The Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 meeting of the Eden Prairie City Council is now called to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. It's customary during this time of the meeting for me to read an open podium invitation. Open podium is an opportunity for Eden Prairie residents to address the City Council on issues related to Eden Prairie City government. Prior to each council meeting, typically the first and third Tuesday of each month, these open podiums occur from 6:30 to 6:55 right here in the council chamber. If you wish to speak at open podium, please do contact the City Manager's office at 952-949-8412 by noon of the meeting date with your name, your phone number, and subject matter so we can be better prepared for you. Open podium is not recorded or televised. If you have questions about open podium, please do contact the City Manager's office. Mr. Gatro, we do um have um a couple donations to receive this evening. We we do, Mayor. Uh very um very excited about um the first one. The second one, Amy's going to cover both of these. The second one is something that we do quarterly. Um the first one is a very unique, uh exciting, large donation uh that Amy is going to cover. Ms. Marco. Yeah, thank you, Mayor Council. You know, as many people know, we have a beautiful art center in Eden Prairie, and we're really fortunate to receive a large donation in the past month. So, I just wanted to highlight that. As many of you know that Eden Prairie Art Center is a community-focused hub that offers creative programs for all ages and skill levels. You know, we see anyone from toddler age through seniors. And the building was generously donated to the city in 2008 and continues to grow in our public programs, summer camp, special events, and just the number of artists of all ages that we see continues to grow each year. To foster our commitment to careers and leadership in the arts, an arts internship program has been discussed among staff and developed, and an anonymous donation of $50,000 has been committed for 2 years to support the internship. This position will be a year-round internship that will offer a wide breadth of experience in visual and performing arts programming, events, marketing, center management, and creative storytelling to help foster that bridge between the center and the diverse community here in Eden Prairie that it serves. So, again, we're just so excited for this donation and grateful, appreciative, and we will be putting it to great use and growing a talented staff for the arts profession. It's It's really an amazing donation, $50,000. That's um pretty rare. The city is very fortunate. Yeah, I was going to add, Mayor, I know obviously anonymous is anonymous, right? So, you can't That's important to the person to be anonymous, but I think this is something that this particular person's provided several donations over the years and uh you obviously want to respect their anonymity, but um I mean, you can't thank that person enough for the the um passion and the care they have for the Eden Prairie Art Center and and what they've given uh back to the community is is just you can't thank them enough. That's it's obviously something that um really supports the city. No, we are um filled with gratitude, deeply appreciative. Uh counselor, we do need a motion to adopt the resolution accepting this amount. Moved to approve. Moved to adopt the resolution accepting anonymous donation of 50,000 to the Eden Prairie Art Center internship program. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Um Dr. Marco, I apologize. I forgot that you are Dr. Marco when I used the word Ms. So, um um that's actually I'm I think we're about the only city around that has a a park and rec director that has her doctorate. So, that's pretty impressive. Oh, well, thank you. >> What was it in again, recreational something? >> it's in education. Just not just, but um but nothing particular to recreation or Yeah, the focus uh we looked at equitable access to decision-making in urban park systems. Okay, that connects. That ties in. Well, anyway, um Dr. Marco, I think we have another um item that is yours. Yeah, so this is the time uh each quarter we accept our quarterly donations. And over the past quarter, we've uh accumulated a total of $4,275. Um and it helps fulfill our mission of providing access and opportunity and enhancing the programs and events that we are able to offer to the community to low to no cost for our residents and to highlight those businesses that have generously donated. We had a $250 donation from Custom Care Mobility for Senior Center events. The Summit Place Campus generously donated $400 for the Senior Center events. Synergy Home Care $250 for the Senior Center. Saint Croix Hospice $175. Landmark $200. That specifically went for our shred truck event to help support that. And Wall Trends donated $200 for our Hometown Celebration, which will be coming up July 3rd and 4th. We're already seeking sponsors and donation for that festival. And then BrightStar Care donated $200 for our Senior Center events. Choice Connections $250 for Senior Center. Joyful Companion $50 for bingo at the Senior Center. Um uh particular donor Joanne Wilson generously donated $200. Home Watch Caregivers $100. And lastly, Lion's Tap donated $2,000 that will be evenly splitting amongst all Park and Rec events throughout the year. So, thank you to everyone who's donated. Um we are very appreciative. Nice. Thank you. And I have I say this every time we accept these donations that the city yes, we do collect quite a bit in tax dollars, but we can't do everything. And these donations allow us to do that go that extra step in any event depending on what was it was donated to, but we're really very appreciative of all these different groups and businesses that gave money. Council, we need a motion on this to accept. I'll move to adopt the resolution accepting multiple winter quarter 2026 donations to parks and recreation. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. All right, moving on to the agenda. Uh any um parts of it that you wish to question or anything you want to add under council member reports? And there is Was there going to be something? No. There was a a just uh um not a change, but an addition. >> Yeah, addition, Mary. Yes. So, we have >> I'll give it to you. Over to you. Thank you, Mayor. Council. So, we do have an item that was brought uh early this week added to the consent agenda and it'd be consent agenda item T. Um it's an added resolution supporting an application to the Department of Employment and Economic Development um for the Forward Fund program. So, basically, what this is is asking for resolution of support from the City Council um for the state of Minnesota um one of their funds to support a business that would come in to Eden Prairie to a facility in Eden Prairie possibly. It's all It's all very tentative. Uh the resolution of support for a business to potentially bring a 450 jobs by the end of the decade. Uh uh unnamed business at this time to a location that they want to keep confidential, but it's a resolution of support um at this time for what they're calling project beam. So, uh the resolution is a action that the state needs for the city to provide support. So, unless you had questions on it, we would just simply include it. It is already in consent calendar and we'll just um take one large vote on A through T. Uh any um Well, that's later. So, I was jumping ahead of myself. First, we need to approve the agenda with this addition to the consent calendar. Uh is there a motion to approve? Move to approve the agenda with added item in the consent calendar. Is there a second? All those in favor say I. All those say I. Moving on to the minutes, we have the two meetings, the workshop and the regular council meeting held back on March 3rd. Anything that you wanted to correct, add, edit to the minutes of either meeting? If not, is there a motion to accept both of them? I'll move to approve the following city council minutes. City Council workshop held Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026 and City Council meeting held Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. All those say I. All right. Now moving on to the consent calendar A through T. Are there any items A through T that you wish to question, learn more about, even you could vote on it separately if you wished. Anything or can we vote on all of it? With that, then is there a motion to approve items A through T on the consent calendar? Move to approve items A through T on the consent calendar. