And we'll start with roll call. Christensen here. Hersburgger here. Walsh here. Anderson here. NO here. Taylor here. Excellent. Uh and I invite everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. All right. Agenda approval from last meeting or no, this is current meeting agenda approval. Any uh issues with it? You'll notice that the park uh dedication fund is on the dis as well as a little addition to our training tonight. Good. Uh okay. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. Second. Second. All those in favor? I it passes meeting minutes from last time. Any issues with that? [Applause] Move to accept and written. Second. Second. All those in favor. Passes as well forum. No. Okay. Uh presentations, none. Unfinished business, none. New business, commissioner training. All right. So, most of the meeting is going to be commissioner training. We've added a second part specific to Robert's rules. We haven't done that in the past, but we thought it might be helpful. So, Seth and I are going to dream team this a little bit. I'm going to take the first part. We'll start with the training that some of you have seen in the past, the colorful slides, and then we'll go into Robert's rules after that. and then we will take questions either as we go or at the end kind of up to you all but we can get started. All right. So we are here for training. As part of training, we will see commission overview, the purviews of the commissions and the council, regular meeting items that you see frequently, expectations, collaboration, park dedication, the 2040 comp plan, current parks, that should say 2025 priorities. Um, and then at the end we'll do a map training as well. Um, it's just kind of to help you guys read maps a little bit better. I know that it was something I had struggled with when I started here, so I like to include it. So, to start, commission overview. Um, if you're not aware, you are on the parks and trails commission. It is a recommending body to the city council. Meetings take place the third Thursday of every month at 7:00 generally at city hall. Uh, I say generally because we can have work sessions, which is the next item. Uh, generally used to study issues, gather or analyze information, and clarify problems. We've also used it to tour parks. So, that's why I say generally they start at seven. Sometimes they take place outside of city hall. It depends on what we're looking at. Um, beyond that, motions, and we'll get into this a little bit more with Robert's rules. Uh, they may introduce ordinances, resolutions, amend them, and take any other action. So, those are the recommendations that you're making to the council. And then we've got open meeting law. So this is just saying we cannot have a gathering of majority of the commission without having a notice. So if four of you gather, I got to know otherwise we might be in some trouble or at the very least you really cannot talk about city business that you'd be discussing in a meeting. Um so like I said, no gatherings of a quorum can occur without notice. Uh an instance of this where it's something to consider and we'll talk about it more later is the tree giveaway next weekend. So if we do have more than you know three people from the commission that are interested in going that's great. I love the involvement. I just need to know so that I can post a notice that we stay compliant. Um and then as far as liaison go this is something a little different than previous years. So a city councelor will serve as a liaison to the commission. Uh we've got Nichols who generally is on the meetings and he helps provide some updates from the council. Um, it used to be that commissioners were required to attend and we kind of rotated through and each of you would take a meeting at the council. That's no longer required. Um, you're more than welcome to attend virtually in person. Do your civic duty if you feel so inclined, but it's not a requirement anymore. Questions on the first slide. Wonderful. All right. So, purviews. So, I thought it might be helpful to kind of lay out the three different main bodies that we hear about. Um, parks and trails. So, that's you guys, uh, the planning commission and city council. So, starting from the top down, city council, we're governing body for the city. They're the ones who ultimately adopt the resolutions and ordinances and do the final review and approval or denial of development projects. So they're kind of the end all be all and the other two are recommending bodies that pass it upwards. So planning commission planning related items, public comments, adoption, amendment or repeal of an official map, land subdivision, zoning uses, things of that nature. In my personal opinion, parks and trails is where it's at. It's a lot more fun. You guys get to look at parks, trails, and recreation related policies. uh go through dedicated land for use or dedicated cash in lie of land for park dedication and then really define those standards for parks and trails and those open space areas and really have that impact on the community. So you're really making that recommendation. Um ultimately council can do with that what they will, but ideally they take the information that you provide as the recommending body and we move forward that way. questions on her use. Yes, sir. You know, the one other organization that we interact with some is the WA is Elm Creek Wershed and and Elm Creek WHED is independent. We are in Elm Creek WHED along with Madina and Maple Grove and Plymouth and and up north Rogers and and Aiden. Um and each city gets one vote. They do a technical review of all developments to look to make sure that what that they are not impacting um badly the water flow through the system. Um something that happens upstream from us obviously affects us. Something that happened downstream also affects us. So, so and we all developments go there early in the process and then those recommendations are then agreed to be met. Jay, you look like you have a little correction or an addition. No, no, no. I I was Commissioner Anderson, thanks for bringing that up. That was one note. The other one that I would add that's unique to our community is we have a charter commission and and we don't pay attention to that a lot because it's unique. A lot of cities don't have it, but statutoily uh because we're a charter city, our charter commission has to meet annually and it validates if there's any changes to our charter. What does that mean about the the thing that would have impacted you most recently as residents is that uh in 2023 the charter commission elected to extend the mayor's term from two years to four years. Uh beyond that, there hasn't been any major charter changes uh in decades. Um that's that's the last big charter. Nonetheless, the charter commission still meets. Uh it lasts about 15 minutes. Uh because they're required to meet uh unless there is something of interest uh for them. Who's on it? Uh so uh the charter commission is quite large. At one point we had 17 members on the charter commission. Uh currently it's only at 10. Uh and so there there is no um unlike this commission in which we've identified it at seven, the charter commission can have as many members as the council wishes. And so as I understand it, anyone who is desired to serve on the charter commission, it's been allowed. But also to the point that I made, the charter commission hasn't really done much uh other than to kind of be keepers of the standards. Um it it would be interesting if you're interested to just read through the charter. It's available on our website uh because there are some things that are unique to Corkran uh that other cities don't have. Uh in contrast to a statutory city uh they are going to the state to get their guidance about how they want to operate. Corkran is deciding how we want to operate. We still have to meet statutory guidelines for a lot of things but our charter tells us how we will govern. And to your question, I believe that we have someone at on the dis that is actually on the chart of commission or was at one point an alumni. Yeah. One year. It was when I was on I just started on the parks uh the parks commission and I think when I interviewed they said, "Oh, you want to join the charter?" I said, "Sure." When we went to one meeting, there's a a bunch of older people who were concerned about the charter and I feel like I didn't really add anything, so I got out of it pretty quick. Sure. So, there's a lot of former council members. So, uh Brian Lother, George Gamach, uh are are the two that have probably have the longest tenure. Uh and then there's several other folks. uh, interesting enough only meets once, but we almost didn't get to meet this year cuz you also have to have a quorum. Robert's rules, you always have to have a quorum for a commission to meet. And I had to call two of them to please come in so that we can meet our statuto requirement to meet. Uh, but we didn't have anything to talk about. So they're like, why do we have to meet? Because we're required by law to gather just to get up. Yep. Is there anything we want to talk about? No. Hit the gavvel. So cool. So it's easy to miss unless there's something that people really want to see changed. Other questions on curviews. All righty. So regular minute re regular meeting items. Uh minutes are going to be a frequently seen item that requires a motion to approve them. Uh we've got active planning applications. So just a summary of those active planning projects. It's put together by our planner Dwight Clingbell. So uh he puts it together monthly. I don't know if it's I think it goes to both of the commissions just to keep up to date on what's going on. Uh the parks, trails, and recreation update. So it's kind of a summary of the things I've been up to, summary of the things related to parks, trails, and recreation that the commission might be interested in. Then it's also a summary of uh some of the happenings at the last two council meetings that have occurred since. Final thing that is a regular meeting item is that park dedication fund. So it's kind of a summary of those funds and the park dedication and memorial garden funds. Gives an idea of where we're at for funding and what's been going on in those areas. Questions on those items? Wonderful. So, as far as expectations go, and feel free to jump in if there's things that you would expect of staff for from your guys's perspective as commissioners, but as staff, the expectation is we help you navigate your role easier. We give you short, well-written reports that aren't biased. They have the current data and they present we're presenting the information in a timely fashion, making sure we're getting you the information. It's right, easy to read, easy to digest, and allows you to make recommendations. Um for you guys, our request of you is to read the materials provided prior to the meeting. Um ask questions in advance of meetings whenever possible. So if you have a question, you're thinking something in that packet looks funny or you just want to know why it's the way it is. Even if you're going to ask it at the meeting as well, you can give me a heads up. It allows me to go through find the answer