Port Authority and the Henipin County have launched financial assistance programs to support impacted businesses. And whereas the city of Bloomington is proud to partner with the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Summit to bring its annual event to Bloomington on June 5th, 2026, further supporting immigrant-owned businesses through networking, education, and access to resources. And whereas the city is dedicated to fostering an inclusive, welcoming, and businessfriendly environment where entrepreneurs of all backgrounds have access to resources, guidance, and opportunities to succeed. And whereas Small Business Week is an opportunity to recognize the resilience and contributions of small businesses in our community. Now therefore, I, Mayor Tim Busy, do hereby proclaim May 3rd through the 9th, 2026 as Small Business Week in the city of Bloomington and encourage all residents to support local small businesses, recognize their contributions, and stand in solidarity with the diverse individuals and families who help our community thrive throughout the year. Dated this 4th day of May, 2026. Uh, I'm always stunned in reading this proclamation, the percentage of businesses in Minnesota that are considered small businesses, 99.4 4%. It is amazing. We We always hear about the big businesses, but it's the small businesses that make this community and this state tick and do it very well. So, thank you so very much for being here. I'm going to turn the microphone over to Dan. Hello. Good evening. My name is Dan Kim. I'm a partner and a director of client services at Community CPA, a small business located here in the city of Bloomington. Since its early inception in de mo and Iowa in 2008, I immigrant entrepreneur summit has helped create more than 2,300 plus businesses across the Midwest. That is over 130 plus businesses per year. When we brought this summit to Minnesota in 2019, we saw immediately how much need and potential that exists here. Community CPA proudly supports IS at the highest level year after year because we see firsthand how much access this right knowledge and resources can help and change the trajectory of a business. So too many entrepreneurs struggle simply because they were never shown the right path or have the appropriate resources. And [snorts] this event brings all of the right partners together to help all of our small businesses start strong and grow sustainably. And that's why this partnership with the city of Bloomington means so much and matters so much to us. and your leadership during this very trying times and your investment to make this event happen really we really mean it from the bottom of our hearts. So this event is happening on June 5th and we hope to see you all there and thank you Mr. Mayor and uh for being a keynote at the event this year and we are really excited to do this all together. Thank you. >> [applause] >> There we go. There we go. We will see you guys. Our [clears throat] next proclamation is for Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which is May 1st through the 31st, 2026. We've got community members here, uh, Pakuli and Kim Sher Loftton, are you here? I see you. Come on up, please. join me up here and just stand while I read the proclamation. Then we'll turn the microphone over to you. All right. Asian-American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, May 1st through the 31st, 2026. Whereas the city of Bloomington through its Human Rights Commission joins our nation in recognizing the month of May as Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. And that is the acronym there is AANHPI. You're going to be hearing that a few times here in this proclamation. And whereas during the month of May, we honor and acknowledge the rich and diverse cultures of Americans of A&HPI descent. And whereas the 2020 dennial census reports that 6.7% of the Bloomington, Minnesota population identifies as AHN Ahi HPI. I knew I was going to mess that up. I apologize. and the Council of AsianPacific motans 2023 annual report indicates a total population of approximately 313,223 A&HPI motans and whereas the city of Bloomington is home to a diverse group of A&HPI people including but not limited to Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Chinese, Taiwanese, Laian, Thai, Tibetan, Nepalese, uh Filipino M Indian and Hawaiian. And whereas the city of Bloomington hosts an Asian-American Pacific Islander and allies resource group to promote an inclusive environment for Asian identified employees who represent 4.6% of the city of Bloomington staff. And whereas AANHPI communities are essential to Bloomington's vibrancy and strength, enriching every facet of our city and state through the languages, cultures, and traditions they bring to our city and our state. And whereas we honor the perseverance of those who create courageously reached out reached for their hope and dreams in a new land. And we celebrate the many contributions A&HPI immigrants and refugees have made to Bloomington. And whereas we honor the richness of A&HPI experiences within our community from recent immigrants and refugees who bring resilience and global perspectives to adopes and multicultural families families navigating complex identities and their stories, achievements, and leadership that have shaped and strengthened our city. And whereas Bloomington recognizes the ongoing challenges faced by AANHPI communities, including acts of hate, discrimination, and anxieties intensified by heightened immigration enforcement. Bloomington denounces all forms of bias and reaffirms its commitment to safety, inclusion, and equity for all residents. >> [clears throat] >> And whereas Bloomington commits to protect, support, and uplift all community members, to foster dialogue and storytelling, and to create opportunities that ignite curiosity, strengthen connections, and celebrate the contributions of A&HPI residents. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Tim Busy, mayor of the city of Bloomington, Minnesota, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the city of Bloomington, dated this 4th day of May, 2026. Thank you very much for being here this evening. I will turn the microphone over to you. Off you go, please. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Busy. Yong, hello everyone. It is an honor to accept the Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Proclamation in the city of Bloomington. My name is Paku Lee and in the Mong language, my name is Baku. Ba means flower and ku means gold. To say my name is to also honor the resiliency of my culture and language. The Twin Cities is home to the largest concentration of Mong people in the country. In 2025, we commemorated 50 years that Mong people have been in the US after the end of the Vietnam War and the secret war in which Mong people in Laos directly aided the US. My mom was only 10 years old when her family fled Laos crossing the Mong River into Thailand to escape the genocide of Mong people. After spending a few years in a Thailand refugee camp, a family in Fergus Falls, Minnesota through their church sponsored my maternal grandma, my mom, aunts, uncles, and cousins to come into the US. They arrived in Minnesota in May of 1979 and as if by fate was when the first proclaimed Asian-Pacific American Heritage Week was celebrated in the US. And here we are celebrating Asian-American, Native American, oh sorry, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 47 years later. What an honor and privilege to be here in this space with you all. I am a first generation for many things in my family. The first to be born in the US, the first to have access to a K12 public education, the first to go to college and earn a bachelor's degree and master's degree. The first generation free to dream and see those dreams come to fruition. It is a road of privilege and responsibility that can often feel lonely. And this is a common experience for all of those who are the first in their family, many of whom are students I serve today. It has been a little over a year that I have been a Normandale at at Normanddale Community College where I serve as an academic adviser working specifically with postsecary enrollment option for PSOS or PSO students. These are high school students coming from all over Minnesota to take college classes at Normandale. Normandale is the largest community college in Minnesota with a high PSO student enrollment. Our team spent the last month visiting with fall 2026 newly admitted PSO students at their high schools and got to partner with both Jefferson and Kennedy high schools. It was an opportunity to physically meet the students where they are at and to let them know who their support people are once they begin their journey at Normando. In the early weeks of January during Operation Metro Surge when our spring semester had barely began, our college pivoted to ensure the safety of our students. Faculty provided alternative modalities for students and students were granted the opportunity to switch classes um or drop their classes. Although faced with fear and trauma, many students persisted knowing that education is the key to creating a better future for them and their families. I was afraid every day on my drive to and from campus on grocery runs. But I'm grateful that Normanddale was a safe haven for me and to be a part of this community that looks out for each other and grateful to be working with inspirational students who show up daily as a responsibility to themselves, their families, and their communities. We do not thrive in isolation. We all need each other. As descendants of immigrants and refugees to this country, we also inherit the duty and responsibility to each other. For it is because of those before us who fall with blood, sweat, and tears to guarantee our rights and freedom. Today, it is our responsibility to encourage and collaborate with our youth to collectively build a better future for all of us. And it starts with acknowledging our uniqueness, but also our shared histories that brought us together and reaffirming our commitment to each other. When I first started at Normanddale, I had many colleagues ask how to pronounce my name. And now I don't find myself in that situation anymore. It's pretty nice when you share the same name as your college president. Dr. Paku Yang served as the interim president of Normanddale Community College for the past 10 months and was recently appointed the sixth president of Normanddale Community College. A historical moment marking her as the first MA American president of a college or university in the country and dare I say in the world. First generation dreams do come true. And what extraordinary moments we are living in here in Bloomington, Minnesota. Happy Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Thank you. [applause] Jimsu, good evening. Thank you, Mayor Busy, members of the council, and everyone joining this evening. My name is Kim Sher Prong Loftton. I am a lifong lifelong resident of Bloomington, an employee of Bloomington Public Schools, and the vice chair of Cambodian American Partnership of Minnesota, also known as CAPM. It is truly an honor and deep gratitude to be here today. I am a firstg generation American born in the heart of Bloomington, Minnesota. My story begins with my parents Son Kim and Prrook Prung who fled the Camair Rouge regime, a period where nearly two million people lost their lives through execution, starvation, forced labor, and a lack of medical care. They carried nothing with them except for the hope of just seeing another day. Because of their courage and sacrifice, I stand here today not only as a resident of the city, but someone deeply committed to advocating that every family has an opportunity to belong, to be seen, and thrive in this community. As I accept this proclamation, I do so in honor of my family, my ancestors, and behalf of all the first generation Americans who continue to shape and strengthen our communities. Change is never easy. It comes with barriers. My family has lived that truth. I have lived that truth. And I know many of you here today have lived it as well. But change is also where growth begins. Please took a look took a take a look around the room. This is what change looks like. This proclamation is more than a recognition. It is a commitment to partnership, to belonging, to a future we continue building together. In the spirit, I invite you to join us Saturday, May 30th from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. at the Civic Plaza as the city of Bloomington partners with CAPMN to celebrate Petals of Peace. A celebration of community, resilience, and unity. Like petals of a flower, we are each unique, but together we create something strong, beautiful, and enduring. So, Aland, thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you both so very much. >> We are going to take a picture and I see a lot of folks back there. Come on up. Let's make it a group picture. Come on. Yep. Ready? One, two, three. >> [applause] [snorts] >> In our f final proclamation of the night, we kind of come full circle. We started with public safety in terms of our Bloomington Police Department and we will end with building safety. Another very important um service by the city of Bloomington to make sure everyone stays safe. I know we've got some members of our our team. Come on up here. Get up here. Everybody up here. Thank you for being here tonight. Oh, no. Don't Don't be shy. Get up here. Come on. Very good. Our proclamation for building safety month, May 2026. Whereas the city of Bloomington is committed to recognizing that our growth and strength depends on the safety and essential role our homes, buildings, and infrastructure play both in everyday life and when disaster strikes. And whereas the city of Bloomington's building and inspections division works diligently to safeguard our community by enforcing building, residential, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical codes to ensure structures are safe, sustainable, and [snorts] built to last. And whereas these professionals support and uphold the highest standard of safety through the model codes developed by the International Code Council and adopted by the state of Minnesota. And whereas these modern building codes and standards safeguard the public from hazards such as severe storms, tornadoes, floods, snow and ice events, fires, and other natural and man-made disasters that in can impact communities like Bloomington. And whereas building safety month was created to raise awareness about the critical role of code officials, plan reviewers, and inspectors, often unseen but essential public servants who ensure safe, resilient, and affordable buildings that support Bloomington's continued prosperity. And [snorts] whereas built to last, the theme of building safety month 2026, encourages residents, businesses, and community partners throughout Bloomington to learn about building safety, take action to strengthen resilience, and recognize the essential role of our local building safety professionals. And whereas each year during building safety month, communities across the nation and around the world are encouraged to reaffirm their commitment to improving building safety, resilience, and economic investment, and to acknowledge the essential services provided by building safety and fire prevention departments in protecting lives and property. Now therefore, I, Mayor Tim Busy, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as building safety month in Bloomington and encourage all residents, businesses, and community members to recognize the important role of the Bloomington Building and Inspections Division and all building safety professionals in keeping our community safe and strong data this fourth day of May, 2026. And I I I encourage all residents and and businesses to appreciate and acknowledge and thank these folks because these are the folks who make it happen. And as it said in here, it's often unseen, but they are vital public servants in so many different ways. Um sometimes they have a tough job. Sometimes people may disagree with you. Is that is that true? I don't know if I I think that might be the case. But you do outstanding work in a lot of cases. You're the face of the city of Bloomington. It's not the seven of us sitting up there. It's you folks who are out and about in the community. and we truly appreciate the work that you do every day. So, thank you so very much. Have you Is there a speaker designated? Off we go. >> Thank you, mayor, city council for recognizing our building and inspections team during building safety month. I just wanted to reiterate that our team, not all of them are here. We have about 25 inspectors, plan reviewers, and admin staff that help keep the city running from scheduling inspections to uh doing inspections on high-rise buildings, going to the Mall of America. the things that they do every day are so appreciated and and like we said, maybe sometimes unseen. So, I just want to let them know that I see them and I value them and I appreciate them and I'm glad that the city council and the mayor and the rest of the city does as well. Thank you. [applause] Good job being compact. And that is our proclamations for this evening. I'm sorry if we missed you and you weren't recognized by a proclamation this evening, but uh we can get around to it eventually perhaps. Our next item on our agenda, council, is item three, our consent business. Council member Nelson has the consent agenda. Council member Nelson. >> Thank you, Mayor. I have heard about a hold for item 3.3. Does anybody have any other ones? Seeing none, I will move items 31 and 32 and 34 through 37. Second. >> Motion by council member Nelson, second by council member Lman to accept tonight's uh uh consent agenda as stated. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. 6. We held out uh item >> 3.3. Very good. >> Council member Rivas. >> Council member Rivas. Yeah, just a quick comment so we don't drag the meeting too long. I would suggest that we have a we hold a public hearing in regards to this item. Um, I have a numerous emails of people that have uh scheduled games at that facility and uh I would like them to if they haven't been notified by the city or by the city staff, you know, it's an we will have an opportunity for everybody to participate in the decision today. So that's what I would just like to suggest. >> Thank you, council member. Council member Lman. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'm I'm not sure if the the manager or yourself uh mayor want to just uh confirm the understanding of what this uh actually uh shared disagreement does and does not do. >> Well, thank you for asking, Council Member Loman. I'm going to call on on Nick Johnson from our planning department. There he is. I think there's information available. I think he's got a a presentation in anticipation of some of the questions that we know might be coming up. So, >> hi, mayor. >> Good evening. Welcome. Thanks for >> I'll pass it to Alison. >> Hi, Alison. Good evening. >> Welcome members. >> Can you see my Oh, oops. Forgive me. I'm sorry. >> There we go. Forgive me. >> Mayor, council members, this is the uh agreement with Darl Farooq and Al disease um for the shared use of Smith Park. And as you can see on the screen right now, there are two parcels that currently make up that space. Smith Park is the city-owned parcel and the Darl Furug parcel in the blue is the property owned by Darl Farooq right now. So the original agreement was adopted back in 2015 with a first amendment in 2024 that was recently brought to you um to continue the shared access parking and use of recreational facilities uh at that time. We have now continued to negotiate with Daryl Foo and with the understanding that the football field on that property is no longer utilized in high dem or in high demand for any city programming or athletic organizations to utilize that. Um a typical rectangle field we see around 300 reservation requests. For this particular rectangle field, we see around 50 annually. And so, in order to remain fiscally responsible, we intend to no longer utilize that field or maintain that field to continue to invest in city- owned property and maintain those properties to a higher level standard and to make further long-term investments into property that's owned by the city. Um, this property will be in need of investment in sometime in the near future here with irrigation and lighting needs. and uh we feel that investing in this property would be not ideal compared to investing on city property. So that is the continued change of this. I do want to reiterate there is no change in property ownership here. This is just a shared use agreement with the current property owners. And in addition, the access that is currently available to the public to the neighborhood is for the tennis courts and the basketball courts and that will remain intact with this agreement. Current access to the football field on the property is only by reservation and so it does not limit the public access to this facility in any different way. >> If I can add one point, mayor, is just the reason we're before you tonight is because the current agreement expires on uh May 20th. And so that's why we're before you is because we're up against the deadline from the two-year extension that was done in 2024. >> So, as you can see on the screen here, this just is a visual to share um where the current existing agreement is. And as as you can see, um Darl and the other tenants on site do have a shared use of the baseball fields that are currently maintained by the city as well on city property and that will no longer be in place either. So this just consolidates the different uses on the property to just maintain the public use for the amenities that are available and uh to return the maintenance and operations of the football field on their property to Darluke. So to clarify again, our current existing responsibilities are here and we'll be decreasing those responsibilities with the change in the shared use agreement. >> I don't have much to add from the kind of planning and zoning side of things. I do want to reiterate that uh the component around shared access and parking is kind of a key piece of their conditional use permit that was approved in uh 2020. So, their conditional use permit actually has conditions uh associated with it that run with the land as a a land use approval um that do necessitate maintaining those components of the agreement and uh shared access and parking benefit both parties in a number of different ways. I can certainly speak about that if you like. Um but just to note that those components specifically are uh connected to the conditional use permit that was approved in 2020. >> That's all we have for you formally. >> Thank you much. and and I know the fact that this is a conditional use permit. Uh there's there there are legal requirements around this as well. And I think I'd like to uh turn it over to our city attorney, Miss Mandershide, and see if she could explain a bit about those legal requirements as they surround a conditional use permit. >> So, mayor, members, uh there was a public hearing when that CUP process um was before the council and it was thoroughly discussed and considered. Uh a cup as um planning manager Johnson mentioned runs with the land and attaches to the land. So the city couldn't unilaterally change or eliminate a condition that it had previously approved. There's case law on that. So we have to be very mindful of requirements that we have previously placed on the land. >> Thank you, Miss Mandershide. Council, any questions here of uh any of the three? Council member Nelson and Council Member Loman. Council member Dallasandro. Council member Nelson. >> Um my question is it sounds like there are some uh reservations for this summer already made. Is staff working with those groups to reaccommodate them elsewhere? And you know, would that just vary based on what their needs are? You know, can you give me a sense of where where they might be reaccommodated to? >> Mayor, Council Member Nelson, there are no current reservations for this summer at the Smith Park Field. Um and we will be accepting fall reservations beginning in May. And historically, the BAA has utilized this field for football or soccer in the fall to the tune of 50 days or so. And within our other field inventory, we'll feel we be able to maintain that need for BA without this field. >> Council member Lman, um really what I my question was, and I'm ready to move this, but uh uh but I know there's another council member that wants to speak to this. Um uh we're not giving away the park, right? We're not giving away Smith Park. There there's this understanding that that might be happening. >> Mayor, council member Lman, that is correct. This property is currently owned by Darl Fr and that organization and we are have a shared use for their property that they own currently. There's no exchange of land or property in this agreement. >> Council member Delisando, did you have a question? Would you like to end? >> Uh, no. That was essentially the Maybe you can answer when did we sell that property to Daro Foruk? Was it part of the original agreement that they when they purchased the whole thing back in whatever day that was? I don't remember like how many years ago it was, but I mean I'm assuming that it wasn't it's been a very very long time that that field has belonged to the Alazeri people. Correct. The the the folks that own that. >> Mayor, Council Member Dolesandro, I believe from my experience and my research that this has been owned by that property back to when it was owned by the Lutheran school. It has not been owned by the city from my research or information at any point. So, do you have any idea why we continued to maintain it? Like, what was the reason that we were responsible for maintaining it when we didn't own it in the first place? >> In the research that we've, Mayor, Council Member Delisandro, in the research that we've conducted here, uh, we looked back to an agreement in 2000 where the school at the time wanted to invest in lighting on that property and the city was interested in more lighted fields at the time and so a 50-50 deal was agreed upon to invest in that property at that time. Um, as we continue to look through the park system, we are in the midst of a youth sports study to identify what the proper level of field accountability is to the city and how we can continue to serve our youth associations and they are heavily involved in that study to ensure access to fields across the city. >> Thanks. Thank you, >> Council Member Robertson. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, just really quickly, uh, first of all, I appreciate everyone clarifying that this isn't a change in ownership. Um, and just to confirm, my understanding is staff is saying that this will actually save the city money and it's a fiscally responsible choice to not continue to invest um in maintenance of something that not only do we not own but isn't utilized um nearly as much as other fields. Is that an accurate >> Mayor Council Member Robertson? That is correct. We will be saving between $6 and $8,000 annually for the maintenance of this field that we can then repurpose to other fields. but more importantly the uh capital needs of this property. We can invest in other city- owned property to continue to provide those opportunities of high quality fields to our youth associations and public. >> Wonderful. Thank you, >> council. Additional questions. So, Council Member Rivas, you had brought forward a thought that you had. Did did you want to put that in the form of a motion to see where it goes or otherwise? I think Council Member Lman is looking to uh to to move the the item as it stands. So, sounds good. All right. So, then, mayor, I'll go ahead and move uh to adopt the updated joint use agreement for Smith Park as uh written in the uh consent agenda. >> Can we get uh the actual motion there? Second. >> Uh why don't we why don't we read the motion? >> You want me to read this one here? Okay. I wasn't sure if this was in case of Okay, I'll go ahead and read it this way. Uh mayor, I'll move to authorize the mayor and the city manager to execute an amendment shared parking and use agreement for the Smith Park and Dar Farooq properties together with amendments or modifications there too. >> Second >> motion by council member Lman, second by council member Robertson to accept item 3.3 from the consent agenda as stated. >> No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I >> opposed. Motion carries 6. Thank you for the clarification. I know there was a lot of questions about this and uh I I think to to break it down into some very usable and understandable bites was very uh helpful. So, thank you so very much for doing that. >> Thank you. >> You bet. Thank you. >> We will move on council to item 4.0, our hearings, resolutions, and ordinances. Item 4.1 is our first and only public hearing of the evening. This is for a privately initiated city code amendment regarding toward standards updates. >> Good evening and welcome. >> Good evening. Thank you. >> Give people a second here. >> I think that's a good call. [laughter] All right, I think good. >> No, >> one more second. >> All right, Miss OD, thanks for your patience. >> Thank you. Yeah, no problem. Uh, thank you, council, mayor, and council. Um, so 4.1 on your agenda this evening is for a privately initiated uh city code amendment related to uh towers and our Bloomington H is the applicant on this project. So in uh current city code, towers are allowed in our residential zoning districts um specifically in areas for uh park sites, government, school, utility and institutional facilities and places of assembly. when that tower is fully camouflaged by a bell tower steeple or a similar um structure. So, this proposed amendment would allow an existing tower to remain um on site if the place of assembly site is redeveloped into another uh use that's allowed in the underlying zoning district. So, here is the proposed amendment language. It's number four at the bottom of the screen. Uh in bold it says former place of assembly sites that have been redeveloped when the tower was legally established at a place of assembly site and is fully camouflaged as a bell tower steeple or similar structure. So basically it's allowing for towers to be uh located or existing towers uh located at former place of assembly sites when these place of assembly sites have been redeveloped. Um and then these towers have to be camouflaged in the form of a bell tower steeple or similar similar structure. So basically what this amendment is getting at is it's aiding in the uh development of St. Marks uh located at 86th and Xerxes. Um currently they have a tower that's shown on the right side of the screen that's housed in their uh steeple and it has telecommunication equipment. Um a couple months ago or last August, you all approved a comp plan amendment um changing this designation from um quasi public to lowdensity residential to help HR um develop St. Marks into um a residential project. Um but this tower can uh complicate redevelopment um for a number of reasons. But um just going back um a little bit, towers are located at place of assemblies um all around the city and um and that's due to the large lot size that place of assemblies have and as well as they have existing structures that are suitable for antennas and then it's also close to residential areas. So these towers have a lot of reach um to a lot of people. But what happens when these uh place of assemblies shut their doors? Um it's limited in terms of what they can do um in the future for the property. Um you know ideally it would be another place of assembly that would move into the site but these buildings were built in the 50s and 60s which makes it um tough to reuse the existing building. Um so this opens up a redevelopment opportunity um because there's a high demand for residential uses. The site is already integrated with the neighborhood and it already has um access to streets and utilities. Um but like I mentioned before, the tower can kind of [clears throat] excuse me create um some complications um because wireless companies have these long-term leases um of 30 plus years. These agreements um include strict language such as right of first refusal, access rights, um easements, and an influence on the future use of the land. So without this proposed amendment, uh future reuse of the land would be challenging without the uh allowing this existing tower to remain. Um and then if it weren't u passed, what you would get is a large poorly maintained site that's just used to house a tower. Um so uh looking at elsewhere in Bloomington where this would uh potentially impact if it were adopted. There are four other um churches um in Bloomington that have these struct or these um towers within structures. And so if this were passed it could potentially um impact