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. All those say I. All right. Mr. Gachter, we have two public hearings this evening and I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you, Mayor and Council. First public hearing is Chestnut Town Homes by Redtail Residential. This is a comprehensive plan amendment actually going from medium-high density residential to medium on 5.72 acres. This is a proposed uh development of 53 town home units on two properties located at the intersection of Chestnut and Carmody and Windsong Drive. The developer, as I mentioned, is proposing 53 townhome units in and around area that already includes townhome developments in the area. The planning commission voted to recommend 8 to 0 that the project move forward to the city council at their March 9th meeting. The applicant is here to provide a presentation also because I don't want to go into too much detail because staff also has presentation that they'd like to give because there is an update that staff would like to provide on some details of the project and an update of progress made between planning commission and council as well. So, if possible, we would like the applicant to provide their presentation. Staff has a presentation that they would like to do and then obviously council could hold the public hearing and then staff and the applicant could answer any questions that um that anybody would have of of the project. Sounds good. Applicant, please come forward. Name and where you're from, what company? Yeah, my name's Dugan Garrison and I work with Creed Group who represents Redtail Multifamily Land Development on this deal. Um not sure how to There we go. Thank you. Just want to make sure. Perfect. Um as city manager Rick mentioned, we are looking to develop a 53 unit townhome development at Carmany and Chestnut Drive in Eden Prairie. Um I'm joined tonight by members of our project team. We have our civil engineer here, Loucks Engineering, our architects with um >> [clears throat] >> Sorry, with our architects Cass Wilson and then our also property management team as well. All right. >> [clears throat] >> There we go. So, Red Tail is a fully integrated multi-family developer with experience across the country. Um they have been doing acquisition, development, construction for a very long time. And they also have been doing extensive property management for all their developments as well. They currently own and manage over 13,000 units nationwide and focus on delivering high-quality workforce housing with strong long-term management. On this slide, there's a few representative projects in not only Eden Prairie, but um other areas around the country, as well. So, um just to provide a little bit of the context and high characteristic development that they provide and manage. All right. As I mentioned, um this is the project team, uh and we also have the property management group here today. But, uh we are the project managers as part of Creed Group at Kenzie Red Tail Multi-Family Development. Our architect is Gaskill Wilson and our engineer is Laucks Engineering. All right. So, here's a few project details. As mentioned, it's a 53-unit townhome development. It's located on approximately 5.7 acres. We are providing three inclusionary housing units at or below 30% of AMI. And um the development also includes 9,000 square feet of open space. We believe that it is well positioned within the existing community. Site is surrounded by existing residential uh developments, including apartments and townhomes. Um as you can see by the three different highlighted areas. And we believe that our site is consistent with the surrounding development pattern and is designed to complement the existing neighborhood. This is an overall site plan showing a private internal drive, distributed building placement throughout the site with the integrated landscaping and buffering around the community, as well as adding a few additional plantings or quite a few additional plantings on the southern half. This is um this plan [clears throat] seems like it's uh southern would be just the bottom here, but we're actually looking at plan uh east would be our southern boundary, and that's where we added the planting due to plan commission feedback. >> [snorts] >> So, here's our north site plan. Provides a little bit more detail showing the appropriate setback requirements, as well as maintaining the open space that we can, and ensuring efficient circulation and access. Here's the south side. Same thing here. As I noted, um we provided some additional planting, and we've been going back and forth as well with HOA board to our south to make sure we come to an agreement of the best way we can incorporate the planting per their liking, as well. We have added 21 additional trees as shown on this exhibit. Um just makes it a little bit more clear as to what we actually added to the site. So, here's our unit mix. Don't want to get into too much detail here, but there is um going to be two um one-story two-bedroom units, two-story three-bedroom units, and three-story townhomes as part of this. And then, here is some property elevations. Um just going to quickly slide through these, but happy to go back at any point to go over any of these elevations and floor plans in more detail if there are questions. All right. So, on the next few slides is going to be our photorealistic renderings showing what the site will look like once developed from these three vantage points. Um so just keep this exhibit in mind. I can go back to it if there's any questions as well. So here's our first view from Windsong Drive. Shows the community pretty well developed into the area. We have a lot of landscaping around nice little um community park as we have integrated into the site plan as well. We believe it's going to promote a pedestrian friendly uh feel around the entire site as well as existing community. Here is our view from um Chestnut Drive. From the south site. And then here is the view from Carmody Drive. So um once again this is the southern parcel looking uh north northwest. And that is it. Thank you for your time. Happy to answer any questions obviously after staff gives their presentation as well. Sure. Council anything um in the moment we can continue on um unless you had something that you needed to ask right now. Uh I guess some questions but we can we can go on. Do you Okay. What? Yeah. Do you As long as you're coming back. >> be of the um developer right now or of our staff? No. Um actually actually if that's the case then it's probably should let's ask him right now. Okay. I mean we can always bring him back but let's ask him right now. Okay. Your renderings show some pretty good landscaping as far as growing and all that. Okay. The reality is you're clear cutting that property though too. Um I guess I got I'm looking at seven heritage trees going down. That's kind of sensitive spot over in Needville Prairie. Um and virtually every other tree is significant. There's some that are, you know, there's some in poorer condition, fair, I get that. But, is there no way you cannot clear-cut that property? I think that's a problem. I guess uh I hear it a lot over the years. Uh people care about their trees. And yeah, you're going to replace someone's stuff, but when you're talking heritage trees and stuff, and you're talking then putting up you know, larger sticks, for lack of a better term, where it's going to take 20 years to get, you know, looking at it. It's something to consider. And I guess I can't just look at this and not say something about it. Um And the other thing I was just looking at, too, three units are included under inclusionary at 30% AMI. Um I guess that's open for further discussion at this point here. It's just, you know, my biggest kick was those trees. Okay, thank you. Uh is there no other way of doing that? We have um fairly investigated that. Specifically, the southern site, right? Cuz that's where the majority of the heritage trees that you're um mentioning are coming down. Uh and it's on that southern >> concentration up in there. Yeah, exactly. The difficult part of that is there's pretty significant grades on that southern portion to where we'd have to we have to grade out that southern half in order to make a make the site viable to develop as much as possible. Um we've looked at other iterations of the site plan, and we've been doing that for the past 3 years, um in order to try and configure the best way we can eliminate retaining walls, save landscaping, save trees, um >> [clears throat] >> and just reduce impacts to the existing community or existing resources as well as community. And we believe that this is the best site plan that we can come up with. Cuz we had a we had a project once on Lincoln Drive. Um an apartment complex on it. And we're talking about the trees on the lot itself. It was wooded. And all of a sudden I drove past there and the whole thing looked totally clear-cut. And my phone started ringing. Uh people go, "That's not what we thought we're going to get." Uh and that wasn't truly clear-cut in their case, but it was like 90%. And that caused a problem for me with a few people. Um I just like to hear more, if that's fine. You know, I think it as far as I made my point on it right this point. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Do you want to ask the question now or how do you want to I I would I would say let's move on. Okay. I mean, I mean, just write them down and then we'll bring the developer back up because some of your questions may get answered as our staff reports or and I'm not sure if you're the applicant has anyone else that's going to be speaking, but so let's yeah, let's is that if that's okay, move on to the staff and stay handy. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Um so we'll go now to our staff report. Um and again, if there's a pressing question at the end of that, you can certainly ask Julie, otherwise we can call people back up. Go ahead. Mayor members of the council, thank you for the opportunity to provide a little additional information. Uh Robert and I have a few slides to share on some of the topics that were talked specifically about at the planning commission public hearing, primarily focusing on the trees, noise from the construction project, as well as traffic impacts. So starting off with um the very the first conversation topic of tree removal and replacement. So I just want to to give a little background, remind the council of the provisions that we do have in city code. City code allows for tree removal, but requires replacement based on the size of the tree that's being removed. Council member Freiberg mentioned heritage trees and significant trees, and those are the terms that we use for those trees that meet those minimum size measurements that then trigger tree replacement requirements. City code also allows tree replacement requirements to be met through the planting of new trees, or it can be met through the payment in lieu option. Some of you might remember that that payment in lieu option was provided in 2016-2017 as the city was talking about some of the infill development sites that have, you know, not been infill development, meaning they've stood stagnant for quite some time. So, then they develop a lot of volunteer and undergrowth, appearing a little more robust landscaping-wise than actually providing heritage and significant trees. So, that provision was provided in order to allow that tree replacement requirement to be met as a payment in lieu rather than on some sites that may not be able to support that level of tree replacement. In this slide, we talk about the the top table talks about what is happening on the site in terms of tree or tree removals. So, there are 53 trees totaling 900 caliper inches of significant trees that would be removed. There are seven trees that qualify as heritage, resulting in 311 caliper inches. Then the bottom table talks about the specifics of how that's being handled in terms of meeting code requirements. And I just want to remind you that there's the tree replacement component, but there's also a landscaping component that is required on all development projects in that is based on the size and scale, the massing of the property. So, uh the tree replacement requirement is a little over 1,000 in and that is being met through just a little bit shy of 300 in actually being planted on site and then a payment in lieu for the remaining 785 caliper in. When you look at the landscaping for the entire site, there will be 621 caliper in to be planted on site. 330 of those satisfy the landscape requirement for the size and scale of the building and 287 would apply towards tree replacement. So, when we look at those 621 caliper in being provided on site, there will be a result of 161 trees planted on site, 300 shrubs, and about a third of an acre of perennial plantings that would be provided on the site when the entire project has been completed. Some of the details regarding the tree removal, the majority of the significant and heritage trees proposed for removal are along the northern property line closest to the wetland and on the next slide I've got a graphic that depicts that for you. And then on the southern side of the project, there are only two significant trees along that southern property line abutting Pine Brook. The remainder of the greenery there is primarily buckthorn and undergrowth. So, as you look at this visual, you can see this being the south side, this kind of squiggly line, for lack of a better term, indicates kind of that undergrowth and buckthorn type of area. You can see a couple of trees included within that area. And then on the north side here, that tree removal area, you can see there's a fair number of trees in that area that are being removed. But, when you look at the entirety of the site, there is a lot of space in between there that is not encumbered by a lot of trees. So, the edges are really where that impact is being felt from a tree removal standpoint. Some of the history on this site. So, when the Reserve Apartments to the west were developed, it was a part of the Chestnut area outlined in red was part of that project. So, you can see in the 1980s when Reserve came in, this was largely farmland, rolling hills, and the dark spots on the graphic indicate where there were trees. So, you can see historically this area was not heavily treated. It's not as if this property dating back carried a lot of trees. The trees that are there have grown up over time. The development plans actually for the Reserve indicated that the whole site was completely graded, and as we look at old aerials from the '80s and '90s, at one time there was a tennis court on the north and the south side. Then it looks like there was some other kind of sport court renovation that occurred there as well. Eventually, those have been removed, and now it's just bare area ahead of this project. Since the Planning Commission meeting, the developer has added some more trees as a buffer to Pinebrook on that south side, mitigating some of the removed caliper inches. The developer indicated they've also had conversations with the Pinebrook HOA, and they are proposing to plant 12 trees offsite in the Pinebrook neighborhood. Those trees don't count towards the tree replacement requirement because they're offsite. City code only allows those onsite to be counted toward that. So, they've added 20 or nearly 20 trees as a part of that those revisions. And then Robert will talk a little bit more about the traffic, but if you have any questions on the trees, I'm happy to try and answer or wait until after Robert has completed his comments. Any pressing questions or should we move on? No, good. Okay, Robert. Okay, Mayor, City Council, I'll cover some traffic issues that were raised during uh the uh Planning Commission and some of the comment that we've received since then, and also I'll discuss noise at the end. Um with respect to the traffic, the uh increased volumes that we're expecting with the development of this project, if you recall, this uh the site is actually has a guiding of the medium-high density, and so the previous proposal that was submitted to the city had a number of daily trips increasing to 540. Now, with this being a medium-density proposal, slightly less traffic, a total of 348 daily trips. And if you break that down into the AM and PM peak hours, you're seeing that there's about 24 added AM peak and 27 added PM peak trips. So, um not terribly consequential with the system that we have out there today. And if you take a look at that bottom chart, you'll see that Anderson Lakes Parkway today has an average daily traffic of about 6,300 vehicles per day. With the development, that increases about 350 to the 6,650. Typically, when we start seeing roadway capacity issues for a roadway with these types of geometrics, it's when they're hitting 8,000 up to 13,000 vehicles per day. So, there is some room in there for additional capacity. Similarly, when you look at Chestnut Drive, existing volumes today suggest around 1,600 vehicles. With the development, that increases to 1,830. We're seeing about 65% of the total traffic generated from the townhomes utilizing Chestnut as the ingress egress and then about 35% using Carmody Drive. So that's the breakdown between the two roadways that provide access. But again, looking at Chestnut Drive has a roadway capacity of up to 3,000 vehicles per day. So there's still room for additional traffic to grow into the future. Similarly, Carmody Drive we expect a roadway capacity of about 2,000. It's a slightly narrower road. It's about 3 or 4 ft narrower than Chestnut Drive. So that's why it has a slightly lower roadway capacity. I will point out we also did look at a four-way or an all-way stop condition at Chestnut Drive and Anderson Lakes Parkway. Typically what you look for there is an accident history. We're not seeing an accident history that would suggest moving to an all-way stop. You'd like to see around five vehicle accidents over a 12-month period. We're not near that number for a for a history of accidents. You also want to see about 200 vehicles per hour on the side street for 8 hours of the day. Right now the peak is at about 130 vehicles for 1 hour and then it significantly drops after that. So really nowhere near the type of volumes that you need to see on the side street for an all-way stop. Again, we would continue to monitor that. This is Anderson Lakes Parkway is one of the roads we keep close tabs on as far as monitoring traffic and looking for issues. So going forward with or without this project that is something that we will continue to analyze. Also want to bring up sight lines at Carmody and Anderson Lakes Parkway. So when you're on Carmody approaching the stop sign at Anderson Lakes Parkway coming out of the Pinebrook town home association area we've heard because of the curve in the roadway, the vertical change, the road drops. There's also a berm, there's a number of trees and branches and you can see in this photo there are some sight obstructions that exist there. Um the large uh deciduous tree that's appears to be outside of the right-of-way and on the private property uh side of that line uh does create an obstruction. If you're familiar with the area, you maybe learn a way to kind of approach the intersection slowly so you can see around it and then move forward in a safe manner to see on the other side of it, but for people that maybe aren't as used to driving this roadway, I could see how that could be a challenge looking for a gap in traffic on Anderson Lakes Parkway. So, if there was a desire to improve those sightlines, I think you can add another 100 ft of distance sight distance by the removal of that deciduous tree and maybe some trimming of some evergreen branches, um but I think that's something that um can be dealt with in the future if it becomes a problem. Looking at the accident history here over the last 10 years, I haven't seen any type of a correctable accident that was caused by uh sightlines. What I've seen is on Anderson Lakes Parkway, I think there were three accidents in the last 10 years of rear-end vehicles. So, somebody was turning left or right, vehicle behind them ran into the back of them, so not really a correctable accident or a cause of this. And then there was one additional accident, a