for you. That way I'm not sitting here at the meeting going, "Let me investigate. Um, make sure you're looking at all the facts and determining the best option. Um, in the same way that I'm trying not to give you biased information. I would expect that ideally you're coming with nonbiased unbiased ideas. Um, and then purview focused discussion. So, one of the areas that we had discussed was some of these meetings go long, some of them go short. It varies depending on what we have. Um, but as long as we're staying within the purview, it makes it easier to get through the conversations. So, I think we've been pretty good about it, especially as of late. But questions on expectations, thoughts on expectations for staff. Yeah, you know, I just had this thought occasionally in some of our neighboring cities, uh, somebody, a council member perhaps will get into some trouble because they are making demands on on on staff time. well beyond what the staff can accomplish. And I'm just wondering if we have a question that isn't maybe not directly a parks and trails, but it's question, but we're looking at, you know, a development, something pops up, should we always funel through you or should we go directly to somebody else? I don't have a true preference on that. If you would like, if you feel most comfortable coming to me, I'm happy to pass along your question to the the appropriate person. If you find the contact information for who you're looking for online, I you're not going to hurt my feelings if you skip me in the process. Does that is that fair? I I guess a clarifying uh question would be I would what what is the scope of the question? Okay. So, so if the scope of your question is as a resident, uh, then it it probably makes sense to go to whoever the staff agency is to answer that. But if it's in your role as a commissioner, it should go to her if if that because that way she's going to have an interest as the responsible staffer for it and that way she's making sure that she's in the loop. But you know if you're concerned about something that as a resident um absolutely anybody uh who can uh and if it overlaps then best judgment. Okay. Thank you. It's good. Questions on expectation. Awesome. All righty. So another agency that we work with pretty frequently is Three Rivers Park District. Um, and I happen to hear that someone on the DAS is actually an award winner. So, I am gonna give a quick little shout out. Y, uh, someone is pretty fancy in a tie and a dress shirt tonight. I heard that they were awarded at Three Rivers. So, Commissioner Anderson, if you'd like to give a quick little blur about your experience. Tell us. Tell us. Well, I've I've been volunteering at Three Rivers since 2004. Something like that. at Crowhassen Crow mostly at Crohassen. Um I just you know I was I was frankly looking for work and you can't do that 247 and there was a ad in the paper saying we're going to be some doing some wildflower seed picking out of so I've been doing that every summer since then and in the last few years I've been doing some volunteer work at the three river parks nursery which is also at crowen just on the south end and it is pretty fun. It is. But I, you know, I've grown really old there. So, and old enough that that the the three the the prairie is planted out there. It was all farmland long ago and probably woods before that. Um, and so it has changed in the time that I've been doing that in some some areas where you used to be able to see wild flowers and then kind of an empty space and then wild flowers and then an empty space. And it was because when they planted all those seeds in the early years, it was off the back of a manure spreader. And so the coverage was not even. And it's it's changed a lot since then. And in those areas where you could used to be able to see that, those lines have finally disappeared. But it took probably 40 years for that for that change to to take place. So it's it's it's pretty cool to have that that length of time. So you were honored for your your volunteer work? I was honored for my volunteer work there. Six. And there they have six people receive it each year. But they they have we've had last year, 1900 volunteers. Wow. So it's a it's a big deal with Three Rivers. Yeah. Lots of volunteers. Wow. in all sorts of different areas. Congratulations. Congrats. That's awesome. Congratulations. I couldn't resist. You know, I was wondering why you were dressed up. Yeah, that's we've done that. That park's beautiful. It is. It is. It is. It is. Christ. Yeah. Well, congratulations. As far as Three Rivers is involved with the city beyond, Commissioner Anderson, uh we have Lake Independence Regional Trail. So that's that trail that's along County Road 19 up by public works. Then we're also working through the Diamond Lake Regional Trail. So it navigates north south through Corkran. We're working on getting some of that land and developing that trail in coordination with Three Rivers. We've got that cooperative agreement um to get reimbursed for trails that we acquire and then up to $15,000 towards the city park alignment planning. Now that's not to be confused with the reimbursement for installation. That's still that 525,000 for 2025 and then 2026 as necessary as it aligns with the project. So questions on three rivers generally this is our main contact with them and then they're also looking at other another trail corridor that runs east and west and potentially a larger park as well. So, we're in the search corridor for a bunch of stuff for Three Rivers because we got land and it's beautiful here and we love recreation. So, that east west trail is on is just sort of pencled in in the natural resources survey that we did in 2002 is is spectacular. It's just absolutely where it needs to be. Where in Corkran would it's on that map and it's just on right through there. There's some water flowing through. Oh, I didn't turn the page. Yeah, turn. Yeah, one of my I do have one question on the Diamond Lake, not question, but in my mind, it's I know one of our roles is to try and find a spot for that trail as we develop and take developments. I think for me, it's a little hard to track exactly what space has been accounted for or still available. I think as far as when we decide to take cash in lie of land and like are we eliminating it's a little bit hard for me to follow how much in that area are we making the right choice at the right time with some of these proposals that's one I could use a little more help with deciding are we does it have to go right there right are we making the right choices at the right time around this trail we're working with developers Three Rivers and the city all in conjunction to make sure that we're lining it up in areas both that Three Rivers is willing to accept because if they don't want to accept it, then how are we getting reimbursed? Um, and then that works for the city because we're going to have ownership at least until they accept it. And then that also works for developers within their plans. So, as things come through that would be eligible for the Diamond Lake Regional Trail, we would be coming to you saying, "Hey, this would be something that would be part of that trail." And I get I see that. I think, but then it's like one step back. how much are we talking about or is there areas we should be more or less aggressive about because we're getting close. I think those are the types of things that it'd be helpful to kind of have a little bit of a view of that at some point. So the dash lines in this are going to be the areas that are developed or developing soon. The dark black line is going to be what's that answer? Kind of not really. Yeah. No, I'm just Yeah, I don't have a question. I'm just saying as we as we go through this, it's helpful to like take one step back and say we're talking about this specific area, but it's important because XYZ isn't going to develop in the next 10 years. So, this is our opportunity. So, I think sounds good. And we'll try and include that in like the staff reports and stuff. That way you guys are aware that this is related. The uh 2040 plan has dots on it, doesn't it? For potential future park sites. Yeah. Yes. But it's hard to know if like said are we at a do we have a chance to chance or like that's right. How aggressive do you have to be about park dedication versus No, this is a good spot for a trailer park like highlight like the undeveloped land. Is that something we could get on there? Is it wouldn't have to be zoned differently like agricultural zoning. So, so I'd say a couple things about it. Uh so one with the comp plan it talks there's a phasing plan and some of these are all the way out to 2040. Yeah. So, so you know past our tenure here and it's in collaboration with three rivers and so you kind of brought up will it be acceptable then? So, so for example the the most interesting thing that's happened related to that outside of what's already marked on here is Three Rivers has indicated based on the increased traffic coming off 610 onto 30 that they're going to also do a project this year starting this year of a search corridor to do another underpass on 30. So the underpass will be on 116 and they're also considering an underpass on 30. The reason I bring that up is it's dynamic. The reason they don't say this is where it should be is because the property owners that are adjacent to there have said hey I potentially don't want to stop farming for the next 20 years. And so does that change the search quarter? Absolutely. Because there's a desire to see it going forward. Uh and then there's also how is phase development going to happen? So you brought this uh if you you don't want to have gaps in the trail for a couple different reasons. Uh one, it's not going to get used then. Uh so you you want to have those connections so you have connectivity so that people activate it. But the other reason you don't want those gaps is because if you lose attentiveness to it and you build around it and then you have a gap, you end up with nimbies. Not in my backyard. they don't want to come back and put the trail in after the fact. Three Rivers does a fantastic job about this. So, uh they they've had so many examples of success. You know, 19 was pretty seamless. Uh this will be seamless. It just takes a long time because development has the will of both the property owner, do I want to sell? Do developers want to do it? And then does the market want to support so they actually buy it? And if those three things don't align, then it doesn't happen. So, for example, even the approved underpass, when will that happen? It will happen when, well, Oswald property needs to sell and needs to develop. And so, we've had a couple swings at that, my short tenure here. So, the plan is there, but we can't actually execute it. Um, so the short answer is if if we do a map, it's going to change every year. So I think the big comp plan map uh is is helpful right now that that chapter the the parks chapter of the comp plan. And then also we've we've been talking about now the commitment as we move towards the 2050 comp plan to do a more thorough master plan for the whole system after this. Uh we had the chapter before. Uh