these other sites. Um so with that um planning commission and staff are recommending approval of the city cone amendment. Um Mike Polalmo is um in the audience if there's any specific questions for the HA um but happy to answer any questions that you might have. >> Well, thank you. Miss OD, do we know you mentioned the 30-year leases? Do we know how how far into a lease they are with whoever the lease holder is? And do we know how many how many lease holders are there are? because I know there's oftentimes a number of different lease holders on a on a tower site like that. >> Mayor, I don't know the specific Do you know, Mike? Do you know the answer for this specific lease? >> Good evening, Mr. Lol. >> Mayor, council members, uh, in this particular case at this site, uh, they do not have a lease. They have purchased a permanent easement. So that further complicates and I think that's part of the difficulty with these sites is we don't know exactly how these were all negotiated but a lot of times these cell towers are very sophisticated and enter into really strong property rights that they have on the property which makes it difficult for a developer besides the HA to come in and negotiate they're going to walk away because they don't want to deal with that >> headache whereas the HA we decided to continue to move forward anyway. All right. So, do do we know how many utilities actually use the site right now? >> Uh, there's just one tower. Um, it's held by SBA communications, but they often then will contract out with different companies. I think it's currently a T-Mobile antenna that they have, but uh sometimes you might have multiple companies on the same. >> Very good. And then my final question, it it's designed just to look like a tower. Is it actually a bell tower? Will there are there bells in there now? And will there still be bells in there in the future? Mr. Mayor, I don't believe there are bells in the door. [laughter] Uh, some of them do, as Miss OD pointed out. Some actually do have the bells in there. This one in particular, I don't think it does. I think it's it it's looks big, but it's not quite that big. I think it's just filled with antennas. >> Got it. Okay. Council, any other questions? Council member Disandro. >> Just a real quick question. Not that it not that it's super re You don't have to answer this because it's not super relevant to the item in front of us, but what are you going to do with the tower? Like where's it actually going to go on the land when you build around it to build all this stuff? >> Yep. Mr. Mayor, council member Dalisandro, we are hoping to actually do just that on this site is build around it. We plan to kind of keep it in place. The equipment's actually in a brricked building that we would love if we can kind of keep and maintain that. Um, and our current design, which still up in the air, um, still working with our planning with missing middle code updates, but is to have the culde-sac go right through and basically directly take you to the tower so that the facility will have access to that, but won't be impeding any uh, properties. They'll just be able to access the tower straight from the road. Okay. And is there an expectation that the leases you Well, you mentioned it's a permanent easement, so that sounds like it's not something that's up for debate 30 years from now. >> Correct. >> Is that right? Okay. Thanks. >> Other questions, council? >> All right. If not, uh this is our public hearing this evening. So, I'm going to open the public hearing at item 4.1. Uh as I before I ask folks to come forward, I want to do just kind of lay out our the way we do these. Uh each speaker, anyone who wishes to speak will be able to speak. Each speaker will have no more than five minutes and the clock on the wall will tell you when your five minutes are up. And if when your five minutes are up, I will indeed stop you. So we have a fair and equal amount time for everybody. Uh as you do come forward, please state your name so it's officially on the record. And then when you finish up, if you could sign in, although I'm missing the I don't see the uh the clipboard up there. And then the final uh if anyone has questions brought forward, we'll answer the questions at the end of the public hearing. trying to answer the questions, shooting from the hip while uh folks are talking, it makes it a little bit more difficult. So, we'll simply answer the questions at the end of the public hearing. And with all of that, I will open the public hearing on 4.1 and ask if there's anyone in the council chambers who wishes to address item 4.1 tonight. Mr. Tolman, do we have anyone on the phone? >> Mr. Mayor, we have no one online. >> Last call for anyone in the council chambers. Council, no one on the chambers in the chambers coming forward and no one on the line wishing to speak. I'd look for a motion to close the public hearing on item 4.1. Motion [clears throat] by council member Reebos, second by council member Dalisandro, closing the public hearing on item 4.1. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. 6. Uh, council, this is pretty straightforward. I think I think the question council member Dalisandro brought up was a good one. What is it going to look like and how is it going to work? And I think I uh can trust our our planning staff and our HA to make it uh both uh usable and and viable within a within a development community within the city of Bloomington. Council member Delisandro. >> Mr. Mayor, I'm happy to make the motion. Just before that, I did have one other quick question. It was just a quick is there any um consideration made to expanding this from former place? Like would there any be any reason to have existing towers and residential areas in certain circumstances that are over and above because one used to be there? Like I just I wasn't sure if that was part of the conversation and I understand this needs to be expedited. So we could certainly table that and talk about it another time, but I just wondered it's very specific and I just wondered if we had thought about reasons it might need to be expanded or would we just come back to at a later date? >> And I think that's a good question, Council Member Dolesandro. I think it's worth noting that this is a privately initiated code amendment and so uh clearly the the privately initiated they they had the one thing in mind that they wanted to accomplish and I think if we put this into practice and the precedent is set uh if others come forward in the future and say hey wait there's a tower on this property and we want to keep it while we do something else with it. I think we've we've proven that we'd be open to that if uh if it couldn't be done uh effectively and tastefully within whatever development they're looking to do. >> Fair enough, Mr. Mayor. I know it's technically privately initiated, but it is our h our age that's doing it. So, I felt the need to ask the broader question. >> I understand. >> But if if there is anything else, I'd be happy to make the motion for you. >> Any other questions or comments? Councel >> Council Member Delisandre. >> All right. Uh I'll move to uh adopt an ordinance allowing existing towers at former places of assembly sites in residential zoning districts, thereby amending chapter 21 of the city code. >> Motion by council member Delisandro. Uh second by council member Rivas to adopt an ordinance allowing existing towers at former places of assembly sites in residential zoning districts thereby amending chapter 21 of the city code. Any further council discussion on this hearing? None. All those in favor please signify by saying I. I >> opposed. Motion carries 6. Council member Dellesandro. I will move to adopt a resolution authorizing some republication of an ordinance allowing existing towers at former place of assembly sites in residential zoning districts thereby amending chapter 21 of the city code. >> Motion by council member Dalisandro second by council member Rivas for summary publication of item 4.1. No further council discussion all those in favor please signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries 6. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate moving that forward. We will move on to our organizational business council and we've got four items in our organizational business and the first one item 5.1 is an update and a timeline discussion on the 2026 Bloomington Center for the Arts strategic plan and operations analysis. Ian Brekie from our from Bloomington Center for the Arts is here. Good evening. Welcome. >> Yes. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor, and good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. Uh we are bringing to you an early milestone of the ongoing BCA strategic plan and operations analysis. This analysis began in 2025 and once completed intends to provide a comprehensive updated strategic plan for the overall operation of BCA. Tonight, Duncan Webb of Web Management will be presenting the situation analysis that summarizes Web's findings of BCA as things currently stand, which includes the facility's identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We also intend to discuss upcoming steps and timeline for completion. So, with that, I will welcome Duncan and turn things over to him. >> Mr. Webb, good evening. Welcome. >> Thank you, Mayor, members of council. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come and speak with you. Uh I'm going to run through a quick presentation and then we have lots of time for questions and discussion at the end of the presentation. Next slide please. >> If you want to control >> Okay, great. Uh, so BCA is a great story and I love its origin that a number of artists and the city and funders came together recognizing a need in your community and you made this wonderful building happen. Um, it it opened as part of the campus in 2003. Uh, the arts organizations were active in fundraising efforts around it. Um, and for many years it basically operated with a staff of one, meaning it really relied on the artists and arts organizations, most importantly artistry to provide needed services to help keep the building going. um recent history uh disruption, interruption through COVID uh issues all over the country, but here we've seen sort of particular challenges and and concerns about service delivery, equitable access, uh equipment maintenance, resource management, and cost recovery. Um, in this last year, you've added the second and third staff positions, which has allowed you to bring the building up to the same level as other comparable parks and wreck facilities. Um, uh, so you you you recognized that things were going well, you recognized that things were stabilizing, but you still felt that there were issues and challenges. So, in 2025, you issued an RFP to hire a consultant to come look at the building. We were retained to do that. uh and you really stressed to us when we began find us the best governance and operating model for BCA and help us determine what is an appropriate level of investment on the part of city to sustain operations of the building. Um so we've been working hard on this um for a year but let let me just say something about us. So uh I've been doing this work for 36 years. I started this practice uh gosh it's almost 30 years now and we just started project 558 this week. So lots of short assignments, feasibility studies, business plans and strategic plans where we say our job is to come into a community, figure things out, speak truth to power and then get out of the way. So we began uh this study a year ago. uh we had good relevant experience in the region and we jumped right in and did a big set of touring facilities. We did a a confidential zoom interviews with users, staff, uh uh council members, um uh other stakeholders, funders. We met with uh park. We've met with senior city staff. We've analyzed data about scheduling, financial performance activity. Uh we've analyzed the market area. We've assessed other facilities that are competitive both for performance and education programs and then we've done a very significant benchmarking exercise that compares this building to about 40 other comparably sized buildings around the country. Um so first the most important thing to say is that this is a great set of facilities and I have many clients who would die to have the spaces that you have here. two very functional theaters. The galleries, the classrooms, the support spaces, the public areas, and the outdoors that you're able to animate around the building make this really an enviable set of facilities. The challenges that you have with them are essentially around um there's a little bit of shortage around storage, there's some shortages around office space, and a little bit of shortages around support spaces. [clears throat] Um there is no mission statement or vision statement for BCA itself but uh the operations have been guided by the city's vision and mission uh by parks and reccks mission uh there and there is now a set of guiding principles that that are kind of in a in a draft form that are going to help us sort of focus in a little bit more on what you want BCA to be and do. And these principles will be one of the outcomes of our work because we think it's important to provide a little bit more direction for staff and also provide a reference point to you on council as to how things are working. Um so uh the governance is essentially we think it works. We wouldn't recommend any dramatic changes in overall the way that the building is governed or operated. Uh, as I said, you've got these two more staff people that have brought it up to par. Um, the BCA manager, Ian, reports to uh, uh, deputy director of parks and wreck. Um, there's good oversight uh, with both with the park commission and also through the annual budgeting process and the grant application process that I think provides you with a reasonable way to kind of measure and track how the BCA is doing. Um it's it's a it's a busy building and its use is complicated because you have this combination of arts programming both sort of active programming people taking classes and rehearsing people attending performances uh and exhibitions. Then it's the home to a set of organizations. Then it is also used by the city for uh civic engagement, voting uh events and other government functions. And then there's a little bit of broader uh community use uh rehearsals and other nonprofit functions. The the building was conceived and and the most important users now are these what are called the RAOS, the resident arts organizations. These seven groups have a have a good deal here. They don't pay rent per se, but when they have a performance, they pay a $2.50 uh ticket charge uh that comes to the building uh in in lie of a rent. So they get good access to spaces uh some dedicated office space as well as the annual operating grants that you provide. Artistry has always been a very important part of the building. As I said before they sort of stepped into as a service provider doing event ticketing running education programs, gallery curating. They present meaning they bring touring artists and entertainers to the building. They provide front of house and back of house operations uh and take care of particular spaces uh within the building. Um so then we have the other users and and the arts partnership. This is a really I think a very important thing you did a couple years ago of bringing in four more groups now that are grant recipients that get access to facilities as is available. Um then we have the city of Bloomington departmental use of spaces. The visual arts well represented in the the formal galleries and in the public spaces uh in the larger building. Uh parks and wreck has a is doing a little bit of indoor programming. More of their focus is on the outdoor programming and then as I said before there's a little bit of room left for some additional uh community users. But there has been a concern uh expressed at staff and council before. Is the building uh equitably accessible to the people in our community? You've set that as a goal for the city of Bloomington. So we've been trying to ask and determine is there equitable access to all the people you won't have access to the building. Um so this is a chart that's showing activity in Schneider. Um most of the other smaller spaces are moderately used but then there's certainly capacity to increase utilization. Schneider is busy 3636 days in in 2024. That's the last year we've got good data for. The