driver on Carmody Drive was on their phone, didn't realize there was a stop sign, and blew through it and caused an accident. So, four accidents over 10 years isn't suggesting that there's an issue that needs to be resolved by this. I'm simply pointing out that you could improve sightlines if you wanted to by the removal of that tree, but that would be at the decision uh I guess of the homeowners association because that would be their vegetation. Uh next I want to bring up pedestrian crossings because we do have two signed and marked crosswalks across Anderson Lakes Parkway, one at Chestnut, one at Carmody. And uh in doing this review, we would like to see because it meets the warrants for a RRFB at the Chestnut Drive. And that's because this is a trail to trail connection. Those are in our um world of pedestrian and bicycle access, that's kind of our primary routes is trails, and then sidewalks are more secondary. Because this is a trail to trail connections, it meets that warrant for an RFB. We're suggesting that be installed with the development. Carmody may or may not warrant it because this is a trail to sidewalk. We need to see about 20 pedestrian crossings over the course of the day. We've been monitoring it. We're close. We don't really see that. I suspect that when the warmer weather, maybe school discharges for the for session, we might see more activity at this crosswalk. So, we want to continue to monitor that. And if we do meet the warrants of those 20 crossings in the course of a day, we'd like to see that installed with the development as well. And that's something that we've been talking about uh with them. So, that would make it a uh safer crossing for people that are trying to cross Anderson Lakes Parkway. Uh and then the last thing I'll bring up on the traffic spectrum is the issue that has been brought up by a number of people about on-street parking causing congestion, making travel difficult, particularly on Chestnut, but also to a lesser degree maybe on Carmody and Winsong. And uh so, if you were to go out there today, you'll notice we do have no parking from midnight to 8:00 in the morning, November through April. So, during the winter, we have no parking restrictions on a portion of Carmody. I would suggest, and this photo was taken just a few I guess our last snowstorm, um Chestnut Drive. It was parking um bumper to bumper the entire uh section of Chestnut Drive. And this usually happens when the Reserve Apartments needs to clear their lots, they order all of their patrons out onto the road so that they can clear for a day or two. I think it might be wise to post no parking on one side of Chestnut Drive. I believe the south side would be best. And that might need to be an all year 24 hours a day restriction just to keep that roadway open for emergency service vehicles. We've heard from a number of residents and neighbor this can be challenging. I've heard from the school district that bringing a bus in to pick up kids can be a challenge at time. So it might warrant doing something a little bit more aggressive than what's out there today. I will say before we did that do that, I would like to visit with the HOA at both Winsong and Pinebrook because I don't want spillover to occur onto their roadway. So it might mean that we need to do some more permanent restrictions on one side of the road there, too. But I would like to get input from the HOA before doing that. I have reached out to the management company with Pinebrook. Um the gentleman was out of the office for a few weeks, but I'd like to touch base with them to get their input. But I think that's something we're very receptive to and could assist. So So Robert, what do you envision would happen on a bad snow day when the apartments or the townhomes cleared their parking lots, yes, where would their cars go? I think they would need to be a more coordinated effort where they would work with They have a total of five actual apartments. They also have one over there off Anderson Lakes Parkway. I think that they would need to sequence that where maybe in the morning people on the north side of Chestnut need to vacate the lot, park out onto Chestnut, and then in the afternoon they could go back and then on the afternoon the south side might not need to do it. I think and I've been talking with their management company and they're trying to do a few things to help, but I think we're on the same page here that it's more than just telling everybody to get out of the lot for the day and then come back tomorrow that it's more coordinated and sequenced and uh a little bit more planning goes into this, so. So So Robert, if they park both side we cannot have like a fire truck going through the middle. I couldn't drive my vehicle down the middle when I took this photo. I had to back up on two occasions to let another car come through. So, it is a problem. >> Okay, and then I'll finish here with Did you have another question? Council member? Well, I can I'll wait. Construction noise. So, city code allows heavy equipment construction noise from 7:00 in the morning till 7:00 at night Monday through Saturday. It's prohibited on Sundays and holidays. Anything outside those hours, if we were to try to work with the developer on a reduction of that would be outside the ordinance. Enforcement would be difficult. I'm not exactly sure how that would work, what it would look like. Today, [clears throat] if somebody is working at 9:00 at night operating heavy machinery, resident calls 911, dispatch has a patrol officer go out, they resolve the issue possibly through a citation. If they're working within those bounds, but we have an agreement that maybe you shorten that timeline on a Saturday, maybe instead of 7:00 to 7:00 on Saturday, it's 9:00 to 7:00 on Saturday. If they're willing to agree to that through concessions that's possible to put it into agreement. But, I just want to highlight it might be difficult to enforce because when that resident calls and says, "It's 7:30, they're pounding nails." The police officer's not going to show up. That's not a code enforcement issue. It becomes something where either an inspector or some staff member has to go out and track down and we don't have a lot of tools or a mechanism to get them to not do that. Permits have already been issued. So, we'd have to get creative. I can't promise that there's a really ideal solution to that, but that would be the way you address it is through a development agreement. Um and I will say there's nothing non-standard about this development. There's no pile driving or that really aggressive obtuse type of practices that we would see here. It's the standard construction that you see with um Not to say that it isn't isn't impactful, but it's not atypical of what we've seen with almost every development in in Eden Prairie. >> [snorts] >> And that concludes our presentation. I have two questions. That because of this development we had to put out our RSP, right? Is it because Yeah, because of this development or we had to do anyway? I think it might be a good idea to do a good idea to do it anyway, but I think with the added traffic that it's come to our attention, it's maybe a little bit more of an acute issue that has been brought up through the whole public comment process. So in that case the developer paid if I remember right around 35 to 40,000 dollars to put one of those. Yes, for furnish and install. Is it developer paid for that? That would be our proposal within the development agreement. Okay. The second question I have since waiting for the developer since you're there you're probably going to answer anyway. There is an internal road there, right? You mentioned the internal road in the inside of the development. Who remove the snow and all that? Is that by HOA or or the city? Yeah, that'd be our own property management group. That would remove the snow within our community, correct? Private road. Okay. I think the reason I brought it up one of the development that we had that complaint came up their internal when they developed it HOA decided to do now something change and asking us to take over that internal road. I can talk to you about detail. You probably heard that complaint. So I'm just wondering are we going to have that kind of situation come up two years from now, you know? Sure. Okay, we can chat about that too because we've had a lot of experience with that. Yeah, yeah. Um Council, is it okay if we go ahead and hold the public hearing and then um when we close it, if you have more questions, we can continue our council discussion and ask anyone questions we wish. So, this is a public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to address the council tonight on this development proposal, the Chestnut Townhomes? Please come forward, give your name and address. A face from the past. >> I guess. Mayor, members of the City Council staff, Don Yorum. I live at 13600 Carmody Drive. So, in the Pinebrook neighborhood. I've lived there for 30 years and I am the president of the HOA. So, I have a lot of experience in this area with traffic and trees and everything else. So, if you have any questions, I can probably answer them. Uh I want to thank staff for the job that they did. You know, we submitted a number of questions and concerns regarding traffic and parking and um the staff did a great job to address those. The issue I'm here to talk about tonight is the landscaping. So, we had a meeting with the developer last week following our HOA board meeting and they presented the revised plan which you see tonight. We had a number of questions and concerns that we presented to the the developer which they had indicated they