we're doing a a bridging master plan for right now, but it won't talk about that regional trail because those are unknowns. Unknown unknowns. Okay. But Three Rivers manage is managing the looking for a trail on an ongoing basis. Is that So 20 2025 is the year in which they're looking for the trail corridor. They've committed to that. If you want to look at the slide deck, Marge Beard, who's the commissioner that represents us, came and spoke to council at the last council meeting. So you could see her slides and she goes into that a little bit. That might be helpful information. Uh but she doesn't go into detail because there isn't detail. Uh there's there's a lot of unknowns. But 2025 they've earmarked the search corridor. And if you do want to give Marge a call, I had all the council members hit her really hard on this. We're in competition with Rogers. And I reminded her that Crohassen is even though it's technically in handover, everybody thinks about it as Rogers. They've got lots of other cool parks. It needs to be incorporate. So I wanted her to leave with that impression. The search corridor, the 200 acres, 150 acres, whatever it's going to be for the new regional park needs to be in corporate. She just needs to hear that over and over over again so she she doesn't forget where it needs to be. Needs to not be in Rogers. It's a corporate. Good job. Perfect. So, if they're paying attention, in theory, if some land was up for sale or something, they would probably let us. I mean, we might hear about it, too, but they would be. So, if it's in the corridor to develop, it won't make it past. I mean, everybody's paying attention. We know we've got to get the connection. Three Rivers will be part of the discussion and then that's when it comes forward of the alignment to the trail. So like even when Bellather came in it was you know big hand small map and then as as they continued to refine the plan that's when you figured out the alignment of the trail. Okay. So it's an important question because we don't want to lose sight of it. People are paying attention to it but also we don't want to start working on something when we don't have any answers for it. So it's more of like a keep an eye on it if something happens. Yeah. Yeah. And my concern is just not miss an opportunity as they come our way. Yeah. It it it won't be able to sneak by. Yeah. Uh cuz there's there's too many people. Three Rivers uh is going to pay for it. So they've got an interest to it because if they don't get the connectivity that jacks up their whole plan. Yeah. Mhm. And that's like a 50-year plan. Go on this one. All righty. So park dedication funds. So the dedication comes in as either cash in lie of land or the land. Um the land and we'll get into this a little bit more. I think I've got a slide for um the 2040 comp plan map as it relates to parks and trails. Um, the land comes in, as I think it was Commissioner Anderson had mentioned, there's predetermined spots on the 2040 comp plan map that was used and determined by the previous parks and trails commission on where the most beneficial, naturally beautiful spaces in the city are that would be good spots for parks. As part of that, if there is a park that is located in an area of a development that is shown on our comp plan, well, additionally, they have to do park dedication anyways, but if it's shown in a specific area, then they would have to do land. Correct. Unless I'm misspeaking to that. So, I'm not explaining it well. So, so, so, uh, presently we have all of the land that we said we would need for the 2040 complaint. What does that mean for us? That means we may not have all the land we want for the 2040 comp plan. So, as we go forward, one of the things we always want to ask is what's the quality of this land? Uh, developers are notorious for trying to give us their garbage throwoff land. Uh and and there I can't I can't get my density that I want. I can't put a a storm water retention pond here. This would make a great park. No. Uh we do a really good job of of what do we need and what is going to best serve the neighborhood, the community, and the region. And so, uh with that, you need to continue to stand for that land. If we're going to take land, it needs to be the land that we want and the land that's going to serve the purpose that we need. Otherwise, you're going to end up I had the worst park I had in Shakipi was like a quarter acre lot. We put a little playground on there, but it was the worst park ever. It was called Glacier Park. If you want to go there, check it out. Worst park in the world. Uh, but the neighborhood thought it was really cool if you're three years old, you know. But otherwise, it's not great. it's in somebody's backyard and somebody's backyard and it they just couldn't build on the lot and at the time uh they accepted the land shouldn't have um and I also understand how you get there is through the process of development that's why plans come to this commission to make sure that you get a chop and a voice of what's happening uh but what I'd say with land is is constantly asking why this land and what are are you going to use it for? Because we also don't want to be in the business of stocking up a lot of land because we got to maintain it. Just like we expect residents to maintain their property, we have to maintain any property that we have. And so you don't want to accumulate a lot of land just for the sake of having it because you're pulling it off the tax roles and you got to take care of it. Uh so be be discerning about land cash in lie of land because we have the land that we need. Now is the time that we really want to collect the cash that we need in order to build the things that we want on the land that we have. That makes sense. Which takes us into uses. There you go. Nice. When you say we have the land we need, that means by acreage. Okay. Acreage by what we've identified that we want. But then the point that I was making is some of that land may not be land that we want to have categorized as parkland. So over time as you scrutinize it and you pay attention to it is this the best and highest use of the land or does it make sense you know if we have a challenge if it's come through dedication what's the categorization of it because there are certain incumbrances in which we can't get rid of it but until it's been encumbered like that all right we may have taken it this way but maybe it makes sense to sell it maybe it makes sense to I don't know It it depends. Like we we have taken uh land forfeite. I hate when we get land forfeite because the reason we get it is because nobody else want to maintain it and then I'm trying to give it back to the county because we don't want to take care of it. It costs tax tax dollars to take care of something that nobody wanted in the first place. So why should why should residents take care of it? We don't want park land received like that. When we receive land, it's not always, it won't always become a park, but is it expected that this is park land that's ready to go, or is it just city land that hey, we can It's currently categorized to park dedication land. Okay. Okay. Uh but that doesn't necessarily encumber it legally. Okay. So, so the city could decide, you know what, we're never going to build a park here. Let's get rid of it or do something else with it. Possibly. Okay. It's not simple. Ah, got it. But but that's why I'm saying at the front end, if we're going to take land, let's make sure we're getting the land that we want and don't take throwaways away. Uh because then as you're looking at it, like, okay, we've got this. What are we going to do with it? You know, just labeling it as an OSP. OSPs still need to be maintained, too. So, just saying it's an OSP, that there's nothing interesting to see, nothing interesting to do. We're just throwing that label on there so it gives us our acreage. That's not a good solution. If if we're going to make something in OSP, let's make there's something interesting you want to go check out. We got interesting wildlife to engage, observe, flora, fauna, whatever the case may be. But don't just take the land. One more question. We can always take cash in lie of land, but we can't ever force the developer to give us a portion of the land. And I think that was getting your question. If it's marked on the map, we can Correct. If it's been identified in the search area as a prime area, uh they have to it's a different conversation. Okay. Okay. Got it. But for us just to go like, you know, you're all here, you're all developers and I go and you get a park and you get a park. Yeah. We're not doing the Oprah Winfrey of parks for Okay. Thank you. And then as far as uses go of those park dedication funds that you may take in lie of the land, it can be used to develop new recreation areas, upgrades to existing areas. So i.e. city park eg city park i.e. E we know what you mean. EG and then ongoing operations and maintenance are not eligible. So like if you needed to make a repair to a playground swing, this is not the fund to do that with. questions on this slide so far? No, good to go. Oops. All right. So, the 2040 comprehensive plan. Uh, this is definitely a typo where it's just got a bunch of X's and some highlighting, but it was adopted by the council back in November of 2019. Uh the parks and trails commission should implement the plan and strive to achieve the goals listed. And so included in the goals basically create good parks, be helpful to Henipin County working in coordination with them in planning, developing, and financing. Um develop the park system that the public values and actually visits. So to Jay's point, don't just take a park and make it let's make it worth the while. um develop a system of parks and trails with a variety of activities. So, active, passive, birding, cricket, playgrounds, you name it. Uh it should reflect the special character of the city. Um for example, what a wild idea to have like a farming playground and then to provide a safe, equitable, and convenient trail network. So to Commissioner Ersburgger's point, we want it to be used and we don't want to miss those opportunities. So we're keeping an eye out. Uh work on the 2050 comp plan is anticipated to begin this year or next year. 2026. 