Edina City Council — Transcript
Friday, October 3, 2025
Support for Local Businesses During Road Construction
Edina Heroes Down Payment Assistance Program
Rebranding of Edina Crime Prevention Fund
Upcoming Public Safety Events
Votes (4)
City Initiatives to Support Local Businesses During Highway 100 Reconstruction
The city is implementing measures to counteract the negative economic impact of road construction on local businesses. This includes a district-wide loyalty program for shoppers at participating businesses in the Grand View and 50th in France districts, prize drawings, and promotions during Restaurant Week. The effort emphasizes the importance of residents supporting locally-owned businesses.
Launch of Edina Heroes Down Payment Assistance Program
The Edina Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) has initiated a pilot program, 'Edina Heroes,' to help municipal, school, and healthcare employees purchase homes in Edina. The program offers loans up to $100,000 for homes valued at $600,000 or less, targeting families earning the area's median income or above. Funding of $1 million is sourced from the Southdale 2 tax increment financing district, with management by the Edina Housing Foundation.
Rebranding of Edina Crime Prevention Fund to Edina First Responders Fund
After 55 years, the Edina Crime Prevention Fund is changing its name to the Edina First Responders Fund to expand its support beyond the police department to include the fire department and all first responders. This rebranding reflects a board decision to recognize and support all community safety personnel, acknowledging their vital role and the prevention efforts across various emergency services. The name change will officially take effect next year.
Upcoming Edina Police and Fire Department Community Events
Community members are invited to mark their calendars for two significant events: the Police Department's open house on Wednesday, September 17th, and the grand opening of the new Fire Station 2 on October 30th. These events serve as opportunities for community engagement and recognition of first responders.
Notable Quotes (8)
There's more than 2,000 businesses in Adina and the vast majority of those are locallyowned small businesses. Those local businesses depend on us to survive and thrive.
Projects like this one are a really great time for the residents to really come together and back our local business community. It's important to understand that where you spend your local dollars really does matter.
It reflects the need that we're hearing or the desire of the community to house people who work here and help people. So that's a good program.
Often times we know that budgets uh get tight uh any given year and so where this fund has been invaluable to us is that they come in and help provide some relief and some extra funding resources and opportunities for us to buy some extra equipments. Uh come up with some new initiatives for the community also for our staff.
We took a look at uh saying hey you know what we should take a look at all of our first responders in the community. And so we made a decision with our board to to rebrand the organization from the crimerevention fund to the Dina first responders fund.
They found it important to recognize the prevention that can be done on the fire side as well and and staff recognition. So that was really welcomed by me.
We think it's important to recognize the difficult challenging situations that they go through that their families experience.
Our mission is to serve those who serve us and to take a look at how you can get engaged in doing that.
Ordinances & Resolutions (4)
Pilot down payment assistance program.
Manages loans for the Edina Heroes program.
Community-supported nonprofit rebranding to expand its mission.
New name for the Edina Crime Prevention Fund, effective next year.