would answer those and provide them to us before tonight's meeting. We have not seen anything from the deve- from the developer addressing our concerns. So, some of our concerns include primarily with the Pinebrook piece because that's our you know, it's the south boundary, it's our north boundary. Uh it's the number of trees that are planted. There's a number of trees that are planted on our property, which we need to give them permission to do. Um there's a question about sizes and um restoration with our irrigation system. There's a question about warranties and you know, what happens if the trees die and that sort of thing. So, I guess my request in front of the city council tonight is we would like the city council to continue this project for 2 weeks or a month to give us an opportunity and for the developer to follow through on what they said in providing us with information that we can agree to on the additional tree plantings. Sure, Don. Yeah, any if there's any questions, I'm We'll call you back up to the podium. >> thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to address the council? Well, Don, we won't blow you off. We'll comment on that at when we begin to discuss, but anyone else wishing to address the council this evening? All right. Um We let's go ahead and close the public hearing then and then we'll um carry everything else into another motion. Do you want to make it, Lisa? >> Sure, just um move to close the public hearing. Right. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. I oppose. All right. Um Before we actually maybe begin to discuss um any issues you think you had or or I want to make sure to respond to Don Yurems as well. Um I'm it sounded like people had more questions of either the um applicant or staff. So, um should we just go down the way? Council member Freiberg, do you have some questions do you want to continue with or Well, what I brought up as far as like the trees. Um good presentation as far as from staff on that. Um I'm looking at it again and uh I I I guess I'm understanding that they're congregated in one area most of them. You know, I do understand that. And uh I think I got I got some of the answers that I was looking for through that. Are you good for now then? Pardon me? Good for now. I'm good for now. Yes. Um Council member Nelson. Um yeah, I've got one comment and one question. Um the comment is is the shrubs and the perennials and such assuming they're properly kept and everything sounds like they could be very good-looking. I like those. Um on your first um picture you had a playground. Is that playground actually going to be part of this development? And if it is, um what kind of long-term plan is there for upgrading and keeping it safe? Um yes, that it playground is part of our development. It's we have a tot lot proposed. We have some um other facilities around that area, benches. And so, that the maintenance of that facility will also be part of the property management group's upkeep. So, private. All right, thank you. Council member Narayan. I just have follow-up question. Is that mean HOA pick up the maintenance on the future of that Miss Nelson was talking about? Council member Yeah, it'll be the privately maintained like HOA property management group that will handle that. So. >> a rental. Yeah. Oh, oh, this is rental. Yeah, all these townhomes are rental. So, it's their company that will >> Yeah. I see. own it and manage it. Um, I have a couple more questions. Um. When I look when you presented today, I didn't see in terms of you didn't speak [clears throat] about guest parking. Yeah. So, there's four Yeah, I'm sorry to cut you off. Um, there's four guest parking spaces on each side of uh Carmody. So, there's [clears throat] four. >> what will be the ratio? Uh Well, let me correct myself. There's four specifically designated or eight total for both the north and south side, but that doesn't include the four parking spaces per unit where there's two in the garage and two in the driveway. So, um total there's um 100 or 200 and uh 21, I think, spaces. Right? 53 units. Yeah. So. And now are you allowed to park on the road, private road? No. Oh, yeah, no. Not on our private road, not on any other So, so like Christmas, whole bunch of guests came. Do they going to run out of parking space? That's my question. Um, if if a whole bunch of guests came, um, there would not be enough space for them, correct. But, there's four space >> Yeah, there's four spaces in addition to the driveway and garage spaces um on each side of uh the property. So, four on the additional on the south side and four additional on the north side. Um, but that would allow for eight additional spaces. >> Is there provisioning for EV charging in your garage? Uh we haven't gotten that far yet in terms of like what we would be providing, but uh that's something that we have to still consider. Is something that we can put in our development agreement or is that Mayor, Mayor, members of the council, for this project, there is not a PUD that is being requested. There are not any waivers that are being requested as a part of this project. It is code compliant in terms of all of the standard performance standards such as parking, building materials, things of that sort. Utilizing a PUD is what triggers application of the sustaina- sustainable building standard. So, we can highly um I can >> hope and recommend and that at least the pre-wiring be placed in so that Yeah, it's make it easier. Yeah, for the residents. >> that's not really expensive on the project and whole lot cheaper than, you know, after the fact, years from now, going back in and tearing walls out. Council member Toomey. Oh, were you done cuz I can come back, too? Yeah, I think so. I'm not happy with the that answer, though. Okay. I think it's in the future just chatting one the future more people renting they want to buy EV vehicle and they wouldn't have a option. They I don't know how that It's not even wired that will be rental property will be lot difficult, lot more difficult. Remember, too, that um from a standpoint of if we want a policy down the road where we mandate when this type of development comes in, then we have to do that up front, but we can't make policy in the moment. >> No, no, I'm just I'm just saying. Yeah, I understand your frustration with this, but um right. But, But we as a council later on is, you know, if we want to study this over this next year whatever that just store this one away that when we're outside of a PUD, we lose a lot of our control and power to um to mandate that. I saw Julie storing it. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Councilmember Toomey. Oh, um thank you for coming tonight. Um I am happy that this project does not have any waivers. I'm glad that they're going to get an RFD um put in and hopeful for another one. On Chestnut, is that it? Or Okay. Yeah, Councilmember Toomey, um Chestnut would have one and it's Carmody. Car- Carmody would be the one that's in question. >> And then um I have a question. Are you going to be working on Saturdays from 7:00 to 7:00? We do not anticipate working on Saturdays at all. We don't We haven't done that for quite a while and we don't know any contractors that are still willing to do that. Okay. Um so the only Yeah, I would just say no. Oh, good. I anticipated. >> I'm glad I asked. Thank you very much. And these are good examples, so I just want to take the opportunity again as a council here to say that if we were concerned about Saturday construction, which has gone on for 50 years, but let's just say we were suddenly now to be concerned about new construction, we would want to deal with that in a policy revision, not And if you'd said, "Nope, we plan on Saturdays 7:00 to 7:00." I was just asking because of the emails we've received. Totally get it. I'm No, I'm just saying from a council perspective, if we want to change and respond to that, we we wouldn't make policy in the moment on the but we would later on this year sit down, have a conversation, do we want to not have construction going on on Saturday or make it 9:00 until 5:00. It's nice that you all are not, but we've had it in policy that construction can go on on Saturdays from 7:00 to 7:00. Um far as I know, 50 years, you know. Um and that's that's what happens in our in our city's not alone in that. Um but I certainly understand when it's in your backyard for a year or two, um that's that's troubling. We all get that. But the projects have to get done, too. And of course with construction costs right now and um I'm not I won't say they're doubling, but they're they're 50% up um and with lack of workers and tariffs and everything else. So, I would think that people would want to get proponents would want to get their projects completed as quickly as possible. But Okay, um back to Council Member Freiberg. I'd just like to get a uh point of clarification and if it's the way I think it is uh a compliment. Um Uh I figure it's fair. I want to say if I can say something I'm really positive, I'll certainly do. Um The larger units, okay, the three-bedroom. How many of those How many of those of that 53 are the larger ones is it? I'm looking at Yeah, I'm looking at the uh two and a half bath three-bedroom. Don't recall off the top of my head. Um Anyone know from team? From 30. 