2026. And that would be why it's got X's and highlighted. How long does it take to develop a plan? It starts in 26. Is it published in 2028? Okay. So, uh, some cities take longer, uh, to do it. Um, we don't have clarity yet from the Met Council on some things. And so, I would rather have clarity rather than us moving through ambiguity because dollars are scarce. So, I don't want to spend any dollars without making sure that we know what we're moving towards. So, does it go to Met Council for kind of like a pre-approval and then you hit it hard because it has to be done by a certain So, the Met Council provides their guidance and they're doing that right now. Uh, if you've heard about it, there's been a lot of debate. Um, the uh Judy uh Johnson is our rep on the Met Council and she fought for us uh because they're trying to move density up to four. Uh she tried to keep it at three and they compromised at three and a half. So, the new density will be at three and a half right now is what it looks like. That's that's what the vote landed. Is that due to the fact that they provide money say for the water tower and not provide but you know help funding of the water tower and things like that council provides the interceptor that takes all of our poo out of town. So that that's where they control us. So so they they they they control the the sewer and they control the transportation. Transportation doesn't impact corporate as much as it does in some of the inner ring cities. That transportation component is is a big deal in other cities that rely more heavily on public transportation than we do. Uh for us, it's the sewer. Okay? And that's why if you've heard about the Musa, their influence ends at the Musa line, right? So the other twothirds of the city is is at the discretion of the council. And how many are on the Met Council, do you know? I do not recall. I think it's seven. No, it's eight for sure. And they're not elected officials, right? Uh they are appointed. Okay. Uh in contrast to like uh Three Rivers Park District has uh what is it? Six whatever it is the breakdown is four or five of them are elected and two are appointed. Okay. And so um I believe our ours is elected elected. 17 members on the Met Council. Oh, that's unfortunate. 16 who each represent a geographic council district and one chair who serves at large. Interesting. The long story next Yeah. The long story short for us is is is we don't have a lot of representation there. Just like at Henipin County, uh Kevin Anderson tries to represent and advocate for us, but uh he's he's against a lot of folks that have differing priorities, different perspectives, uh as they're trying to answer their constituency that have a very different operating environment, right? They don't have gravel roads in Minneapolis. And if they do, it's because somebody tore it up or blew it up. So this comp plan is a requirement of the Met Council. It is. And the only way to get out of that we can't would be to private sewer have a different sewer system or something. There there's no feasible financial way that we could get out of it. Uh because there's there's also so many statutory tentacles tied to it now to try and unencumber us and get out from under it. Uh those decisions were made 40 years ago. I was going to say because before we even had water and sewer the me this all had to go to the mech council for approval. So so because it was part of the planning area. So corporates had a musa for a long time that was part of the planning area. That's because they knew that development was eventually going to come and so they had to make the pipe big enough to handle that future demand. Uh, every time we do a development, they have to pay into it's called a a sack fee, which is a sewer access charge. And what that means is you're paying to take this much of the pipe. Mhm. You're paying to take this much of the pipe because there's a limited capacity on the pipe. So then why does the density have to be so high if the pipe's limited? Uh there's there's a I mean I know it's maybe more in depth than my question. Yeah, there there's there's there's an excellent question there. uh and it's counterintuitive. So, so by driving our density, we're eventually going to have that number of people, but by making us that dense sooner, it's priorities that don't align with our values as a community. Thank you. Uh and and to your point, you're going to use up that pipe way faster and you're going to drive the demand to have to make a bigger pipe, right? And then to pay for the bigger pipe, you need more people, right? More. It's need more poop. When they need the bigger pipe, that's when we could figure out a way to Yeah. treat our own sewage or something. So So, so to go to that question for water, that's exactly what happened with the community. So our water comes from Maple Grove into the Musa. And when we had the discussion about developing in the northeast district and this was this was in the comp plan like okay what's going to happen there's a decision point Maple Grove decided that they weren't going to support it. So they were going to control our water in ways that the council thought was counterproductive to the development of our community. And so we said okay fine we're going to build our own. So, water treatment plant, water tower, that's that's the first steps for that. But, you know, it's a $28 million project, right? Uh the sewer plant would be a lot more than that. And where do you put it? Who wants to live next to a sewer plant? Um and then all of the Yeah, I guess there there is projected increased capacity, but it's not in Corkran. It's in the north and the west northwest of Rogers and the other end of Cork and we just kink the hose, right? That's how we take care of that knock. Okay, thank you. Other questions on the 2040 pound plan? This is what it looks like as far as the uh parks and trails map. If if I can say something to you, I understand all the reasons why we hate it. But I do want to suggest that there's some reasons why there's value in this because otherwise there's not really a catalyst or a reason for us to think about what we want to be true, who we want to become and this demands that. So we're having those values conversations uh proactively rather than reactively and and in some cases we're having these fights, you know, so the fight about what do we want our density to be and and and we're able to justify and make our case as opposed to it was just decided and now it's on our front door. Right? So So planning there's a lot of value in planning. Agreed. If you as I drive north out of Corkran, it looks it it looks like we've we've always talked about development being from east to west. At the moment, it looks like it's coming from north to south within within 6 months that the rate that they're putting up houses out there. Is that going to be a part of the discussion for the next complent? Well, uh the the reason it's coming from north to south is because we developed our own water. Okay, that makes sense. So, so by by putting our our water capability right there on 116 now we're not waiting for it to come from the east. We've got our own. Now it's going to come straight down 116. And it al but it also looks like, you know, if you just just go up on Territorial Road, the houses are just going up like crazy. And the are the developers going to be knocking on doors on the north north mile of Corkran to to continue that development. They can't expand beyond the mus because there's no projection for the that that's that's where the sewer stops. Okay. So, will they be asking so and so to get get the sewer on on across northern Corkran would involve a whole new project, a whole new there. There's no projection. No projection. Uh the the potential long-term implication of other development. Next phase would probably be in the northwest because it's going to come down from a new sewer line out of Rogers, but that's 20 years from now. Okay. Uh originally it was projected to come out of Lorettto and it was going to come from the southwest. Okay. And and then things just haven't panned out the way that they thought with the drive and development that's happened in the north. It'll it'll come from the south northwest. So, the large developments that you're seeing won't be built out west or basically anywhere west or north of the muse. So, this this line right here. So, where does it coming west yet? Where does it end? at the top. Then does it go up to the 117 kind of borderline up there? Yep. FZ is in it. Okay, there we go. Thanks. You're so good. And and when I talk about the Northwest stuff, it's not projected anywhere because that's big idea stuff. It's not happening yet. I'm just sharing. So everything else outside the Musa will be on septic and well like if they're going to do anything. Okay. Yeah. It's It's rural. Sure. Yeah. Which which is still under the building rights standards. Forgot about that. Yeah. And then we need parks out there, too. Yes. Yeah. All right. So, this is what the map looks like. Yeah. All right. So, let me get into park classification. So, we've got a few different kinds of parks. All of this information is also in the 2040 comp plan. That's where I pull most of this from, which was included in your packet as well, in case you wanted to do some light reading before you go to bed. Uh, neighborhood parks generally prioritize user groups living in the neighborhood. That's not to say that it is only those users that can use the neighborhood. They are open to all. Um, I got a question. Uh, side note, Commissioner Schmidt is online but not in attendance. So, um, generally they have an overall size of 5 to 20 acres with a service area of anywhere from a quarter to a half mile. Um, frequency of one neighborhood park per 5,000 residents is the NRPA standard, the National Recreation and Park Association. However, that's not to say that our plan doesn't reflect differently and have a little bit more for parks. So, an example of this neighborhood park would be Wildflower Park over in the Ravenia development. Next one would be community park. So, this would be comparable to city park or the open space areas that Jay referred to. Um, they can also include community playfields and they're really looking to preserve those landscapes and natural areas or to serve a larger purpose. So overall size is generally 20 to 100 acres. Passive and active recreation may occur within the same space without conflicting with one another. So for example, city park you could definitely go for a walk on that trail loop once that's in for three rivers. But then if you wanted to play cricket, you certainly could and both take place in the same area. Um service area of up to about a two-m radius. Um any questions on those? athletic search areas fall in that city park. Uh we've got a few open space parks that we're looking to develop that would fall into there as well. Trail Loop over near the Bellweather development would be considered a community park. Questions, comments, thoughts? The um number of neighborhood parks on the map. I mean, is is that partially driven by the expected increase in population within this time frame or is that more so just, you know, those were ideal locations and the number 2020, correct? The 2020 plan. More so ideal locations, not necessarily that every single bubble shown on that map would have to be taken. Sure. Um, but if the bubble's on the map and a development goes there, then they have to we have the opportunity to consider it. Gotcha. We can always say no, we don't we we changed our mind or whatever. Rather take the cash. Yeah. But if they're there, then we have the option. Correct me if I'm wrong, please. Can we ask for specific pieces of that land? But they they're going to propose here take the corner that no one wants and we're say we park here in the circle you want better land than that or no. So so there's a lot of variables in that equation. Uh so the short answer is no. Not really. it it becomes a very tactical uh strategic conversation uh so that you're trying to get the best but but it's hard for you to say that hey developer you need to