problem there is that many of those days uh in fact really twothirds of them are days when the public is not being invited in for performance. So it's rehearsals and load in and tech and strike and all these things. So, we are It's good that it's that busy. It's It's unfortunate that there aren't many more public events going on within those 336 days. Uh the education studios are not really particularly busy and and there is a bit of a seasonal dip in the colder months here. Um so, there are very precise operating guidelines that pages that have been written out in very clear language. Unfortunately, it those those are not well understood. I think it's overwhelming to users and others. They sort of glaze over at about page three of these guidelines. So, I think there's some work to be done to kind of simplify how that works and how people understand how the building works. Event ticketing uh is run uh for the city by artistry. They run their own box office and they provide box office services for non-artry events in the building. Food and beverage options also provided by artistry are are limited uh but okay and also technical labor and equipment is managed in conjunction with artistry. Uh you have a terrific new superintendent, the third staff member who's now been working very closely with artistry on more of the back of house operations. uh really completing this inventory of all the equipment trying to determine who owns each and every piece of sound and lighting equipment and making sure that it is all properly operated and maintained. So a good newer working partnership with artistry uh related to back of house operations. Um uh we were asked what what impact does BCA have? So we did this sort of quick little analysis using um uh projected 35,000 people coming to performances in fiscal 25. We approximated the number coming from Henipin County. We used the numbers from the Americans for the Arts. They do this by annual survey of arts arts the economic impact of the arts and using those numbers we project an annual audience impact of $2.5 million on on the county itself. So people coming to performances do have a significant impact. Um we also did a survey of customers uh which came back with with very positive results. Uh 92% of respondents rate their experience here as excellent or good and 89% rate the helpfulness of staff as also excellent or good. Um I've done a bit of a financial review. uh the way that you account for BCA is a little bit complicated because the grants are in there and the capital outlays in there. So for in this little chart I've tried to separate them just to look at uh revenues and expenses related to the building. uh on that basis the building is covering uh about was 30 uh about 24% in fiscal 24 and a little bit uh higher I think in in fiscal 25 but again because the grants are in there and the capital outlays in there it's still a little bit uh murky so we have more work to do to try and sort of pull apart those budgets a bit more in order to set financial targets moving forward there's a capital plan. I like the kind of the step-wise approach of reasonable investments each year moving forward. Uh some bigger than others. I'm I'm glad to hear that the one big one there, the concert hall expansion ID has been deferred mercifully because I I wouldn't recommend that you consider that anytime soon. Um now uh looking outside in the environment that you're operating uh I just want to call your attention to a few of the broader trends that we see in the sector today. Um and in fact we say that co accelerated a lot of things that are already happening in the arts and cultural sector. Um uh and what we're really seeing organizations do as a result is to really try to become the community living room. sort of gone of the ideas of a theater that just lights up on a Friday night at 7 o'clock for fancy people wearing their fancy clothes to go to a fancy performance. Now the idea of an art center is to be a 247 building, always open, always active, much more inclusive, much more connected to the life of the community. Part of that is partnering with educators, uh, schools and higher ed. We want to support passive as well as active participation. uh passive looking at a painting on a wall, active learning how to paint and art centers that can do both are in a much stronger position. Um because of the struggles of the nonprofit art sector, we really have to make sure that we can maintain a low cost of access. So we do everything we can to support and subsidize their access. And then the most important thing for these buildings is to respond to relevant economic and community development issues. what do you want BCA to do for the city of Bloomington and how can we do that? Um the market is uh very positive. There's a large population living nearby with the geo with the demographic and geodemographic characteristics that suggest a high propensity to participate. We bought this data that says how people within the market area are more or less likely than the average American to participate in certain kinds of programs. Many here have higher than average propensity to attend um and higher than average uh uh spending index scores. Um but we also are trying to bear in mind that sort of Bloomington is not homogeneous. This is a community with diversity and the community has set a goal of serving underrepresented communities uh across Bloomington. Um there is competition uh most notably you know looking north of Bloomington. So from where we are here and to the south and particularly to the west a more sort of open competitive region and that competition is both for performance spaces but also for places offering education programs active arts options for uh uh residents and visitors. So, as I mentioned, we did this big exercise of benchmarking BCA against comparable facilities as a monstrous uh spreadsheet with about 40 columns of different buildings. We were trying to find buildings with similar uh communities, similar overall facility side, similar ownership governance model, and the main theater capacity is always a real driver of performance. So, we were looking for buildings like that. Um, and we've we've been looking at various parts of the of the benchmarking group to answer particular questions. So, one thing I thought you might be interested is is this question of cost recovery. So, this is BCA against seven other buildings that are city-owned and city operated uh mostly in suburban uh communities um uh mostly with venues sort of comparable in size and what we observe here. But again, the budget here has got the grants in it and the capital outlays. So, it's a little bit apples to oranges, but it's still saying that your support of the overall operation is higher than these other markets. So, it's that we can say clearly. We've got more to do to kind of dig into this and sort of parse it and explain it a little bit more, but that much is clear. So uh all of that analysis led us to this the to do our SWAT strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. So strengths I've spoken of great facilities, the community loves it, good condition, good staff, seen as a community asset and amenity, good governance model, and the grant program really does provide vital support. The weaknesses are really about uh the calendar and about all the pushes and pulls on the calendar coming from the city and the different users. Uh needing to get better use of some of the spaces and improve the public element of some of the other spaces. Um uh and trying to sort all of that out in ways that respond to the broader goals of the city opportunities. So I can get there. Um we see there's an opportunity to grow education and outreach. This is something we're seeing across the country these days. Um we think there's an opportunity to um revise the way that you have these agreements with the RAOS to make them a bit more flexible and dynamic to really engage more directly with parks and wreck as an educational programmer. Push market rate rentals which is different than the subsidized rentals for the nonprofit groups. pursue a better balance of public use days versus sort of days that are just for performance or for rehearsals. Increase the utilization of other spaces. And we've also introduced this idea that we would encourage you to think about other locations offsite where you might be able to move some of the things that make more sense offsite like industrial arts programs, ceramics, metal work, sculpture, uh digital media arts, and then production offices for theater. Finally, threats uh this we've this tension around the sort of the city's sort of hunger and appetite for space and trying to retain sort of spaces for BCA that make sure that the city gets what it wants and BCA can still continue to function as it functions and then dealing with sort of emerging competition both from theaters and arts educators. So that work has led us to these sort of nine directions that will provide be the basis for the rest of our work. uh optimize utilization as I've talked about, improve cost recovery expectations and goals. Let's work on these agreements with the city and the partnered arts organizations. Let's be very intentionable about equitable access to facilities and other kinds of support. Let's sort out how and by whom key functions are delivered. Clarify policies for city department use of BCA. look for other uh sustainable funding sources, grant sponsorships and partnerships. Uh set multi-year cost recovery objectives and whatever we do make sure that BCA remains a vital cornerstone in the state's art ecosystem. So my final slide is just to show you the next steps. Um with Ian and the senior management team, we've sort of mapped out our work for the next uh four to five months. Um we will be working more with city staff. We will re-engage with park. Um and really the key next rounds of work are with the arts organizations working with them on these issues of uh utilization, access, service delivery. We'll build the financial performer that includes new assumptions about cost recovery and we'll provide you with some targets to me and measures so that you can track how BCA is doing in the years to come. So, with that, I'll stop and look forward to your questions and comments. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Webb. Uh, interesting stuff and a lot to to consider there, a lot to chew on. Um, just a couple questions that I had specifically and then I'll ask the council if he had uh you you had a a slide that showed market impact and it was a slide of the greater Twin Cities area and that the red line all around it. Does that indicate the the the reach of the people who have attended events here? >> So, um, we've had a hard time getting better data. I would have liked to mapped more specifically the audience data from various groups. We haven't been able to get access to that >> yet. Typically, we in for projects like this, we look at usually a 30 minute drive time as being a a pretty reasonable market area definition for a place like >> Okay. So that isn't showing it. It isn't representing area codes or zip codes of people who have come to to to performances. >> Right. >> Okay. Uh the second question I have uh in the slide with comparable facilities uh as I look at these and it's interesting. So the total operating expense for for Bloomington Center for the Arts is is lower from a square footage standpoint. for example, for the for Lakewood, Colorado, and um you know, the for the for the Kerry Theater in in North Carolina, a larger square footage, but a considerably smaller total operating expense. And I'm just trying to put that all together in terms of how that works. >> Um I I think it has a lot to do with staffing. This building has historically been very understaffed. uh we're now back up to a complement of three, but many of these other buildings have staffs that are seven, 10, often 15 people because those people are doing the work that your partners are doing now. They are running education programs. They run full-time box office operations. They have internal food and beverage operations. They run a presenting program where you're bringing touring artists and entertainment. So, I think more than anything else, it's about uh staff count. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you. That makes sense. Council questions on this. Council member Dellesandro. >> Uh thank you. Uh thanks, Mr. Webb. Nice to meet you. Appreciate you being here. Um so, you mentioned uh you mentioned that the Schneider Theater um has a a fairly um extensive amount of what you would call closed door time. Um that seems typical to me. I don't know how you get around working in a single theater where you don't have sets that are up for rehearsals and lighting that's situated and all that kind of stuff to be more modular to take it down would be much more expensive I would think. So can you explain why that's a downside as opposed to an cost of doing business if you will when you're running a theater? >> Right. So I'll make several comments about that. First of all, uh it is not dramatically different than other theaters. So other theaters are like this. So for a when you have a producing musical theater group as the dominant user when they need weeks of rehearsal time, they need time days to load in, they need days to load out. So I I don't want to suggest that it is sort of crazy wrong and bad. Um, but I do think that there that there are marginal improvements that are possible and I do think that those marginal improvements are important because every day that you can open this venue up to other users uh allows you to appro to deal with issues of access in your community that you're not currently able to deal with particularly in that space. So even if we could work on come up with some great new ways to set up particular groups to go backto back and like for example we were talking today about maybe we could get the users that need the shell to be sort of backtoback users so you could cut down on a a day it takes to take the shell the orchestra shell down and another day it takes to put it back up. Maybe there are some ways we could make some incremental improvements to increase the number of performance days and also increase the number of days available to renters who aren't currently able to access the space. >> Uh that that totally makes sense to me. We're not talking about we're talking about optimization of of um of time management and and and space management. We're not talking about an an inherent issue of operating a theater, in other words, because I would think that that's a fairly typical problem for a theater. >> Yes. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that. Um the the I didn't see anything in I know we're not at the point where you're talking to this specifically, but um I I mean I certainly would agree with you that the arts education studios are not leveraged as well as they could be. Um, can you kind of do d dovetailing on the mayor's question, can you talk about the positives and negatives associated with um like a bunch of cityrun stuff [snorts] versus partnering with outside organizations to do this work? Um, we oftent times I mean for example we outsourced to you this particular event because we were not good at it. Correct. I don't want to take on something that we're not good at and then not do as good a job at it. Right? These organizations, whether they're the REOs, the the Bloom folks, or somebody else, um their competency is in this particular area. And so the the open question I have is as we think about you mentioning staff being lower, staff is lower because we're leveraging these partner organizations. We tend to like that around here. I mean that's one of the movements we're making in other places to try to partner. Um what is what is where are you looking to do those like where when you see the trade-offs there what are you looking to try to optimize for us in your further analysis? >> Right. So this is the work we're going to do now and I would say that our first choice would always be if we can find a local partner to deliver a program that we want delivered that's where we're going to go first. >> Okay. >> If if we do not find good part I'm sorry I keep forgetting to say council member. That's okay. No worries. [laughter] >> Sorry. >> We're in study mode. >> Okay. Sorry. >> Call me Lona if you want. It doesn't bother me. >> Council member. So, first choice is partners, partners, partners, partners. Uh but if we if we see a program opportunities for which no partners exist, then we have to look for other options and opportunities which may involve. So, a partnership would be let let's retain uh a community music school that is maybe based in Minneapolis or or maybe even run a an RFP process to bring a music education program here and we see who responds to that and because I bet there's some great ones up the road that might be prepared to come and run an afterchool weekend summer music camp program here. So let's try that. But if we don't get a good response, then the next option is again it's hiring. It's sort of contracting with musicians and music educators to run those programs on your behalf. So we're never going to ask Ian or you to teach a trombone class. >> Awesome. >> The the issue is just do we find an >> organ me? No, I'm just just kidding. >> Right. Do we do we can we retain a music education organization to run a program or do we need to retain music educators and build a program around them? >> Very good. I I understand the the qualification there and I appreciate that. Then then you know then the other I guess the last consideration that I would make is in your notes about the the 200 two two 2.5 million or so annually that the the surrounding area um you know that we get generally speaking from virtue of the programming that here is here today. um to to me you know is that is that in you know when we think about that as the public good associated with being a municipal facility. Um how are you looking at the cost recovery mechanics for the public good as it relates to this? I say that only because I I we in certain places within the parks department especially, we talk a lot about cost recovery and we talk about enterprise accounts and wanting to be cost neutral better or better. But in this particular scenario, I personally will not be super interested in profits over people when it comes to when it comes to arts, right? And so I think about the public good and these numbers indicate there is a public good associated with maintaining a a vibrant arts culture. I'm just curious how you're thinking about bringing that to us in terms of the offset of you know if we could if we can improve on the 64% or whatever and get to 80% okay but we don't necessarily need to go to 100% because the downside to that might be that this public good that's in front of you here would go down as well. So how do you think about managing that balance? >> Yes, great council member great question. Um, and there's there's a little bit more data that we can collect and tie that data to these investments and cost recovery goals. But the problem with these buildings is that so many of the benefits and impacts are so much harder to quantify and are so much more about building a sense of place and driving quality of life and improving uh social cohesion and reducing uh you know all these things that are just harder for us to put data to. What we can do is put stories to them based on what we've seen happen in other places that do similar things. But what we also want to try to do is set some of these measures and targets for you around the operation of the building that aren't tied to such limiting things as how much audiences spend. So, we've we've and it's the hardest part of doing this work is we've got to come up with a broader set of ways to measure progress without getting too bogged down in the numbers because the numbers just aren't adequate to describe the value that these buildings bring. >> Okay. I appreciate that you have that same context in mind. So, I appreciate that. Um, I have some comments uh on direction uh after we get done with questions, Mr. Mayor. If if you want me to hold for that. >> One or two. Hold on. Let's let everybody get their questions out. >> Very good. Other questions, council? >> And it might be appropriate time for you to make comments, council member Dallas. >> Well, I don't know if you were looking for comment or like um thoughtful thoughtful considerations from the I just in terms of like applying for directions. So, a couple things I I think consolidating the admin functions and trying to get um those I I think that actually would benefit the organization. So, I know we have like the ballet has the the theater has an admin office over here and artistry has some office over here and some people are upstairs and all. I like the idea of consolidating that and trying to think about that as a as a a way to not only in engender some some goodwill across those groups and some shared value to the facilities and other things like that, but it also would open up some space. I think uh the second thing I would say is I definitely would like to see more of the education facilities. Um, you know, I I don't necessarily I mean, I understand that again the need for rent uh to be paid maybe as a way to do some cost recovery, but you know, to your point, partners who are charging a fee for a class of which we get some benefit would be just as that's a revshare concept that I think is just as as meaningful um in lie of rent um if you will um as long as to your point we can kind of get there. And then thirdly, you know, Mr. Mayor, you've had the idea of some kind of a cafe in the city in the center for the arts for a long time and I'd love for us to try to make that happen as part of what we're doing here. Um, so those are kind of my three thoughts. The last thing I would say is, you know, I I what we haven't really talked about is how some of the things that you guys are trying to fit into the BCA, which are not specifically BCA like, like for example, voting, um, that happen temporarily once in a while, um, you know, can we can we go across the street with those? like I mean we have these three buildings across the street that you know I I just there there are choices that we have right and so I'm just hoping that those are all on the table as you do your considerations. Thanks. Thank you, Council Member. Council member Revis, >> it's quick. I'm I'm just wondering um if you can explain to me how you arrived to the to and what method methodology did you use to arrive to the numbers that you provide as as as a benefit to the businesses around town. Um you um uh in this um graph you have a a a revenue of two million plus million two and a half million dollars, right? So how did you arrive to those numbers when you don't have the information of where the people come from >> and all of that? >> Yeah. So, the source of those numbers is from an organization called Americans for the Arts, which is a Washington-based service organization for uh the for the arts and cultural sectors. And every three years they publish data on that say how much people spend in all of these categories in communities of different sizes. So these this is how much per capita people spend when they go to a performance in a community of a population close to Bloomington size. So we're we are that we're close based on the size of community. We could be more customized if we did more primary research to local businesses, but that's a I think a whole broader economic impact piece that you'll do some other way. So in other words, these numbers are just um they're not real numbers. It's just an approximate. >> Communities of your size, audiences and communities of your size spend this much. >> And Council Member Rivas, we are also um we are in the process of updating a Bloomington specific economic impact report that the county does put out every few years. They put one out for the entire county and the last one that was Bloomington specific showed an economic impact of about $12 million. Uh so I I had similar questions about this when we were conferring on it and I think that that Henipin County data is very specific and will be very very telling moving forward. >> And and to be clear that the Henipin County data doesn't isn't just people coming to Bloomington Center for the Arts. That's the arts impact throughout the city of Bloomington. >> Correct. And the the difference here would be this is the economic impact of BCA specifically as a subset of that. >> Right. >> Council member Lman. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um and certainly I had some questions that I had already submitted earlier and I don't I don't want to we're tight on time tonight so I want to be be cognant of that. One of the things I did think was interesting was that you had identified is that we don't have any emission. Uh, and that is uh very interesting to me because if you don't have a mission, you have no idea where you're going at all. You're just kind of out here just doing all these things. And uh uh you know, and so, you know, I was I was looking at the uh the emerging directions and I I thought for sure I'd see on there, you know, draft up a mission and a vision statement, but I don't think I saw that on there. I know you spoke to it right >> briefly, but uh but that would be my comment is that I would kind of make that key to whatever we're doing as we kind of move forward. I assume that's what we're going to do, but I since I didn't see it written down specifically, that was uh you know, one of the things that I you know, from from a comments perspective, maybe you want to it seems like you want to say something about it. >> No, no, council member. Thank you. Good comment. and we were working on those today and we'll keep working on those in the months to come >> as I uh you know I mean the arts are such an important part of you know of our of our community and and it's uh it's great to have this dialogue and this opportunity about this. One of the concerns that I I've had and you know we had a long conversation about this but I will not detail that all tonight [laughter] is uh and it kind of mayor kind of goes back to that idea of the mission statement. you know, we've kind of started these organizations and that that kind of you know, you'll see the questions I have there. But, uh, my concern is that when we start new organizations without understanding what the plan is for the existing ones, we uh, get ourselves in a trick bag sometimes where now we are, you know, trying to fund the new organizations with the old money and these old organizations are dying and then sometimes we're re recreating the same thing that we did before. And that's one of the concerns I have from an arts perspective. Uh that we're we're careful about, you know, what, you know, that mission and how we're going to kind of undo that or unwind that. I just want to make sure that we're real careful about how we uh how we do that. Um you know, I look at uh artistry as being in a sense an anchor to uh a lot of the work that we do here. But I the question I always ask myself is does this anchor need to necessarily be in this building? That's kind of a you know a question that I [snorts] have. Is this the best ideal place for that organization to to live long term if it's going to be viable? Just kind of a question I have as as a council member. Um um and there's more that goes with that and I know you know um but I'm not going to delve too deep deep into this. The last thing that I would say then is that you know I I remember going to a public finance uh uh conference and uh you know ers and one of the main topic matters was uh art and the the use of creative uh placemaking and art in a in a community and I got a chance to see that when I was in Pittsburgh and how that changed that city and uh and so I don't really look at you know we have in here we want to do cost recoveries and all this and this is where I agree with my my colleague down here, um, Council Member Delisandreo, uh, about this idea that, you know, it's it's a there's a public good to it. But I I I take it one step further. I think it's more like an economic development that we're doing. We're we're developing our our community, and it's hard to uh be able to uh justify some of those things or to be able to do that. And and we've got the evidence is out there in terms of the things that we've done. uh you know, you look at the stuff we're doing on Wednesday nights, uh out here, uh our you know, our our you know, just all of the the different things we do um that that bring those things together. There there's real revenues that are being generated there. Um that there's just absolutely no disputing that at all. Absolutely just no way. And we've tried to put that in our in our art stuff, too. I just I I think this is the right discussion and and decision-m, but I would caution us to to try to use what we did for the community center, which we're going to talk about next, to have that type of model. I think that's just the wrong way to to kind of go and move forward. So, that's all I have. Thank you, council member. Anything additional, council? Well, as I look at your next steps, I see uh good next steps to engage different folks. We have heard and I have heard from a number of different folks from the residents arts organizations and I'm I'm just going to trust that they're going to be involved deeply in this conversation as you move forward and and the the history and all that they bring to this building and to this community are certainly taken into account as you have those conversations with them and give them the weight that they I think deserve because they really are an important part of this uh important part of this equation. So if that's it, thank you so very much. Thank you. Thank you, council. >> Council, I'm looking at the old clock on the wall and it's already 8:15. We've got three pretty sizable uh items still to cover tonight. So, I would ask you to keep that in mind and I would ask staff to keep that in mind as well as we go through these. I will call item 5.2 tonight. This is a an update on the 50 plus programming and the proforma for the community health and wellness center. Good evening and welcome. >> Um, mayor, council, uh, my name is Matt Cowwell. I am a recreation supervisor with the parks and recreation department. On April 18th, you asked for an update in regards to um, senior programming, the boutique, uh, the transition from Creekide to Logan Lodge, as well as um, an update on the proforma for the community health and wellness center. So, I'm going to start on the senior programming side of things and then Dakota will follow up with an update on the proforma for the community health and wellness center. On May 30th, 2025, Creekide held its final day of programming and closed after serving as the senior activity center in Bloomington for over 50 years. The majority of programs have transitioned to the interim uh location, Logan Lodge, which opened two weeks later on June 16th. 95% of Creekide programs were transitioned to either Logan Lodge, uh, Bloomington Center for the Arts, or a third-party location. Programs that were not able to be transitioned were relocated through creative partnerships. Um, for example, the wood shop was relocated to the Eden Prairie Senior Center. Um, the Rock Shop was relocated to a nonprofit maker space called Twin Cities Maker. And both of these partnerships offer discounted memberships to Creekide participants. The boutique, which was formerly housed at Creekide, uh offers senior artisans the opportunity to sell handcrafted items. After the closure of Creekide, the boutique moved uh over to Civic Plaza and operates out of a mobile resale cart. As you can see, when we compare sales from December of 2024 uh from Creekide to December of 2025 at Civic Plaza, you can see that sales are down. Um, so to uh to combat this, we have been scheduling the boutique to appear at city events where it has not been featured before in the past. Um, for example, the summer farmers markets and the uh home fair. Um, upon opening, the boutique will move into the community health and wellness center where uh it'll have a prominent location near the front entrance. And with an estimated 3,000 guests per day, we're hoping that the the increased traffic will uh lead to increased sales for our senior artisans. Um here you'll see a small selection of card groups, recreation, and education programs. Um so we compared average daily attendance from March of 2025 at Creekide to March of 2026 at Logan Lodge. And while there was a small percentage of our programs that have seen decreased attendance, in general, we have seen attendance numbers either remain steady or actually increase since the transition. um staff and more importantly our participants feel that the transition has gone very smoothly and everybody is feeling very comfortable in their their new home. Um with that