30. There's a reason I'm asking. The um the whole point being I hope it's a high number. Okay, because I think that's a real void in Eden Prairie right now as far as rental. Um you see a lot of them for sale at that you don't see, you know, there's you you a large unit uh that you have right there for rent very often. And that's where the compliment was going to come from if you can tell me, you know, a good number on that. Mayor >> I I I think it's I think it's around 30, but um Okay, no, wait. Roughly 30 I'm just okay. Roughly 30? Julie knows. Julie. Mayor and members of the council, about two-thirds of the units are three-bedroom and one-third are two-bedroom units. So, for the inclusionary housing units that are being provided, two of those will be three-bedroom and one will be a two-bedroom unit. >> Mhm. Could Could I I didn't hear the first part, Julia. That's me. Um Two-thirds of the units would be three-bedroom. Okay, there's your compliment right there then. That's That is That is definitely a void right now. And we see a lot of two-bedroom ones. You see them all over the place. Various options and and a den. But a three-bedroom uh There's a lot of people that need that. You know, so Thank you very much. So, of those three units are affordable, two of those are three-bedroom and one is two. Correct. >> That's nice. And they'll rent at the 30% AMI. Correct. >> That's amazing. Yeah. All right. I think um you may sit down and we'll call you back up if we need you. You can stand there, but I think it gets awkward, doesn't it? Um so, I just wanted to comment a couple things. One um to Don um I I'm not comfortable postponing a a project just on a because I think we can solve this thing in a conversation. So, I would direct staff to meet with Don or meet with your board and and find out any of the I know you'd like some teeth to this. I get that. But nonetheless, our staff's pretty good. So, if um if you meet with them and just to be really clear, I understand if if landscaping and trees are going in on your property that the city loses some leverage there, but I think we have other leverage in terms of our final We can approve this tonight and we still have second reading. So, I think between now and second reading, if our staff can meet with you and just so we understand the three or four major points, and they'll make sure to communicate that then with the applicant proponents. Um with the trees, um it does seem that and I'm going to make a big guess here, but 90% of the land is open right now. So, we're not like clear-cutting. We are clear-cutting that one on what is it? The northern section. Um but again, um a lot of trees are going back in. Um any any development project in the city takes trees down. We know that. And and I've been a you know, I've been at this now 30 years as Don Yurem knows and um now I can go back to these projects that we approved back in '95, '96, '97 and they're I won't say overly treed because I love trees, but Hennepin Village, you can't put replacement trees in anymore. I mean, it's so treed. I know 30 years is a really long time to wait, but it goes fast. Anyway, we have if we're going by law, we have to approve these that come in or at least we have to have good reasons not to if they come in pretty much waiver free. Um and we have these infill projects that are going to take a few trees down. We know that. They always have. They always will, but we have a great tree replacement um policy here in the city and of course, we were one of the first in the state of Minnesota. And we've been copied for 30 years on our tree replacement plan. Um with shrubs and perennials tot lot, that was good to ask that question, but ultimately these tot lots that are on private property and mostly like the Starring Lake Townhomes, that's HOA. They're controlled by the HOAs. In this case though, it would be a rental property controlled by the management, but still it's out of our control, but it sounds like they want it to be a viable play area and safe. Um let's see if there's anything else. The EV car piece, I mean, I agree that it it just seems to make sense today for your tenants that you would want to have opportunity to supply when they um especially if several units were available when they had an EV car. I mean, if you're not having any plug-in availability and some someone has an EV car, they're not going to rent and you need renters. So, I would hope that you would install some, maybe one or two in each building or something at the very least and then the the pre-wiring is to me a no-brainer cuz it's fairly inexpensive. Um and the construction piece we talked about. So, Council, is there any anything else before we were to vote that you would like to have questions answered? Can I at least underline your pre-wiring for um EV parking because it really does it's cheap and it gives you um something to sell to people for a long period of time that if you have to go back, it's going to cost you a lot of money when it wouldn't now. And to consider that, please. Councilman Ryan. Uh I just want to say Same thing? Okay. Yeah. >> thinking the same thing. >> Yep. Anybody else on any issue topic? Ready to vote? Uh then we need a motion to on the final three bullets. So, I um also adopt a resolution for a comprehensive guide plan change from medium high density residential to medium density residential on 5.72 acres and adopt a resolution supportive park dedication fees and direct staff to prepare a development incorporating staff and commission recommendations and council conditions. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say I. I. I. Opposed? All right. Welcome. Thank you. All right. Mr. Gacho, we have our second public hearing CDBG funds. We we do, Mayor. This is something that we do every year. Uh you're very familiar with it. In fact, I think we had a public hearing um to have our comment period um for the the plan for the funds themselves. This public hearing relates to uh adopting a resolution approving the acceptance and the distribution of the 2026 community development block grant funds. As you know, the community development block grant funds are federal funds that are pass-through funds for the City of Eden Prairie that we receive from the federal government that can only be used to serve uh low-to-moderate income residents in Eden Prairie. So, um those funds for the city for the past many, many years, um we use um for a small amount of the funds that we use, we pass on to our local social service agencies to provide services that the city cannot provide. And in the case that you can see in the packet that we've provided for, are to uh PROP for housing support services and emergency vehicle repair. And to uh Senior Community Services Home Program for the household and outside maintenance for the elderly. So, we provide $50,000 in total funding to those programs. And then, as you know, um for many, many years, we provide about $200,000 in funding for uh many of our own housing programs. Actually, we also provide $80,000 annually in funding to the West uh Hennepin Land Trust Program. And that $80,000 typically allows them to purchase about one house every year. Sometimes we've We've got They've gotten money or grant money or other money to get two houses a year, but allows them to buy a home um in Eden Prairie that then someone can uh be able to own that home and then have a 99-year lease on the house for an affordable home in Eden Prairie as well. And then the rest of the funding then is used for our own in-house programs for housing rehab loans and first-time homebuyer programs. So that all accounts for about $250,000 each and every year community housing development grant dollars. So prior to you approving the acceptance and distributions of those funds, you need to hold a public hearing and that's what you are being asked to do tonight before passing the resolution. And typically during this public hearing we've had in the years past speakers come up from the various agencies that have benefited from our CDBG fund pass-through. I'm assuming that will be to this evening as well, but if you're listening from home and you see that as part of this public hearing, that's been pretty typical in years past. So this is a public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to address the council on this resolution that would approve the acceptance and distribution of our 2026 CDBG funds? Please come forward, give your name, address and maybe what agency you represent or work for or lead. Sure. Good evening. I'm Brenda Walding. I'm the executive director at Homes Within Reach. Our home office is in Minnetonka. Mayor, council members, thank you for allowing me to speak with you this evening and to highlight the importance of our long-standing partnership between Homes Within Reach and the city of Eden Prairie. Typically, I would stand here and share a story about a homeowner from last year who purchased a home and why they wanted to be in this community of Eden Prairie. But if not for HUD, I'd be doing that, but with HUD delays, we had a pretty slow year last year. Um, but the broader impact of our collaboration remains clear and measurable. So, I thought tonight I'd highlight the results of our partnership and how we've delivered affordable home ownership in Eden Prairie. Since 2005, we've operated in your community. And we've together we've jointly invested just a little over 4.1 million dollars to create permanently affordable homes in Eden Prairie. With these funds, we've been able to acquire and rehabilitate 23 homes. Through subsequent resales, we've helped an additional four families achieve home ownership in this community. Without any further funding from the city or our organization. And that's thanks to that long-term affordability built into the community land trust model. Over the past 21 years, Eden Prairie has awarded Homes Within Reach approximately 1.2 million dollars. We've leveraged that investment to secure an additional 3 million dollars from county, regional, and state