take a loss on this property because I want the prime piece of real estate um so sure it's through through collaboration you can we can be successful at securing what will work well for our needs but we don't have to take a piece of swamp land Right. Right. It has to be buildable in so many words. Correct. Uh I don't know. We we can refuse to take it. Sure. An example would be uh a couple months ago there was a trail behind the houses. I don't remember what development it was, but the the commission decided not to take that corridor and instead do the sidewalk. So, you can decline it. It just means more cash in the middle of the lake. more cash to develop those parks. Part of what, as I remember it, what generated that particular park layout back when we first built it was that if we are going to collect park fees, we have to be able to justify the amount of money we want to collect. And so we built that park layout, picking some spots that looked like good park spots in a distribution that would meet this half mile, two mile kind of distribution. And then we went with some very average sorts of cost. How much does it take to to build a neighborhood park? How much does it build take to build a mile of trail? All of those numbers. We added them all up. We then looked at when Corkran is built out, how many people how many lots will there be and did the division and said, well then each each lot should pay this much in park fees so that we cover the development of the park through the um fees that we collect when the property's developed. And if you don't do that, then somebody says, well, you just pull these numbers out of the air. Well, you know, how much does the park cost? That's there's some, you know, that's sort of out of the air, but we needed to provide that that that rationale to make it actually work and to make it fit in court. Yeah. You're extracting the variables for an aggregate system. Yeah. Peace, piece, piece, peace, piece. Pull this piece out. How much does it cost us? Yeah. And and then the city council looks at that number and says, "What are we going to do with that?" You know? And the formula does get reviewed every so often to make sure that we're still in line with inflation and everything. You know, you know how it goes. All right, other questions on the map. Super. So, we talked about neighborhood parks, community parks. We also have linear parks, trails, corridors, and parkways. So, it encompasses one or more varying modes of recreational travel, hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, etc. It varies depending on what type of trail or corridor it is, what is allowed. Um, they're often found adjacent to major roadways and link to the variety of parks or community amenities. Um, an example of this would be the future linear park along County Road 116. Um there's been some planning with it. Not city park's the real priority right now um for your recreation time, but that would be an example of it. And then included on here are a few different versions of trails. So we've got on-road, off-road with a b with a boulevard. So this would be an off-road trail. You can see it's got a boulevard in between. This would be an off-road trail with a 20ft easement. So, not even connected to a roadway. Um, and then we've got on-road trail with a boulevard and then sidewalk with boulevard off-road way. So, you can see like here we've got someone biking on the roadway, but then here is still an on-road trail, but it's just off the road. the fun little caveats, right? Yeah. Great view. All righty. And then we've got the park standards policy. This was adopted back in June of 2024. Uh the commission worked through this. It has a heavy focus on collaboration, connectivity, gathering areas, landscaping, natural features, policy development, inclusion, site amenities, and then differences between those differing parks, and what the commission felt would be appropriate to include in each of those. Um, I'm not going to go super in-depth into that. It was recent enough that if anyone would like to see it, I can either pass it along or we can go hop into that June 13th council meeting and find it. But if anyone does have any questions, feel free to reach out or ask them now. All right, next slide. Current parks, we've got City Park, Memorial Garden, and Wildflower Park. Those are the ones that are more developed. We've also got an open space park uh with a trail loop in the Bellweather neighborhood that needs to get named. Uh I partially say that because we have an attendee online who would really like it named and I think we should. Um, other than that, we are working on city park as you guys are aware and then we've got a few different areas of land that we can develop into parkland as we have time and funds. Questions on the parks? Beautiful. 2025 priorities, uh, wayfinding signs. So, those directional and monument signs, kind of getting an idea of what we want those to look like, especially as it relates to the city park remaster because signs are going to be a necessity. Um, the signs that are currently there have the old logo and some of them I think still say Rockford on them. So, I think it's probably time for an update. Um, park development. So, really honing in on that park system planning and financing. Jay had mentioned kind of a system plan within the next year or so, working or starting work on that. So that'll be pretty monumental as we start to look at the other parks that we need to develop as well. And then working with Three Rivers Park District on that Diamond Lake Regional Trail. So that collaboration effort. Questions on the priorities. Just that good, huh? You guys are getting tired. All right, maps. We're going to kind of speed through this. Some of it is within the purview. Some of it is just helpful little tidbits as you read a map. Uh, so we've got sections. Sections. This royal blue, that's a section. Uh, stand by like that. And then you've got your quarter section, which is the green. And then you've got your quarter quarter. This really doesn't It's just an interesting little tidbit that I learned since I was here. So, I think it's fun doing this. Um, each lot has a unique number identifier for them. Like, it gets really indepth. So, if you're looking for something to dive into, this is a fun little topic. Uh, as far as development goes, though, this is one of the plans from Bass Lake Crossing. So, it kind of gives you an idea of what you're looking at. There's a lot of lines. it can be a little overwhelming, but once you kind of look at it a little more, it gets a little easier. As it relates to the parks and trails, it would mostly be these sidewalks and property lines. Um, just like you can see if you're looking at a trail alignment or something. Yeah, probably can't we probably shouldn't have it right up next to their house, right? So, kind of showing like here's the property line. Oops. Running. It's really hard to see my mouse, but you can kind of see the lines going out there. We've got sidewalk kind of pointed out, which sometimes can look different from a trail. And then we've also got things such as wetland buffers that kind of can impact as well. They're usually labeled. Part of the reason I include this is because there are many maps that you might see and they all have a little bit of differences. So, it's helpful to at least see what things look like in advance so that when we get a real map in front of us, it's easier. Um, so like I said, sidewalk looks a little different from the trail. You can see the sidewalk is a little lighter in color with some lighter dots. And then we've got this darker pathway for the trail. We've got a storm water pond here. So, these are just some of the things that can impact as you're saying, well, maybe we don't want the parkland there. These are the other things that the developer is having to consider. Helps kind of give perspective as well. Not that you guys didn't have perspective. The black solid line that kind of curves around all the properties. Uh not this one. No, not that. The Oh, elevation. Oh, so you can see it's got the Well, you can't really see, but the numbers. So, that'll help you with contours. And we do have a contour portion of this training. So, don't you worry. I'll wait for my questions. Uh, so this is just another version of the map. Uh, it's a different map, but you can tell that this one has colors associated with it. So, like I was saying, it can really be very different. Now, not all of this is going to be within the purview, but again, it helps you kind of with that, oh, okay, I see a storm water pond there. That's probably why they didn't want to put a trail there. Oh, they have setbacks because of this wetland buffer. like there are other pieces of it that might not be directly within your purview, but they impact what is in your purview. Um, if you recall for some of you that were here, this was that little top lot playground. This actually did not get accepted. That's right. Um, so this would be one of those instances where yeah, it's a park, but is it is it worth what we could do with the money instead? Um, so that's a great example of exactly what I was talking about. Huh. Which is why it's included in here. And you know, it might be fine for the people right there, but it doesn't certainly doesn't feel like a city park or or you know, community. Yeah. To serve everyone sit in your backyard. Yeah. Yeah. Bonus, right? All the kids, all the neighborhood kids can still go there, but play in your backyard. No, I'm pretty sure the plan was to then just do I think grass if I recall. I do have a quick question about those wetland buffer signs. Um, seeing them kind of be placed in in person. Is how is that decided in terms of like you know placement of the signs actual? Yeah. Uh, like the frequency. Mhm. Yeah. So, so it's whoever is installing them. Okay. I mean, so we we we don't do GPS locations on put the sign here, put the sign there. there's general guidance on what's expected. Okay? Uh that's usually in in a development agreement, you have agreed by our ordinance what the materials need to be. Uh and that's because otherwise they would choose the cheapest materials that they could that aren't going to withstand the realities of a Minnesota winter in a wet frosty area, you know. So the frost line hits now the signs are all down and you lost the signs. Mhm. But in terms of where they locate them. Yeah. Great example is right here along the city center. Yeah. It was like Well, I was going to say, uh, another good example right nearby is the the Rush Creek neighborhood. That's why I asked cuz I I do live in there. Um, and you know, there are certain locations where it's like there's a sign every 50 ft and then there's about 50 signs in this stretch of 10 ft. It doesn't seem to make sense and it's like, okay, maybe they ran out of 4x4s and they decided this guy wanted to go home. What do you mean? or or they get paid by the 4x4. So, no, I appreciate you answering that. All right, other questions on the maps. Do we need to go into it a little further? I mean, we we can kind of see the park. We can see the street versus the sidewalk versus the trail. Questions, comments, concerns, life