being said, our current setting does have some limitations with the biggest one being space. So we are very uh much looking forward to moving to the community health and wellness center and um the the increased space and amenities will give us lots of new opportunities for um fun and exciting uh new senior programs that we have planned. And with that, I will pass it off to Dakota. >> Thank you, Mr. Cowwell. >> Thank you, Matt. Good evening, mayor, council members, city leadership. Uh, as Matt mentioned, uh, we last updated you on the 13th of April. At that time, we were still determining the impacts of the third gym uh, and what that would mean for the proform. So we have committed to providing you an update on the proform at each phase and that was the update on the 100% construction documents. Uh we have now figured out uh and this is not meant to be suspenseful but we have now figured out that adding that third gym back in and making some other adjustments I would argue that even making it a bit more conservative. So, we've figured out more of our operational details, the layout, refined the spaces, brought all of that into the proforma, and then pulled things back out and adjusted for a phased ramp up. So, that's what you're seeing here. Back in October of 2025, we updated you on the proform last. You will see slight variations from year to year, but we were shooting for that 90% cost recovery in year 1, the first full year of operation. So, you're looking at 2028 as the first year there, and then all the way up to above 106% cost recovery by the fifth year in operation. In the interest of being brief, I will open it up to questions. >> Well, thank you. That's uh that's impressive. I I How many facilities of this size are able to turn around that quickly? >> Very few that I'm aware of. >> Like I said, we feel confident in in the conservative nature and that we added all of these elements in naming and sponsorship large scale events that will bring in larger revenues and then brought those back out for the first year in operation and continue to add them back in and ramp them up. as the facility is open, you're able to identify those amenities, see them in person, touch them, feel them, that type of thing. >> Council questions. Council member Dalisandro. >> Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Uh, yeah, thank you for this. I very much appreciated. I know I put you on the spot on the 18th, so thank you for turning this around so quickly. I did have one quick question. Um, it probably is for Matt if that's okay. I apologize. Um uh you mentioned that you're having some space challenges right now in Logan Lodge. Um can you just remind us the space comparisons like what what you're currently working with right now in terms of square footage give or take and what you're going to have in terms of square footage give or take in the community health and wellness center so we just understand how how that's improving for folks. >> Sure. Um mayor council member Dellesandro. Uh so currently at Logan Lodge, we are operating out of four um programmable spaces. Um two of them being very very small and usually hosting small groups of four to six people. Um moving into the community health and wellness center, we will have six spaces for us. Um and that's not including the party rooms and and fitness studios and other things like that. So um it will give us a lot of new opportunity for special events you know all the all the different kinds of things we we are limited to now. >> Sure. Okay. Follow up on that then. Thank you very much. Um did do we have consideration in this proforma then for the personnel services associated with kind of the modular nature of the civ of the the community center. meaning, you know, asking a bunch of 80-year-old folks to move their stuff around is not probably in our best interest, nor theirs. What are we doing in terms of staffing planning for, you know, when we have to move uh move the quilters out because the seers are coming in or we move the quilters out because the bridge folks are coming in. How how are we how are we thinking about that as it relates to the personnel associated with this proform? >> That's a great question. Thank you, Council Member Delisandre. Uh so Matt feel free to chime in if I miss anything but one of the things we've really thought about and something worth pointing out is that all of the personnel for the facility um are included in this proforma. So salaries are included here as well and we will have the support to be able to do those room changeovers things like that. to Matt's earlier uh statement about the spaces that are available. We really are thinking of senior programming taking up a lot of time during the normal business hours where maybe events and rentals aren't as likely to take place. So scheduling that in such a way that it's conducive to an efficient operation for multi-use spaces as well as yes, the short answer to your question is we will have staff that are able to manage those room changeovers. >> Okay, that's great. Um Mr. Mayor, that was one of the top conversation topics at our volunteer appreciation event the other day, so I wanted to be sure I addressed it. Thanks very much. >> Thank you, council member. Actually, the top conversation from I heard from at least two tables that they liked um they like the lodge so much they just wanted to stay there. >> We have heard that a fair amount. Yes, >> thank you for bringing that up. One other thing that I'll mention is that Matt has initiated some regular updates uh for participants over at the Logan Lodge and that is a register for updates. So, we're doing one at the end of May to keep them up to speed. At the last one, we got some really great feedback that we were able to take back to the architects and make sure there were appropriate electrical outlets for the quilters, that type of thing. So, those are beneficial for both parties. I I will say on that topic and kind of on topic here, I appreciate the outreach and communication that you have done for the folks at Logan Lodge. I think to get out in front of a lot of these questions to be accessible to them, just to be, you know, a friendly face that they can talk to and and if they have concerns or or compliments, they know who to talk to and give them to. So, appreciate what you've done over there and the connections that you've made with a lot of these folks because it's obvious and what the things that I hear from them about you. So well done for that. So >> thank you. >> Y others council. >> All right. Well, very good. >> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for the information. >> Our next items on the agenda, council, are all about parking. Item 5.2 is a study item regarding our parking supply. And we're going to welcome Ms. OD back to the podium. Thank you. All right. So, I am here uh thank you, mayor. I'm here to kick off a discussion, a study item on our off- streetet uh parking requirements. [snorts] So this project um was identified in the planning commission uh 2026 work plan. Um our standards were created decades ago and conditions have changed significantly since then. Um we're also seeing consistent use um of our reductions and flexibility tool to tools by developers which suggests that our base standards uh may not always reflect actual demand. Um, and at the same time, parking has real costs both financially and environ environmentally, which I will touch on um, in a little bit. But basically, the goals of this project is to evaluate um, our current off- streetet parking requirements. And then um, with most projects, this is a chance for us to compare our standards with other pure cities. And then finally, the goal is to um, identify opportunities to rightsize our standards. Uh so parking in general parking requirements were largely adopted um across the country in the mid 20th century. Um and um how they came up with these numbers was looking at other cities codes and uh sometimes it uh looked at peak demand situations with limited consideration for like transit and other factors. Um so um based on kind of my research I found that the earliest um Bloomington parking standard was adopted in 1958 with only like six um use categories. And over time um the city has adopted more specific um parking requirements for like um health clubs, office, retail and the like. [snorts] So um parking has a huge impacts and I'll go through um some of these. So the first is that constructing parking is really expensive. Based on my research, a surface stall can cost anywhere from $5 to $10,000 and a structured uh parking stall can cost anywhere from $25 to $50,000. And this can include activities such as excavation, storm water management materials, snow removal, and structural requirements if necessary. And these costs get passed down to um residents in the form of higher rents and then in uh to businesses and just the goods and services that we consume regardless if we use the parking or not. And then there's opportunity costs which is essentially the value of what could exist if it weren't used for parking. So uh Bloomington is fully built out. So what could take the space um of um a parking lot could be used for housing, retail, public amen amenity space, etc. Um and just to note that building vertical is often um not feasible for um in most situations due to its high cost. And then there's the heat island effect um which in in essence uh the asphalt absorbs heat which means that areas with ex extensive parking coverage stays warmer and this causes causes households to use more energy um as they rely on AC. And then obviously um heat can have um effects on your health as well. And then there's the storm water runoff um impacts. excessive impervious surface generates high volumes of runoff and this runoff can carry uh pollutants and cause localized flooding. Um and then lastly, ice um as there's more impervious surface that means that there's more um salt that's needed to treat the ice which um as we all know has impacts um and permanent damage to aquatic life. Um [snorts] so as I mentioned before parking code has not been evaluated in decades but so much has changed since then since that time there's um more telework since the co pandemic um online shopping smaller household size and then Bloomington is fully built out and then um as you know since you've seen a lot of these projects come through um city council larger development projects have received parking deviations and then 100% of our um multif family projects through the OO have utilized um parking incentives which begs the question if our standards are um too high if um really everyone's using that incentive. [snorts] Um and so we do have existing uh measures in our city code um that developers can use. Um I've highlighted or bolded the frequently used so proof of parking plan development and then the OO incentive. Um these are generally um effective and we kind of evaluate these on a case- by case basis. And then uh I did survey other cities um and how we kind of compare in our um uh code requirements. So we do fall on the higher end for uh retail um hotel uh senior housing warehouse and then kind of more in the middle range for multifamily and then kind of on the lower end um for like office standards but a lot of other cities haven't um evaluated their office standards since the pandemic. So that's worth noting. So what are the opportunities in reducing parking? Um it supports redevelopment by um uh underutilized parking lots can be converted into housing, open gathering space, retail shops or cafes. These projects can enhance walkability and sponsor growth. Um and unused parking lots don't um have any kind of economic return. >> [snorts] >> It also um lowers the cost burden on developers to construct an over supply of parking. So developers could offset this cost and focus it toward uh other things. It also allows for more flexible site design. So they could um use this space for landscaping, gathering spaces, public art, etc. Um which attracts customers, residents, and visitors. And then lastly, the obvious environmental benefits um for storm water and um just improved health uh outcomes. [clears throat] So with every opportunity comes potential risks and challenges. Uh one of the potential risks is that um parking demand is not always evenly distributed. And so, um, in certain areas there could be, um, demand could exceed our supply and if parking isn't available or it's not convenient, um, customers may turn away. Um, and then also there's the spillover effect. Drivers may seek out available space onto adjacent properties. And then there's just the market uncertainty. Um, what does the future hold? Um with changing work patterns and customer preferences, the market is uncertain and hard to predict sometimes. Um and then just with the rise of electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, everything is constantly changing. So it's um important to plan for flexibility. And then just with reducing parking requirements, it requires to um be flexible and improve alternative transportation including like bike infrastructure, transit access, etc. um reducing parking isn't um typically uh one-sided. It's kind of multi-tered um uh project. So with that, I have some policy options. Um so from the left side of the screen is more of a low intervention, no impact, and then the middle is medium impact with um the far right side is higher intervention, um higher impact. And I'll go through these one at a time. So the first option is no change. Um pretty self-explanatory there. Um pros of that is it's predictable for our developers, ensures parking availability and greater convenience. And then the um caveats of that is it may limit infill and redevelopment opportunities and the environmental and financial costs with that. And then the second option is reducing parking minimums in specific areas. So like our development districts or commercial nodes. Um and this is one of uh staff's recommendations which I'll get into in a bit. But basically the pros of this is it preserves parking where it's needed most and then supports redevelopment in key areas and ensures that there's um parking available. And then the cons of that is that it just requires additional staff analysis to determine what's or where it's appropriate. And then the third option is to rightsize the um code requirements just across all land uses. And this is kind of a moderate um change like 20 20% or below um uh change in parking requirements. And this is just like a snapshot from exhibit A in the staff report. Um and the pros of right sizing is it reduces development costs, supports infill development, but it also um may modestly increase demand for on street um parking during peak periods. And this is also um part of uh staff's recommendation as well. And then the fourth option is implementing parking maximums. And establishing a parking maximum is basically creating like a ceiling or a cap. Uh the pros of this is it limits too much parking and maximizes land use efficiency. But on the flip side, it reduces um flexibility for certain uses. So if you think of like a medical office, for example, sometimes has um more parking um than uh the minimum. And so being flexible for certain types of uses and not setting that maximum too low. Um and then there's potential concerns from businesses about not having um enough parking available for them. And then lastly, option five is removing minimums altogether. Basically letting developers in the market deter to determine what's appropriate. Uh pros of this is it maximizes flexibility, supports redevelopment, um but it also has a potential for under supply and more um parking spillover likely. So um staff kind of came up with um the middle approach basically combining the targeted adjustment and right sizing into kind of one so basically um right sizing across the co across all land uses but also being more aggressive kind of in our um commercial um nodes or development districts. Um and then some of our planning commissioners also um agreed while there were some uh like two or three commissioners that kind of leaned more on the higher intervention side. Um but with that I'm going to kind of open the door for discussion and ask which of these approaches do you recommend? And um just to note cuz this is maybe a little confusing on the slide is that you can pursue multiple options together. So while kind of these um the medium impact and the higher impact are grouped together, you could um kind of go with like four on its own or you could combine excuse me [clears throat] combine four and five uh together um and similar with two and three. Um so with that I will open Open the door. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thoughts, council, council member Nelson. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Appreciate the report here. Um, I think you did a very good job. I'd support two and three. Um, the one I'm least likely to support is four. Don't know why we need to get involved in the marketplace in that way. you know, if the business determines that it needs no more parking, >> okay, you know, who am I to say? >> You know, theoretically, you know, five, but I just I don't think we're ready. I like the targeted approach. I think putting it at our commercial nodes where we're trying to encourage development to help spur some projects there, I think is the right way to go for us right now. We can always expand it later if we need to. >> Thank you, council member. Council member Dellesandro. >> Yeah, I I would agree with everything that um Council Member Nelson said. The only thing I've been wanting to see us content do, and it's not um I don't know if I've ever put it in the context of parking before, but um you mentioned the the downside of uh you know the the downside of of parking in it uh is less efficient in terms of its use. It's got the environmental impacts. We don't we don't really offer incentiv doing doing development to help us with our alternative transportation plans. We don't really do that. Even the opportunity housing ordinance doesn't have anything like that in it, right? And so, um, and I get that that's for affordability, but I've talked a lot about the notion of of something similar to the OO, but with a sustainability mindset, right? And and we've not really pursued that. But um you know as we think about that the I don't have a problem with the idea of somebody saying hey I'd like to go with less parking than than what I would normally do because I'd like to offset that by helping you with your alternative transportation needs or I'd like to build a trail around my place or like I'd like to connect this to that and or whatever. So you know I you know ways to incentivize that um is you know these this is absolutely fine with me in terms of a plan. Um I think it's a good step in the right direction. I think you we could go forward and actually incentivize the behavior we're looking for, which is smaller footprint on the parking side and more alternative transportation. Could we figure out a way to do that? Thanks, >> Council Member Robertson. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I also just wanted to thank thank excuse me, everyone for their time. I really appreciate all the information that you're bringing forth. Um, I know when I had uh myself and and another council member had talked to staff about it, I was really interested in hearing about what other cities had done. Um, and so I really appreciate all the information that you all have provided. Um, and just to give my um, feedback, I think I would agree with what Council Member Nelson and Council Member Dolesandre are saying. Um, especially for myself, I would really support option two. Um, I recognize that Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duth all have done away with um minimums and as and instead have put in maximums. Right. And I I think to council member Nelson's point, I don't know that Bloomington is quite there yet. I appreciate that we're kind of right behind those three um in terms of how big of a city we are, right? Um but I really like the more targeted approach. I think this is a good way to set us up for success instead of um not setting us up for success. So, thank you Uh, I would agree two and three makes sense. It's time to take a look at this again. However, we do this. It's time to take a look at this again. And I think to take a look at it with uh with some targets and using a scalpel as opposed to a sledgehammer makes a lot of sense. Council member Rivas, >> I agree to everything with the exception that I would like to I I guess if when we consider this in a more serious way, we would invite the public to participate in it, right? As long as we do that, I two and three sound the best. >> Yeah. No, this being a study item, this is the first time we're hearing about it and ultimately this if we make any changes, this would certainly be to go to a public hearing. >> Thank you. Yep. I think you've got your answer to that question. Uh >> yeah, that that is actually all that I had for questions. So if you have any other feedback or um questions or comments um otherwise I think I hear two and three is kind of the consensus. So >> yes, I I think so. And and I would concur with everybody. Thanks for doing this. I think this is long overdue and I'm glad that it made it on to the >> uh the work plan and I'm glad you guys are tackling it because it it definitely needs to happen. So, well done. Thank you. >> Cool. That is all I had. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Tada. >> Yeah. >> Before I call item 5.4, for council. I'm going to uh I'm going to make a motion that we extend our not to exceed time to what do you think, Mr. Walker? >> 9:15. Not to exceed 9:15. >> 8:30. >> Got a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> We've got a motion and a second on the uh to extend our adjournment time no later than 9:15. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. 6 item 5.4 on street parking overview and potential policy changes. Amy Marone, good evening and welcome. >> Good evening council. Um I'm going to get us started on this conversation. Kirk Roberts is going to bring up the second half and we'll welcome a good conversation. So we thought it was a good time to come to you and just have a big old parking discussion. as long as we're thinking about the the on the private property parking um for the past several years we've identified some um gaps or issues with our existing public on street parking policy um that has provided some limitations. So the current policy is is very heavily driven by the pref preference of adjacent properties or adjacent residents and so that has led to some issues where there that may not be making the best use of the public rightway. So that's just to kind of kick off our discussion. So um we'll talk a little bit about the historical approach, kind of how we got here right now with our parking restrictions. Um go through our current parking policy, talk about some benefits of public on street parking, talk about some challenges of public on street parking. Um why are we coming to you tonight as policy makers to to consider a change? Um we're not going to be getting into the details exactly of what those changes would be, but we just want to have that conversation with you and see what um the appetite of the council is for changes. Um a little bit more we'll talk about um the results of kind of some of the side effects that we see of additional parking restrictions and then um the discussion. So from a historical approach, we were looking through to figure out how exactly did we get here with these big wide streets and quite a bit of posted parking restrictions. And it was pretty clearly established. You know, we found this document from the 70s that um it was definitely a a value and a a goal as the city was developed to have wide open streets. um that may not match and align with the current with the goals and vision of the city now, but it was pretty it was pretty intentional. And you can see there's a lot of statements in there about um people do not want to see cars parked um that it's it might be inconvenient to not have on street parking, but that there's benefits to that that that should not be underestimated. So, that just kind of sets the stage of where we how we got here. And since then, we've had a bit of a hands-off approach on the posted parking restrictions. So, um I've been working with public on street parking for about 20 years. And while we've spent a lot of time managing and dealing with parking issues, um we we really from our policies, we you know, it is very much um [snorts] at the whatever the adjacent property owner. So, both of all of our policies have led towards um being just kind of if it's not a safety problem to have parking allowed, then we leave it up to the adjacent properties. So, staff initiated changes really have focused only on safety problems. If there's safety problems from having parking allowed or if we have dedicated bike lanes or bike facilities where the conflict between parked vehicles and bicycles would be a safety problem. So this is just a quick reminder of what the parking policy is currently. It was updated in 2013 and that simplified it, but it is still not simple. So um right now um resident would contact this contact city staff. We would talk through the options first identify if there's a safety problem. They would submit a petition just to demonstrate that there's resident support in the neighborhood for a change. Um that submit it to the city. Then we send out surveys and we go through this whole process. Ultimately the final decision lies with the city council either by consensus of the neighbors and then we bring it bring through the parking map at the end of the year for an official adoption or if there is not a consensus with the neighborhood which you'll see there's usually not a consensus with the neighborhood. It does come to the council for a public hearing. All right. So, that was just to provide an overview of what we do right now. And there's really no opportunity if we want to initiate um parking in an area where there's a private properties, but there may be a better use of of the roadway for other parking. So, all right. Um some of the benefits that can be provided with public on street parking. Um there is a traffic calming benefit to to parking on the street. Um we the city was part of a a local road research board study that we were actually looking to see what the impacts were of hosting playground signs. Great side effect. We found a a 10 mph reduction of driver speeds around parks when there's parked cars versus when there's not. So, um, providing on street parking can provide some overflow parking benefits. A lot of these are kind of redundant of what Liz ODay just talked about from the the private perspective as well. Um, store modern management benefits of not overbuilding parking on private property and then um, fully utilizing the public infrastructure streets. So, I don't want to downplay the challenges. There are definitely challenges with that come along with with public on street parking as well. So, um sometimes you have some sighteline limitations if people are parking too close to intersections or crosswalks. Um space allocation. So, a most of our local roadways do not have sidewalks. So, we're already sharing the use of that space with the traveling vehicles and bikes and pedestrians in a shared shared space. Um, residents have a very strong sense of ownership of that place in front of their boulevard. Um, I think everybody h has a bit of a feeling of that and understanding. Um, and and that can be a benefit because we we want people to do a great job maintaining their boulevard as well. So, um, and then street plowing and maintenance. I think this is a a great picture, but um when a snow emergency is declared, you have to move your cars and get off the street until it's plowed curb to curb. We typically have like three to four snow emergencies declared, but we have like upwards of 25 plow events. So there it's not always an effect that you have to get off the street when there's snow. All right, I'm gonna have Mr. Roberts come up. Mr. Mayor, council members. So, a couple of reasons that we're thinking about some policy changes that we wanted the council to weigh in on. Um, we've got a whole lot of parking restrictions around our parks, trail heads, and other public facilities. Uh, we have them also quite frequently around multifamily housing. These are apartments, uh, town homes, things like that. Other parts of the city are places of assembly. And that's that broad category that fits our our um assembly uses like um the faith communities, religious assembly uses, um community centers and a whole broad things. There's there's often parking restrictions seen around those. Our industrial areas, there are a number of parking restrictions along most of our industrial areas. So, as the local road authority, we are tasked with managing that right of way. It's land that's set aside for for the public and and we try to maximize its use for the better public good and some of these current restrictions may not represent that. So that's why we're looking at some changes. I'm going to go through a couple scenarios that we see very frequently. Um this is DreadScott Fields. There's parking uh the parking is restricted around all of that field itself. It's a very large regional park. um it draws quite a crowd in the summertime and on the local streets parking is restricted. Bloomington Ferry and Old Shockby of course those are our collector arterial roads. We're not talking about parking restrictions on those. Those will stay because that needs to be used for transportation purposes. It's these local streets. Um seasonal demand at these facilities is significant. Um and it often sometimes exceeds the parking that's been built in the park and we needed a place for that overflow to go. One of our current policies, the way it's it's guided, when you restrict parking around the park like this, the demand doesn't change. It's still there. The programs, the activities, the wonderful things that we all enjoy during the summer are still there. And what this restriction does is it just pushes those cars further into the neighborhood away from those facilities. And we see this frequently. And then, of course, we have to build more parking in the park. And there's a song about that. I won't sing it for you. Last note, most of our local streets in in Bloomington are big enough to accommodate parking on one or both sides. Uh when we do get this surge, as the picture below shows, sometimes drivers take things into their own hands. They park where we really wouldn't like them to be anyway. Land use. Uh this is an older part of the city. Um and this was developed um far distant past. Transportation behavior changes over time. So, this might have been built to satisfy the demand at the time. And in most cases, it still meets current demand of the residents. Um, but here we've got an assembly use that is an older building. These are typical for, you know, the large events that we have, the weddings, the funerals, the the things that that um are very important to our community. And um parking's restricted. We get requests and we're very accommodating on this. If a homeowner or a apartment complex or assembly use requests parking, we go ahead and allow that for the the duration of their event. And we frequently receive those requests along this area here. Um getting allowing some on street parking where it's restricted right now keeps these areas vital. It keeps those facilities usable for their intended purpose. And then same situation here, restricting it as has been done. The parking demand doesn't change. It just pushes that further into those neighborhoods. And so we end up chasing these parking problems all throughout neighborhoods. Amy talked about speeds and this is a really good example that 10 mph speed reduction we get. uh the study that was done in right here in Bloomington that demonstrated that later studies have shown when you have people out there interacting in the right ofway people are attuned we look for other people we see other people that changes driving behavior dramatically so the best thing that we can do lowering speeds around parks is just allow people to park there in this case out on the west side Reynolds Parking is allowed on the north side of the park on 83rd Street it is fully restricted along the multifamily on the south side and we do see about a 5m mile an hour differential increased speeds where parking is restricted. That's in the summer months when people drive tend to drive the fastest. It's okay because the speed limit is 25 miles an hour. They're still within that realm, but slower is better in these neighborhoods. Access is another area I talked about trail heads and this is the end of Normandale. It's kind of a quiet part of the city here. Um parking was restricted. Um there's a access down through the