funding, bringing significant outside resources into your community. On average, the city contribution to each home is approximately 52,000 dollars, while Homes Within Reach brings an additional 127,000 dollars. In other words, 29% of the investment comes from the city and 71% comes from other leveraged sources that we write grants to get. This is a strong return on the local investment, and it shows as a testament to the effectiveness of our partnership. The families served through our work usually are typically four-bedroom or four-person households with an average income of 58% of area median income. These are hard-working residents who contribute to the vitality of Eden Prairie, but face increasing barriers to home ownership. These numbers reflect a powerful and successful partnership. And at Homes in in Reach, we are committed to continue to work in your community to explore innovative and creative ways to sustain our work and ensure that homes remain affordable for hard-working folks who live, work, and serve in this community. Thank you for continued support, and I'm free to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Thanks for all you do in partnership with our city, so we appreciate your organization and you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else wishing to address the council tonight on this um CDBG funding proposal? Thank you, Mayor Case, members of the City Council. My name is Jennifer Loon. I'm executive director of PROP. We are the local food shelf and social service nonprofit here in the city, just located up the street. Um I'd like to thank the city for their continued support of PROP in many ways, but most specifically tonight through the CDBG grants that we've been privileged to receive. Uh as you all know, we provide, in addition to food, a variety of financial and wrap-around counseling services to residents of Eden Prairie who may need our assistance. And uh housing or rental assistance is our um the program of highest demand historically. And so the CDBG grants that we have received um for housing have been incredibly helpful for that, a very vital portion of the funding we receive. Um and we get funding from a variety of sources, grants, individual donations, and and um others. Um and so um just looking at the past three fiscal years, uh we've received either $49,000 or $43,000 total from the city in this past year grant. Most of that devoted to housing. The other program that we have been able to fund is the emergency car repair program, which has been of great assistance to many households. Many of our clients that come to us, they maybe have one vehicle for transportation to their place of work, getting their kids to school or to appointments and that. And so all of those programs have been very important. Um the rental program, you know, we the funding that we receive historically, we have gone through all of that housing money, that rental assistance to residents who are struggling. We're trying to prevent eviction and keep people people stably housed. Typically, we run out of that money from CDBG funds by January. So, following our fiscal year about 6 months in, we would run through those funds. Um those needs continue to grow. It is extremely high this year. I'm going to predict we'll see probably the highest number ever that we have assisted households with with housing expenses. Um last fiscal year, so ending June 30th of 2025, which was the last year that we had funds. I know this current year has been held up. Um we served 91 households through our homelessness prevention program. That is the highest on record. Again, I think this new fiscal year, fiscal year 26 will surpass that. We have already served 80 households in three quarters of this year. So, just to give you some sense. Um and CDBG again has been um in the past crucial in helping us to meet that growing need. Uh unfortunately, because uh the funds have been on hold for this year, we have um we are not taking any applications for our car repair program right now um because this is the only grant that we receive for that program. Um so, unfortunately, we're not able to do that right now, but we're hoping that this will that will be resolved and we'll be able to resume it soon. So, um I just wanted to share a story. I can give you statistics [clears throat] and that, but to really bring to life the impact that this program has. Uh again, I emphasize, you know, we get many requests for funding. We really try to prioritize the most critical cases, keeping people from being evicted so that they remain stably housed. Um last year, we helped a single mother and her 6-year-old son. The mother, who was working full-time, had fallen on rent because her one car, the one vehicle they had, um failed and it was their only source of transportation. The mother ended up having to purchase a new vehicle. Her vehicle was not able to be repaired. And so, she had to use all of the money she had available to to get that car and to keep working. So, then she wasn't able to pay her rent. Um we were able to help this family. Uh we used the CDBG funds to help pay a month or two of her rent, so her balance uh was then brought back into compliance, so she no eviction proceedings started. The family stayed stably housed and her 6-year-old remained uh in Eden Prairie schools without any disruption, and she was able to keep her job and keep working. So, um that's just one of many great success stories that this wonderful program has helped us uh be able to um assist people going through a rough time. And so, I want to thank you for all the support. Uh, we appreciate, um, the city's partnership in so many ways with us. Thank you. Thank you. Um, and definitely thank PROP and tell everyone that works there how much we appreciate the partnership with all of you and and all the work that, um, you've done over the years and we know that you're retiring and I'm sure you'll be greatly missed. Um, so thank you for all your service. Um, not just with PROP, but you served in the legislature. You've just given a lot to this city. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, please come forward. Uh, good evening, uh, mayor and council members. My name is John Berkow and I'm the director of the home program and the tech services at senior community services and our main office is in Minnetonka, Minnesota. And just as a reminder, our mission is to empower people as they age and to help older adults remain independent in their homes. Uh, we do this for through a variety of services. Uh, minor repairs, cleaning, snow removal, lawn mowing, painting, yard work. Uh, we also do free safety checks to help with fall prevention. And then as a follow-up, our handy people can add, uh, grab bars or uh, safety devices. Um, our tech program has been going now for about 6 years. We are at Eden Prairie Senior Center, uh, twice a month, the fir- first and third Wednesday of the month. And then actually this year we've added the, uh, Eden Prairie Library on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Uh, the other thing that's very unique about our nonprofit is that we do in-home tech support. Uh, I don't know of any other nonprofit that does that. So, we'll actually go to a older adult's home. We can help with their, uh, desktop computers or if they're having network issues. Uh one of the presentations we do is how to cut the cord. So, helping peop- people figure out their streaming services, making things more affordable that way. >> [snorts] >> Um as an example of someone who we serve, who I'll call Sally for sake of anonymity, uh she's 86 years old. She lives on her own. Uh she's been in the Eden Prairie community for 20 years. Um last year she enjoyed having a volunteer help with her yard work and gardens. And she said she enjoyed visiting her with as as much as the help that she provided. Um she also has a housekeeper that comes a couple times a month. And normally our housekeepers will help with things that are harder uh to do as we get older like maybe vacuuming or laundry or cleaning floors and that sort of thing. Uh and she also used our tech service to help with her iPad and and use that device better. Um another person we had that reached out to our tech service um unfortunately had been the victim of a scam and had lost quite a bit of money. And so he was working with his bank to recover that. But it what we did was we sent one of our tech coaches out to his home, looked at his computer, you know, made sure it was safe, checked for malware. We reinstalled Windows to help make his uh computer safer going forward. One of the other things we do in the community is we do fraud and scam presentations. We work a lot with AARP and we'll go out into the community to try to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Um and we'll do presentations and education. But it's also important I think for people to know or people that are watching, you know, if you have had this happen to you, one of the hardest things is sometimes to tell someone about it. There's some uh shame or embarrassment that can go along with that. But we we always encourage people to do that. Um if you don't, you can be a victim of an ongoing scam because once you've been targeted, unfortunately often the scammers will come back. Um and just in closing a couple of the things that I'm really proud of with our program is we also engage a lot of older adults as volunteers, as workers. And especially in our tech program, having older adults help other older adults I think is a very very valuable way to do the work. And I'll close by saying we actually answer our phone. We have a live person that answers the phone Monday through Friday, which the older adults appreciate, but I think a lot of us in this room probably don't get that much anymore. So, that's something we really strive to do and provide the best service possible. So, thank you so much for your support. You funded us for many many years, and we really couldn't do the work in the city without the support. So, thank you. Thank you for all you do as well and home organization. So, appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council this evening on the CDBG funding resolution? If not, is there a motion to approve the acceptance and distribution of these funds? Someone. Yeah, I'll go. Close the public hearing and adopt resolution up approving the acceptance and distribution of 2026 CDBG fund as recommended by the Eden Prairie Human Service Review Committee. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? All right. Payment of claims. Are there any expenses that you, as you read through the page after page after page, wish to learn more about or question? If not, could I have a motion to approve the payment of claims? Move to approve payment of claims claims as submitted. >> Is there a second? Second. Roll call. Council member Freiberg? Hi. Council member Narayan? Hi. Council member Nelson? Hi. Council member Toomey? Hi. Mayor Case? Hi. All right, I believe it's our final item for the evening. Um it's a summary of the city manager performance review. So, this council in a statutory plan B form of government where we have a council city manager format, we have one employee and that's our city manager, Rick Ketcham. Our city manager then goes out and he's responsible or she, but in this case he, for hiring 300 full-time staff, 700 whatever seasonal part-time to go out and do the work that we budget and fund and direct. So, he's the CEO really of the city of Eden Prairie, an incredibly important position. And we happen to have a city manager that is well-known and well-respected across really the state of Minnesota. Um we're incredibly fortunate to have him and if you wish after I read the summary of what we um talked about in closed session two week was it now a month ago I think something when were we back March 3rd? Well, a month ago. Um you may add any comments and I'm not putting you on the spot, but if you wish to say something at the conclusion of this you may. So, a closed session is closed, right? And so it was um private information. We we are allowed to work outside the view of the public for only two reasons to actually close a meeting. One is to discuss any legal or lawsuit, that's not what this was about. And the second is employee issues and again we have one employee, so we closed the session, but I'm going to read a summary of what we did then a month ago. Summary of closed session held March 3rd, 2026. The city manager's contract provides for an annual performance review by the city council in conjunction with a salary review. On March 3rd, 2026, the council met in closed session to evaluate the city manager's performance for the prior year. During the session, Mr. Getchell highlighted the city's 2025 accomplishments that included maintaining one of the lowest metro tax rates, strong quality of life survey results, and city departments that secured over $7 million in grants. He also noted challenges related to federal immigration enforcement and provided updates on major projects including the city center remodel which remains on time and on budget. The council gave overwhelmingly positive feedback praising his leadership, communication, and management skills, as well as his success in hiring and retaining high-quality staff. They also commended his responsiveness to the council and community and the positive environment that he fosters. The council then discussed Mr. Getchell's salary considering his excellent performance review. The council determined to increase Mr. Getchell's base salary by 5.78%, which results in a base salary of approximately $253,864, and to provide an additional $22,136 in employee health insurance premiums and deferred compensation. This is now my personal comments. We are really so fortunate, Rick, to have you as our city manager and and proud of everything you do. And we hear I do, and I know others might say this, I hear all the time positive responses from other leaders in the community, from residents, and from staff about what a really great job you do. So, thank you. Thank you. You make our job a lot easier. Um and again, you're the one employee that we hired, so we have to pat ourselves on the back. I think we did a pretty good job. So, any council, anyone else wishing to say anything? I could say something. Uh we're together with Rick one way or the other for about 13 years now on the various commissions and stuff. And the um coming from the corporate world and stuff for many years, one of the biggest uh things in judging a leader is the respect shown to him by those uh by his staff. And I guess it's always kind of amazed me, not just how good he is at his job and has been recognized as the number one city manager in the state of Minnesota, I believe it was uh 2 years ago, is that the way you carry yourself with the staff and the uh the respect that they show you. And that's uh very impressive, and we are very lucky to have him. Thank you, Rick. Again, no pressure, but anyone else wanting to Council member to me. Whoa. I knew you were going to do this. I'm [laughter] impressed. And I always walk away from it thinking, "I should have said this. I should have said that." So, I prepared this year. So, I wrote uh okay. Um this year's performance review really reflects what we see every day. Steady, effective leadership, and strong commitment to both the organization and and the community. Um you lead with integrity, professionalism, and a clear sense of purpose. And that shows not only in the outcomes that are achieved, but in how the work gets done. We're also consistently ranked as one of the best places to work. And that doesn't happen by accident. It speaks to a positive, supportive culture where employees feel valued and are able to do their best. And that kind of environment starts with the leadership and we are so fortunate. Well said. Both of you. Anybody else? Yep. No, I have to say since since this >> the pressure's going to be on. You better get writing something out here. Can Rick, you're awesome. It just You you I don't know these people like Rick Lisa took 2 hours to write a paragraph. For me it's my heart that uh you know, every way I can think of I I manage a lot of people. Um you know, [clears throat] your leadership um just just the way you work with not only your staff, but us and your peers. Um One thing you could improve is uh sense of humor. Sometimes she jokes are not as good as mine. Um But you know, it's like for a city manager >> That'll come back to haunt you, by the way, this. for the city manager You're you're you're very good and uh thank you and uh Eden Prairie lucky to have you and we are, too. Thank you. All right, Kathy, bring it home. I'm going to keep it short. Um thank you, Rick, for what you're doing. Thank you for all the residents about how we live in the city and all the things that happen the way they're supposed to do. And it's very appreciated. Um staff is appreciated and I hear nothing but good things when people are talking about Eden Prairie. All right. Oh, well said. Rick, you deserve all of it and we're just uh happy to have you and um we get nervous when we hear that he he dynamite be having a city council or city manager opening here in the coming year. But look, Edina has nothing on us. I just want to be publicly very clear about that. We're the best. A lot of it is because of you, but um no, I I don't uh fear losing you cuz um we just everyone has a great relationship. So, thank you so much. Rick, is there putting you really on the spot? Is there anything final you'd like to say? Thank you, Mayor. Uh based on how much fun I make of Edina, that would be >> [laughter] >> But but improve your humor or Edina. >> in all seriousness, I do want to make a quick it's uh obviously it's uh very lucky to work here. It's been a pleasure. Uh continues to be a pleasure as I always um I always reiterate you're only as good as as the people you work with and that includes the leadership from above and and the people that work for the city and I just I just try not to get in the way and and allow the great people that work for the city to do the great job for the residents that are here. It's working. All right. Um if there's Oh. >> Uh Mayor, you do need to vote on the salary increase. It's not on your annotated agenda, but it's Sorry, I didn't see that. >> It's on your memo. >> are we doing? Just accepting that? >> it should be on the the cover memo you had and maybe you can >> I'm sure now you now you tell me. >> Apologies for that. There's a requested action on there. I'm looking for it. Seriously. Wait a minute. >> [laughter] >> It's thrown my way, too. >> I got it. I got it. Um Okay, requested action. So, I'll read it and then one of you just say, "I move it." All [laughter] right. Actually, I could move it. I guess I'm allowed to do that. I'll move it. Move to approve a 5.78% increase in the city manager salary for 2026 and provide an additional $22,136 in employee health insurance premiums and deferred compensation. So our second. Second. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Now, is there any anything to yet to come before the council this evening? If not, is there a motion to adjourn? Move to adjourn the the city council meeting tonight. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? This meeting is adjourned.