advice? Who owns the the land now? the park land that we didn't take. Uh, not us because it was not a city park, right? So, it would be more than likely the HOA, but I don't even think that they intended to put in a playground after that. I think it was just going to be a grassy area. Yeah, they usually keep them as an out. But they have to move the grass. Correct. All right. So, that is that map. We are almost through my portion. Then we move on to Seth. Uh so this is what I was talking about with contours. You can see those elevation lines. Um you can see a 6ft drop from here to here. So again not necessarily things directly within the purview but could impact the things that are within your purview. Uh the final thing is I know that this is a passion of the commission trees. Uh so in this map, same as one of the previous maps with that pot that didn't get accepted. Uh green is going to be the trees that are getting kept. Red are the trees that were removed. So I just thought that this might be helpful to kind of show you what it would look like. Sometimes they'll have um more in depth with what specific types of trees will go in. Uh they're usually marked with a different icon. I could not find one of those. Just quick and ready to go. But I think you kind of get the gist on that. Um any questions on the tree map? If I can make a recommendation to the commission. We want to keep trees and we want to keep the right kind of trees. Uh and and and sometimes some folks have the perception that any tree will do. Uh and and then the implications of that is is we're spending a lot of time and energy protecting trash trees that aren't added value. And a lot of people would hate me for saying that phrase, but but there are trees that that it's just not worth it for us to spend time and money to protect them when we could potentially have a developer put in a higher quality tree. And so that's just something to a good question for you to ask is what kind of trees are there? And so like this one where it just says it's trees, it's not helpful information to usually do an inventory of what the kind of trees are and to pay attention. It might not be specific as what's located there, but percentages of densities of different kinds of trees so that you can say, "Yep, we want to protect this or just get rid of them and put in better trees." So the tree thing that came up on our in our last meeting in discussion over the city park um you know seeing what trees we're taking out, what we're standing and what were being planted. Um, is it is are we consulting an arborist when it comes to the type of tree that we're we're picking for a location or is this Tom? I mean, are are you the are Tom wears a lot of hats. We need him. He speaks for the trees. Trees are trees are interesting. I mean, what really drives trees is the cost of the trees. So, a developer would love to put in um inexpensive trees and and and and it's all by it's by fashion. There have been those new uh relatively new crossbred maples. It's crossed between a silver and a sugar maple. They're they're red and they're pretty and they suck the water out of your Well, they do that, but maple trees do that. And so, but um to for my mind, there's there's two parts to it. One is getting the right trees and the other is making sure you get them planted correctly. And developers are developers and and people who plant trees, they're mostly concerned with doing it quickly. And trees come from the nursery poorly poorly balled and burlaped. They're too deep in their in the pile. If you plant a tree too deep, it lives 15 years and then it rots on at the trunk right at the ground level. It blows over in the wind. and you can go to developers developments that are 15 year olds and see just fallen over. So, so getting a plan of property is the really tricky part and that's really really hard because you have to slow down the work and developers hate it because it costs them money. Yeah. So, so but a variety of trees of of natives and near natives um are are are are good. There are some trees that we haven't had here in the past. There's there's a coffee tree which you know it probably grew in Chicago but but now it really grows well here. The weather is just a little bit warmer and it goes it works. So a variety of things is good. And some new homeowners want to want to plant those fast growing trees. They want they want to see something fast but they're not thinking about the life cycle of the tree. So great. It looks really great at 15 years, 20 years it's st and then 22 years it's down. And in the last 5 years it's dropping branches every time the wind blows. Sure. Yeah. And I asked you know I I was I'm from St. Paul originally and growing up a long time ago someone had decided that all almost all the trees they were going to plant were ash trees and emerald ashbor came through and you know all of a sudden there weren't many trees and so you know obviously I think avoiding potential potential future issues along those lines kind of why I'm curious about how much there's there's a intentional diversification of planting so that if something comes through like that again you don't lose everything Right. All right. Well, I hate to disappoint, but that's the end of mine. I know. Oh, but now it's Seth's turn, so don't worry. We're not all done. Oh. Oh, I warmed him up for you. Here we go. Less colorful slides. Uh, we'll be brief with the Robert's rules. This is just kind of an overview. Obviously, the commission does quite well with this, so a lot of it you'll already know. Um, of course, if you have questions, just feel free to stop and ask. Uh, so little bit about, uh, Robert's rules quickly. It, um, was written by a, uh, distinguished member of the military like we have some here. Um, Henry Martin Robert, a United States Army officer. It's most widely used manual of uh, parliamentary rules in the United States. Um, so it keeps meetings fair, organized, and efficient. Make sure everyone has a chance to speak. Um, helps groups make clear decisions. It also helps when we, um, write minutes so that it's clear for the public record. Common terms that you'll see is motion, seconding a motion, discussion, and a vote. Um, so anybody can make a motion. Um obviously uh the chair does give direction from staff as to what needs a motion but um there can be some variation in that. If uh someone wants to make a motion or second a motion or have discussion about something specifically you are more than welcome to do so. Um and then of course after discussion having having a vote um which is uh generally going to be um the chair is going to uh um have the directive over that order of business and typical meeting flow. This is very similar to what you see at every meeting. Uh, call to order, roll of attendance, uh, roll call or attendance, approval of the previous meetings, minutes, uh, public comments, any reports from staff or other entities, old business, things that we had left from previous meetings, new business, uh, whatever new items to discuss and [Music] adjournment. This is very simple basic speaking rules. Only one person speaks at a time. Um there are different a few different ways that uh you can do this by like raising your hand or being recognized by the chair before speaking. Of course, the commission does a great job with this. Staying on topic and being respectful and no interrupting. There's no issues here with any of that. Uh role of the chair keeps the meeting on track, calls on people to speak, and states motions and leads votes. Thankfully, our commission is fairly simple, so a lot of this um you know is pretty clear. And lastly, um we have voting, tableabling or postponing a motion, as well as uh some things when you're not sure. So, as far as voting goes, it's usually done by a simple majority, um more than half. Common methods will be a voice vote, a or no, or a or nay. um show of hands or roll call. Um obviously that can uh vary a little bit. Like when I worked at the legislature, it was a roll call. Here we do a or nay. Um tableabling or postponing a motion. If the group isn't ready to to decide, someone can say, "I move to table this motion until next meeting." Uh kind of like what we had to do with commissioner training because of uh the other items that we had on the agenda. And of course, when you're not sure, ask the chair, ask staff. Um, you can say point of order, can you clarify what we're voting on? Um, obviously, we don't expect the um exact language in the decorum. Once again, this commission does a really nice job with the basics of Robert's rules and what we need. So, that's uh that's all I have. Thank you. And that be your attorney for the amendment. Great. First time I saw that you missed the other last year. Yeah. Yeah. Helpful. Okay. Reports and information planning and project that is in your packet. Uh we don't have councelor Nichols on, but we do have city administrator Tobin here. So feel free to give them all your questions. Sorry about it. Unless this is the meeting that no one has any you intimidate them apparently. No, I think that we just built a bridge of trust. Yeah. [Applause] That was really good. How are we doing for finding money at for city park? The good news is we have all the money we need. The bad news is it's in your wallet. No, that's a joke. Unless it's not. Yeah, I'm kidding. I the reality is uh I just want to remind everyone that that the council has committed to the scope of the park if you recall last February. So we we we developed this is what we want for the phase. This is what we need to accomplish. And so I just want to remind everybody that that there's a commitment there. We're committed to doing it. Now we have to figure out the timeline to achieve that commitment. and that's contingent on available funding. Uh sometimes people will ask like, "Okay, you see other neighboring cities, they'll bond. Uh they'll do a referendum in order to to increase taxes." There's other strategies that you can use, but all of those other strategies are going to negatively impact taxes. It's going to increase your levy because if you rebond, that's going to have debt service associated with it. And there's a reluctance in our community to to increase taxes. There's a desire to maintain a flat levy uh or as close to a flat levy as possible. That's that's just the reality of of uh the general consensus of our council, which is reflective of the desires of the community. That's important to remember. So, we could make different decisions. The reasons we're choosing to do this, I think, is partially good stewardship, too. And so we do what we can with what we have. We've committed to do the whole project. But much like if you have a project at your house, you have a choice. You can go to the bank and borrow the money or talk to a family friend who might give it to you at a really good interest rate. Uh but but we're choosing not to do that. We're choosing to work within the means that we have. Uh so to answer the question, what what do we have right now? Uh at at the last uh vote of the council meeting, uh we brought forward or um the community development department, Jessica and Natalie brought forward a proposal of here's your