river valley right here. Um parking has been restrict restricted for quite some time and you see this kind of restriction all along like the 9mm creek corridor. Even though there's limited access to the park, we still see those restrictions. So people can't just park their car and have a hike down in the park. Um, probably the most well-known one is 94th Street, uh, where it at Colorado Road, there's the access over the railroad tracks, the nice foot bridge across into Highland Park. Parking is entirely restricted. It's a very popular trail head access, and there's people park in the school parking lot because there's just strictly no on street parking available. So in this case, one of the things we see since this is sort of a quiet part of the city is people just park there anyway. Um and so it becomes essentially a neighborhood parking lot. And I didn't search for these pictures. These are just on Google Street View for the years I happen to be there. Um but you see this. So essentially we've taken the public use out of this and it's become just parking for the neighbors. And we do get parking requests. we receive a few a year from this particular neighborhood to do things like um a wedding reception or a piano recital, things like that. We allow that, we probably just turn this into just get rid of those restrictions altogether. And then the biggest issue is when any kind of policy or law is put in place that doesn't seem rational, people just start to disregard it. And here's where we see this in Bloomington. um and that any any rules um they have to seem like they make sense to people and a lot of our restrictions just don't seem to make sense to people and so we just see this disregard and then you know people call the police and now we're having these re interactions that we would just much rather avoid. So, um, to put cards on the table, um, staff recommendations. We are recommending at this point, um, we'd like to see a less restrictive approach to on street parking. In some cases, we would like to remove, uh, a lot of those restrictions except for those needed for safety and access around parks, trail heads, and public facilities. That makes sense. And we don't get into the maintenance issues we often get during the winter, the snow plowing, because most of our parks are pretty quiet in the winter months. We don't see the large sporting events and the youth sports and things like that. So, there's not a whole lot of adverse consequences for doing so. It makes sense also to restrict remove those restrictions adjacent to some assembly uses. Um the these are the heart of our community. These are where places where people go to be with their community. um to celebrate those significant life events and and um they can be more usable. Uh we can create a city that's more fair by removing many of those when possible and when requested. This isn't something that staff would take on proactively just to start removing those. But if a facility approaches the city and says, you know, we have these number of events every year and and uh we think we can make use of that parking for these to handle our overflow. We think that makes sense. eliminating restrictions directly adjacent to multifamily when requested. These are where you have parking restrictions directly adjacent to multifamily and you push you have that unintended consequence of pushing the problem right into the neighborhoods. The things you would hope to avoid. We'd like to remove those. But this is one where we definitely have to take more of a scalpel than a sledgehammer to this approach because there are issues that can be persistent created um by that parking on the street. And so this is one where you got to take a much more cautious approach. See if we can craft a policy that still respects the use uh of the neighbors and and their hope for a quiet neighborhood. And then I just add a footnote. Um expand staff roles and authority. We're thinking something like a parking management group. Right now most of this falls to engineering um and there are unintended consequences of that too. And so a group may be consisting of uh staff from police, from fire, um from planning, things like that to just sort of help manage the burden of the on street parking and make those more comprehensive better decisions around that. We talked to the planning commission on April 16th about that our ideas and um they had some really good points but in general um kind of a middle-of the road approach um which is is just wonderful. Uh they supported modifying the parking around parks and those public accesses and things like that. Um but people um have an expectation in Bloomington um that they are not going to have to struggle each night to find parking for their car and things like that. And so I think the the planning commission I would summarize it as wanted to take that middle of the road approach to this issue. So the most important thing about the on street parking is this is a community-based decision. This isn't an engineering decision or one person's decisions. It's it's really about the values as a community. You as the representatives of the community were looking for your thoughts, your conversation. What which direction should we go on this? Thank you, Mr. Roberts. A thought-provoking presentation, a lot of conversation around this. The one the one takeaway that I really liked is the notion of a parking management group at the staff level. So, it isn't just an engineering or it isn't just a police or it isn't just a specific group, but it's it brings the different perspectives. I think uh you mentioned it or perhaps it was Liz in the last presentation talking about how parking touches a lot of different parts of the city. And so to put together a parking management group I think is a very good idea. Uh regardless of where we go with all of this. Uh and from my um from my standpoint council I think this is a a yes it is a community- based decision and I think it should be a community discussion that we need to have and try and figure out where we want to be with this. Uh I don't think ma maintaining the status quo is probably appropriate because much like our previous discussion, it's been a while since these have been even touched or looked at and the world is different than when they were put in place in the first place. And so to have the conversation um about parks and trail heads and multif family places of assembly, I think it's a worthwhile conversation to have both here at the council in depth but also with a lot of public input also. >> Council member Dellesandro. Yeah, thanks, Mr. Mayor. I agree with you. Um, I would say the one the one thing that I um I I generally agree like especially where there are public spaces um or or what's considered community spaces that that we acknowledge those and we make them more accessible. It makes a lot of sense to me. Um I my only concern honestly we just don't do a very good job of enforcing parking as it is today and and so when we when we decide to make policy changes we also have to decide that we're going to actually enforce those policies and and as a result I think one of the things we need to understand is what the impact of that is. So I as an example, I think the a couple of conversations ago, I mentioned that, you know, you can do a lot with like if you have curbs, you can color curbs yellows and reds and things like that. Um, you know, in my neighborhood, for example, I don't mind people parking on the street. I don't love that they park their boats on the street, but we don't have any enforcement of whether it's a boat or a car or whatever. I know we're not supposed to have boats on the street, but we have them. So what do you do? Right? So like the we we just have to get consistent with enforcement of what it is that we decide we are going to do because without it it's just I don't I don't love making policy decisions that we're not going to actually implement and enforce. And so I think finding a way to to understand the implications of enforcing this and and so the education and outreach function, you know, the the extra measures we're going to go through to make sure that people um are held accountable if they do violate that which we put in place after a period of time. So for example, if it's overnight parking at 3:00 in the morning, are we actually going to ask people to go out there and tow cars? If we're not willing to do that, why would we put the restriction in place? So, these are the questions I I have about like what are we going to do if we make these changes? Although I I agree completely loosening the the the decisions on in in many of these places makes complete sense. So, just throw that out there as a as a consideration because it might have some unintended economic um consequences of us trying to enforce anything we do change. Thanks. >> Thank you, Council Member. others. Council member Lman. >> So, um, a question about one one little area right around, uh, I think it's Pillsbury between 84th and 86. That's right where Shanny Town is. What's the uh what's the parking situation there related to this? Help me understand how that would change this and other other businesses that are inside of neighborhoods like that. Uh, council member Lman. Yeah, that that'll be a touchy area. So, um, as far as like the the three main priority locations that we're proposing to focus on, I don't think that would affect the what how that area is posted right now, which it is posted as no parking on. [laughter] >> That's the reason why I brought that one up. Make trying to make your point. Well, and and that's and that's the the key once we do these other things that's going to be front and center for this council. And I know, you know, we're getting close on time here, but that's why I wonder, you know, what is it that we're trying to do? Is it are we, you know, if you go all the way the other end of the extreme, we just let it all let the market decide. Um, you know, what does that look like and what are the impacts of that? And you know, you know, we we talk about um being a welcoming community and about uh having a little more density and that type of thing. And as we look at some of the models of the cities that that were moving towards, you know, that that Pillsbury situation is a lot more what that's like than what we have today. And so, I mean, that's a that's a large change. And I'm just, you know, I'm kind of it's like we're heading in that direction. And I, you know, I don't Hey, you know, it is what it is. But it's a question that I have in the back of my mind as we we make these changes. >> Council member Nelson. >> Yeah. Thanks, Mayor. Noting the time, I'll be very quick. Um, as part of the public outreach, I just think it's worth reaching out to any neighborhood that already has voted on or put up parking restrictions so they're aware that this might change, that they might go away. Um, I have spoke in the past with the folks on uh Normanddale Road there that goes down towards there and there's some Google thinks there's a park down there, Auto Club Park [snorts] and uh it's not on the city map and we have no park there. >> So, but people go down there because it shows up on Google. >> Yeah. and then it's no parking and it's weird and awkward and um and I'm like, you know, but for like that one, I mean, you just drive like six seconds over and go down to the ferry bridge and get on the same trails. >> So, um but I just like to make sure that those neighborhoods that are will be directly directly impacted are notified so they can share their thoughts because this will be a big change for some of them where they had voted those in. >> Agreed, council member. And that's a good point because you're right there there are some neighborhoods that took the proactive measures to to do what they wanted to do as neighbors for parking in their neighborhood. And so if that may change everything, we need to have that conversation with them. So So other thoughts council have enough to go on there? I >> think so. Thank you. >> All right. Great. Thank you so very much. Council, our next item on the agenda is our polic council policy and issues update. Uh I will start us off and do a quick recap of our listening session. We had four five speakers this evening. Uh Sarah Kleiner Tan who's the executive director of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra spoke on behalf of the residents arts organizations in Bloomington and the Bloomington Fine Arts Council. Pursuant to our discussion earlier about Bloomington Center for the Arts, Sally Ness spoke out uh in opposition item 3.3 on our agenda. That was the Smith Park joint use agreement. Mary Craterville uh spoke about her neighbors trees covering half her yard and uh creeping Charlie getting into her yard and some uh some nasty issues. I did ask our city manager, Mr. Walker to talk to our community development folks or our environmental health. Thank you. I was blanking on it. Environmental health to try and facilitate a a meeting of some kind and come to a solution in there. Uh because it seems to be a festering problem that's been going on for a while. Paul Coat uh spoke about the importance of continued proactive and positive approach to uh welcoming and belonging our immigrant communities here in Bloomington. He also asked about the status of the investigation into the death of uh Desiree Marie Rozel who was in the Bloomington City Jail on March 13th. My report back to him was that the Henipin County Sheriff's Office is doing that investigation. It is not in our hands. It's in the sheriff's office. Uh it's in the hands of the sheriff's office and so far the status that we have is what we had on March 13th. We don't know anything more because we aren't running the uh the investigation. And that just makes perfect sense. If something happens internally, especially something like that, you want to have an outside set of eyes looking at that. And there are a number of different reviews going on from outside this organization. And um finally, Jamie Anthony spoke uh was asking about whether or not we would consider uh well, she spoke as in opposition to going back to the old Minnesota state flag and in favor of keeping the current state flag and also had questions about the investigation of the death of uh Ms. Rosel. So, those were our speakers this evening. And uh >> I had a comment. >> I'm sorry. We're We're not at public comment. This is Are you uh you Relle? >> I am. >> You you were on our list three and a half hours ago. We were looking for you and I'm afraid you you weren't there. So, >> my head was killing me. I had to >> Understood. We'll have to get you at our next uh our next meeting then. Thank you, though. Um that is all I had. Uh Mr. Mr. Walker, was there anything from the city manager's perspective? Uh, nothing of tonight. Mayor >> Council, anything to add tonight? Council member Rivas, >> if I may, um, I, uh, visited on Saturday the 4th Avenue and American Boulevard wall that is falling apart in there. I mean, I kind of spoke to some of the neighbors in there is in very bad shape. I took a bunch of pictures, meant to email them to everybody, but figure, you know, you probably got some from the lady that brought the complaint up. But uh is that a privately owned or is it a city-owned uh wall? >> That I do not know. >> Uh but it is falling apart and it's a safety issue. >> Um so I just wanted to bring it to the attention to everybody because I did take a look at it and it's pretty >> we will we will have public works take a look at that. We'll we'll we'll we'll answer the question and make sure is circulated to the entire council. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Very quickly, council members, council member Delisander, then >> I just want to remind everyone that you're invited to tomorrow's uh uh uh groundbreaking ceremony for the Bloomington Members Veterans Memorial at Moyer Park. So, that's at 4:30 tomorrow. >> Very important. I look forward to seeing you all there. >> Very good. >> All right, that was it. Very good. That concludes our agenda this evening, council. I would entertain a motion to adjurnn tonight. >> Motion and a second to adjourn tonight's meeting. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. 6. Thanks much tonight for your work, council. Thanks to staff for all of your work and thanks to everybody who joined us in the council chambers. We had a quite a group earlier. So, thank you so very much. Good night, everybody. Have a good rest of your week. >> [music]