options. Choose your own adventure. How do we do it? And um what what I think is admirable is there was a desire to not say no to anything in particular. Well, the challenge is in saying yes means that you're also scoping your yes. Does that make sense? So, so the priority is the playground. They made that very clear with the motion followed closely by the building for a lot of different reasons. One of the things that I think came up in the discussion that's important for us to remember is we have different perspectives on what it means to recreate. We have we have different ideas just like what what does the community of Corkran think rural character means has everything to do with who you talk to. Mhm. And and that's the beauty of Corkran is is we're big enough and diverse enough to have all of these different ways of thinking about what rural character means and we can live together. So why why do we need a building? I've been asked that so many times. Because for some people recreating means getting together for their grandkids kineta. It means celebrating grandma's 90th birthday. It it it means the small wedding because we can't afford the big venue. Learning how to hunt safely, hunter safety courses, you know, uh having recreational programming that we haven't had a space to be able to offer indoors because we're contingent on good weather for a lot of our recreational programming. All of it. Yeah. and and so that there's a lot of things that a new space will afford in terms of people being able to recreate. It also means bathrooms when we go to recreate. If you've ever taken your little kids, little ones going to the playground, at least one of them needs to go potty and so you need bathrooms. And so we knew we needed to do bathrooms. If you're going to invest in the building, then why not do as much as we need to? We needed to build the bathrooms regardless. Uh and so council's priority was the playground and then the building. What that means is all right, we don't have enough money to do everything. So where can we cut costs? Uh one of those is we're going to do uh what's necessary for parking because we can expand parking over time. So if we're going to spend dollars, would much rather spend it on the amenities in the playground than parking spaces. That's the logic behind that. Uh because we're going to be reimbursed for the trail uh from for the Diamond Lake Trail going through there uh for that portion of it. Um that's part of the plan. We're going to be able to do that because we know we're going to be able to cash flow it. Uh our our team has done a really good job of chasing grants. We'll find out if we got more money. Uh two more grants were applied for. JCB's done a fantastic job of chasing that down. uh we have some money in the hopper uh that that we have to spend and so while there's a desire if you saw the last council meeting and there's been continued discussion like okay uh question came up is the slide tall enough we all thought it was by the way not everyone but I should say all I think it's a legitimate question so if if you watched uh offline questions before we got there. I mistakenly said, "You can never have a slide this tall enough." I said that to a council member. And then when I got down and I sat down with the engineers and I was like, "Oh, this isn't my first playground. I built a lot of playgrounds." I'm like, "You're right. We've got to make a builder a bigger container because you have to have the safety fall zones." And so if we're going to do that, that requires new engineering and the bigger container means more money. and and it just snowballs really fast. And so this desire to deliver the playground in an affordable way gets threatened. And and so then then you have to look at those trade-offs and and trade-offs. We got to want to get as much for the children as we can. Uh and that's a lot to say. I think there's been some great thought, some fabulous discussion, and we're going to get as much as we can with the dollars that we can have. So, the short answer is I don't know how many dollars we have today because we are grabbing them every chance we can get. Uh you you you've got a roll out, but but there's still more developments are coming in. So, I'm talking with Oh, no. I've got a much better idea of where we sit and I think it's closer than I think that you think. No, no. I I was going to get to that. Okay. that I think with the other money that we have that because we know that development money is going to come in for park development. Um my position is going to encourage council to cash flow as much as we can and accept a little bit of risk because it's the margins very very close right now to do what we committed to. And so if we can get that buffer, if we don't quite have it, our cash flow isn't going to have to be years. We're, you know, if we if we bond for it, you're bonding for 10 20 years. Whereas if we just need to cash flow for 3 to 6 months until the next development comes in, that's a whole different conversation. So uh I think we're there. That's the short answer at this first phase for for for what what we want to do for this first phase. Staff has done val the the the catchy phrase is value engineering to to make sure that we're being as smart with the dollars as we can to get as much as we can with every buck that we have. And uh so I had one more question there that's kind of sat with me last time. We talked about like naming rights and sponsorships, but I think I heard you say the city can't actually approach anyone organizations. Is there anything like we can do in that? So So solicitations dangerous, but but we're also saying we want to, right? So who who wants to partner with us? Uh some some folks if if you weren't aware, we just passed a solicitation ordinance. Uh it's on the website. go look for it because it is the season for people to come knock on your doors and if you don't want we now have example signage that you can put on your door in order to make sure that they will leave you alone. Uh peddlers, solicitors, and those sorts of folks. But we don't want to be in that category and approach folks and have it uh it's just a bad look for the city and legally it's problematic. Uh but if you know of folks in in your world that are interested, definitely say, "Hey, you know, so so some some corporate organizations have foundations that are are that are looking for ways to invest in communities. Uh some service organizations are always looking for ways, particularly when they have charitable gambling funds because they have to spend it down and so they're trying to look for the good cause if if if you're part of those organizations. Uh those are those are great ways. Uh endowments. We haven't done an endowment here for a park, but it's not out of the question. So, um if if somebody were trying to think about, hey, grandma really really loved Corkran's open spaces. Uh would a portion of her estate be helpful to help fund the future of the park? I don't know if that answered your question. Yes, that's right. I have a question. Um, I hate to keep hitting on the bonding, but I kind of want to understand it. So, I don't understand how city finances work specifically, but you said additional bonding would raise taxes. Yes. So, does that mean all of our tax revenue that we take in is 100% spoken for? Like, so annual budgets. Yes. uh it's it's spoken for. Uh so so um and remember your your whole tax bill, the city's portion of it, yeah, is is a very small portion of it. In fact, I would say we are the most responsible portion of it if you look at what other people's are. Uh we're we're conscientious stewards of all the dollars that we take. Uh and we're very transparent about where those dollars are, too. That's not true of all of our sister agencies. You're not clear where every dollar is spent. We're very transparent about that. It's reported every financial claims go up every month or at every meeting. We're we're showing and then we're reporting quarterly. Um so with our annual budget, uh some cities go I'll try to keep this really slow, but we're a growing city, so our tax capacity is constantly growing. And some cities go where your current tax capacity is to the new increased tax capacity with growth. we're just going to increase your taxes by that much. A lot of cities do that and be because uh the growth the there's an understanding with increased growth has increased demand for services which means you need more people, you need more equipment, you need more time on task. Uh Corkran has chosen not to apply that philosophy. We've chosen to maintain a flat rate. So, we've consciously left some money on the table because uh just because the tax capacity increases, we want to maintain the flat rate so that the taxes aren't going like everyone else's. So, like I I live in Chiaska, my taxes increase by 24%. Uh one year because they had a major building project. We've decided not to have that. I think the city does a great job of that, too. But if if it's a budgeting issue, then in theory, when we're updating the budget, then it's a prioritization thing, then possibly increasing taxes, right? So we we don't have a huge line in our budget outside of uh operationally in in parks maintenance and in programs and services with JCB and what we supported. Our parks and trails, our parks and recreation budget is minimal, very small. Uh and um our budget as a whole for the size of our city isn't isn't super huge. Um, and we operate lean. Like I I could double our staff and we would mirror some of our neighboring some of our neighboring growing cities. Uh, we operate very lean. Um, but part of it prioritization uh and and part of it is expectation which is what driving prioritization. Yeah. So if we had to I mean we could bond and not in theory and not increase taxes if we adjusted some other areas. Well debt debt service still has to get paid. Oh yeah. So it's either going to be tax levy or um like when we do a water treatment bond that we're paying the debt service for that with our utility bills. Got it. You know so the water revenue is going to generate the debt service from that so it's not impacting the taxpayer. Uh so so when you can find ways to do that, some cities pass a referendum because they have a lot of services and they do a sales tax and so there's a whole bunch of cities that pay for their parks and recreation programs through sales tax. Adine is a great example. Uh Bloomington, huge example. You've got so many commercial uh revenues coming in there that their sales tax makes for a pretty good budget. That's no corporate. We don't have a lot of commercial. Yeah. The the tire warehouse might not be happy with us. So, as we look at something like the 2040 comprehensive plan where we've got a a fair amount of development that's being proposed, I mean, are we looking at that as a future boon to find to funding or some people think that that's the way that it works, but I just said when you add more people, you add more you add more capacity, you also add more demand. and and so it's it's incremental change. Not going to say it's not a huge change, but it's incremental change. So So uh as we have more demand, we'll have more users for parks programs. We'll have more demand of parks. We're going to have to increase the budget. This was a discussion that we had not so long ago about what our winter trails maintenance standards are going to be. That's exactly the conversation that we're having because there's an expectation for some folks that this service which we haven't delivered before should occur. We don't currently have that within our budget. So when you expand the pie, the current pie because we've added more people to it, that pie also means that we have to feed more people with that pie. And if you're adding another line to feed the pie, then you you everybody has to pay more. and is that something that people want to do? Um, and so going back to the winter's trail maintenance, uh, there will be a time when it's appropriate is kind of the general consensus, but that time is not yet. That that time will be when we have, you know, so currently our trail systems, as we were just talking about connectivity and connections. We don't have that. So in order to maintain it, you have to truck your equipment all these different places. So it's not efficient. uh you're wasting a lot of time, you're wasting a lot of manh hours. Uh once we have loops, then it's really easy to drop the equipment off and they can go and do it and complete it when you when you can loop the trails. Uh so that will still mean we'll have sections that may not be maintained to the same standards, but those that can be maintained without a lot of increased expense, it's more easy to justify. Are the city's financials available online or where where do you get a copy? So, so we do an annual financial report that's available online. Okay. And then the budget uh gets briefed every year. So there's a the briefing in December every year is called truth and taxation. Uh so we talk about the whole budget. what we did this year that would be interesting to if you want to go back and look at uh this year each department briefed their budget. So they went in depth into their budget because I really value transparency. So why are we doing and then we also get guidance like there's some trade-offs we're having to make decisions. All right, we've got to make a decision about personnel. Are we going to go with this action figure or are we going to go with this type of action figure because we can't afford them both? So what which type of action figure would the council like us to hire? And those are all in those briefings as well. So I think it's December 12th statutes and taxation and then the the budget briefings for each of the departments are prior to that. Thank you. Okay. Moving on. Parks, Recreation, Trails Update. I want to make this quick. Uh, Garden Club, their stuff is ordered. Uh, a concrete pad is being installed by public works in the back for the shed. And then myself and likely Mike Pritchard will be building said shed. Uh, I will potentially reach out. Somebody should video Mark. I don't think it's that funny. I build stuff at home all the time. got something that $200 one. Uh we did. Yeah, we got a better shed. Um it's bigger in size. It's going to be able to serve their needs a little bit better. Good. Um and I got some help from Mike with that as well. So, if you don't think I can build a shed, I'm sure you don't think I could pick one out. So, don't worry. I got help with that, too. Uh that all said, that's going in. Um park planning, Jay had mentioned two grant applications went in. They did. One of them was to the tune of like 370 pages. Um, so they they are time consuming, but we are trying to track down any funding we can. So if anyone has anything that they see, shoot it over, preferably review it first and see if we're definitely not eligible and then just like delete it. Um, the special events. So we're preparing for night toight. We're using See My Legacy as that platform for volunteers. It seems like it's working well. That was my guinea pig attempt. Next step, it's going to be garden club. I'm so I'm so serious. I think it's a good way to get some involvement. Um step two it challenge if you guys recall that was a May initiative. They actually sunseted the program for Henipin County and we cannot we don't have the staff capacity nor the IT tools to be doing frontloading that project. So unfortunately that's going to be sunset here. Um tree giveaway Saturday of next weekend. So not this Saturday, next Saturday is going to be the handout. So if anyone is interested, I did send out an email. But again, let me know because why? We might need a notice. Thank you so much for listening. Uh, youth athletics, 37% of those registered are residents of Corkran. Um, teams have been finalized, schedules created, uniforms ordered, coaches contacted. I think I am short at this point. Only two coaches, which I know. Um, but so everything's getting going in the midst of all of the other craziness that spring season brings. So, questions, comments on that. Other things, council, um the federal funding agreement went to council to get approval to submit the forms and Oh, I thought you had my Oh, sorry. Um, so we have to get through all of that process in order to draw out of those funds. So, we're working very diligently to try and get that federal funding finalized so that we can start pulling from that. Um, similar to what Jay was talking about cash flowing the project, that's a good place to start. So, uh, the grant proposals went to the council during the last meeting as well as a design update. Uh, it for city park and then it is anticipated to go back to council next week for authorization to go out for bid. So, that would be for the site work and the building. The playground is a direct purchase. So that doesn't require a bidding process. Questions. Awesome. It's been busy. Do we have a garden club report? Tree giveaway. Just the tree giveaway. Tree giveaway. Yeah. Do you have enough volunteers? Well, I I haven't count, but I think it's it's close. Yeah. Commissioner Anderson, do you have a head count on how many folks are on your district or how many folks are part of your garden club? I keep getting asked that now. How many are are in the garden club? Yeah. Uh it's fewer than a dozen. Okay. Are are any of them from uh St. Terres yet? I don't believe so. Okay. When when they had their grand opening, I I talked to a bunch of folks. JCB's put gotten over there and put some advertising up. So, I was just curious if anybody has has connected with anyone yet. Were they gonna get back to JCB? Well, it's got my information on the flyer and a QR code, so I would assume so, but I haven't. QR code. I got a QR code and my email on there. I can only do so much, but my email's so long that I'm scared people are going to make a typo with it. Yeah, I'm sure that happens. You are great. I bet it happens a lot. You seen that thing? It's probably the longest one in the city. We might be better off just to give more flyers and pull this up and drop it off over here. Yeah. Pick the little thing with a flower on set up a drop. But but one of the things I they they started their own little version to take care of some of their gardening there. And and I I connected with a couple of those folks and I was like, "Hey, if you've got a green thumb, there's a bunch of retired farmers in there that are just looking to get their hands dirty." Uh so um I was like, "Hey, this is a lot more fun opportunity." Yeah. And they if they probably have overflows, they probably have a waiting list. Those Yeah. So So potentially fertile ground. Yeah. Absolutely. For recruiting. Cool. All right. Park dedication fund. Any questions? Nice job. Let's go. is the 4 the one on the bottom I anticipated or what's the last item on this? Oh, I think that was just I had run the report through 430. So ah if you look like 424 that's an anticipated invoice that's going next week. So 424 we don't have an anticipated 430 is just the end of the report I think is what are those totals? Yep. Well, no. This is the total the 5.9 5.87. So, where what's the 1.9 million? That's the total debits. Mhm. Oh, I see. And then the total credits. So, the difference of 1.5 million gain. And then other things, right? You'll notice that there's highlighted parts. Um there was a private park donation. So the way that the accounting is set up is definitely outside of my purview a little bit and I'm trying to understand it a little bit better so that I can bring that information forward to you guys. But there's park dedication funds and then there's private donations and other forms of donations. So they all kind of go into their separate bucket. the private park donation will go into its a different bucket with like the handover and corporate athletic association donations and the JC's and then that Menard's charge is actually for garden club so that will come out of the memorial garden fund at the bottom is that for the broom huh was that for the broom she got the best one I could find the broom no but now I'm realizing I think I still need to buy the broom so I'm like It's the instructions for the shed. Oh, no. The two are cold. Uh, since I am newer here, I do just have a question on the funds and how they're sourced. Yeah, I guess you know why why how many? So, you know, I'm just looking at the line items like so Lar the Tivera sixth I imagine that's their sixth installment. How many installments are there? So, it's different phases. Okay. Those phases can differ both in terms of density, uh, complexity, what's going in there, different phases of the development in that. Okay. Yeah. So, so for example, you to use Tivera as an example. So one phase might have been all single family homes and the calculus for the park development fee is different than another phase that maybe had multifamily homes uh or town homes that that's going to be that's going to have a different calculation. Mhm. Uh and so each each phase when the development comes through, that's really what when you have your opportunity to see like, okay, how could this impact us? And and JCB had mentioned this. We're we're looking at the park development fees because they get a a high level of scrutiny uh in terms of controversial issues in in development. If if you didn't know, uh there was a lawsuit that happened from developers that involved a couple cities. Uh Corpin was one of those cities. Uh and and so we are very conscientious with how we charge what we charge to make sure that it passes the test of public scrutiny because it gets a lot of scrutiny. Aren't we pretty much in line with most other cities? We're lower than some. In fact, there there's several that that are higher than ours. Uh but if we're going to error, we want to error on the side of conservative. Uh because that's what's going to get us in trouble. And then the funds are paid on each phase as they break ground on them. So the the timing of the payment is part of the development agreement. So that that can change. Got it. Where's that? Any other questions? All right. Uh, no other business. So, would someone like to make a motion to adjurnn? So, moved. Any uh do we have a second? I second. Any further discussion? Got that from the votes. No. Okay. Uh, all those in favor? I motion passes. Procedure.