e e e work session upstairs and uh ran over just a touch here so we're getting our meting started just a little bit late uh as director benat mentioned uh people are watching us on television or on Ed mn.gov live meetings or on facebook.com we've been doing these meetings in a hybrid fashion uh since covid and have contined to provide the opportunity for people to watch this remote and participate on a remote basis so uh if you look at the screen they're going to put that number up again for Community comment and uh that's all we have this evening is one opportunity to talk to the council um and get that number up there would you please and uh so folks get ready because this comes up relatively quickly in the uh agenda uh if you have something you want to address uh with the council it's a concern of yours that's not on the agenda this evening or otherwise scheduled for a future public hearing you're welcome to come up uh you'll have three minutes as director benro indicated you'll get a yellow light when you got about 30 seconds to go on the podium and then you should be thinking about wrapping up your comments right at about the 3 minute Mark um so having provided that information I'm going to call the meeting of the city council to order this Tuesday July 16th 2024 and ask our clerk Sharon Allison to call the role council member agnu here council member Jackson here council member Pierce here council member rer here mayor hman here next is the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you everyone and we have a form of meeting agenda in front of us to evening is there anyone on the council or on the staff that wishes to modify the agenda any former fashion all right is there a motion to approve the agenda is published so moved Jackson moves member a second the adoption of the meeting agenda is published any further discussion those in favor of adopting the meeting agenda is published say I I I opposed carried uh now we are at Community comment and we're first going to turn to some of our fellow residents that are in the audience and so folks that are watching from home if you want to participate Community comment your opportunity will come up shortly here but uh let's first go to folks in our community here that are with us that may want to comment on something that's important for them good evening the volume is not very good on that coming up now okay Janie Weston 6136 Brookview Avenue Edina um what I felt I really need to address tonight is something that concerns me whenever there's a proposed development project within edina's City boundaries but is not within the Dina School District when it's in a neighboring School District Hopkins is one of them and Richfield is the other um we've had the Lincoln Drive uh by 169 project proposal uh that would have created quite a bit of housing but that's in the Hopkins school district the um other that is much more recent is the Macy's Furniture Store site that's still not completely finalized yet um but that is in within the Richfield School District boundary the Macy's project in particular would have 520 3 Apartments 10% of them being um affordable housing which would be 52 units um there is a playground plan for that there will be children they will be within the Richfield School District if Tiff financing is awarded for this project the city the school district of Richfield will will not get the funding help that they need for 25 years however long that Tiff lasts that would help them fund perhaps two three four more classrooms worth of kids in their district and to the best of my knowledge there is no requirement that the city of Edina when a proposal like this is on you know comes across a threshold in the planning department that they must notify the neighboring school districts not just the neighboring City but the neighboring School District this is only fair for keeping the kids that will be living in Idina not getting short changed because they're in another school district um I think there should be a requirement in the packet of information prepare prepared for um you to make decisions on that there should be a school district map in there if this is outside Edina School District boundaries and um there should be required not should there must be required notification of neighboring school districts if Edina had uh students if if the tables were reversed people in Idina would be up in arms about this this is only fair to the kids that will be living in Edina but not attending Edina schools I have a sister that was a fourth grade teacher in Richfield schools they needed every penny they could get she had her hands full this is not okay for this to be neg elected and as far as I know there's been no notification to the neighboring school districts when proposals like this come across your threshold so please this must be required thank you m w thank you good evening good evening Bill hay 5275 Grand View square unit 3103 has been my residence for almost 17 years during which time there has been considerable Improvement in the overall Grand View District starting with avador which replaced the Edina school bus depot and has led to a very attractive uh path sidewalk leading up to Jerry's which has upped its game with a remodel and a Starbucks in a better dining situation Jerry's Hardware is next properly located next to Jerry's grocery we have a Walgreens where there used to be a shop regripping golf clubs across Vernon the tow houses the white townhouse row looks good to me as does Caribou coming in this direction I understand that the uh building on stilts has escaped demolition for the time being and the traffic roundabouts are functioning very well I was kind of skeptical about the double roundabout but I have traversed it a number of times without a problem uh and it is really enhancing the flow of traffic one problem remains to be resolved D and that is the 3.3 Acres of unattractive property which has for 14 years been known as the former public work site during these 14 years council members have come and gone I believe the mayor has been the only constant and there have been a number of plans that have not come to fruition several years ago um one of your former colleagues who I came to know and admire Kevin Stanton declared rather emphatically that this should be an exciting place for people of udina to come together and then you came up with a senior co-op in a 347 seat restaurant and I thought wow what could be more more exciting than a senior Co-op so now you're back to go you have a blank slate and I know it's presumptuous but I'm here to help you with that I would suggest that you give your Park and Recreation Department the task of converting this transforming this into a beautiful little pocket park with Nice Landscaping of course maybe a fountain four pickle ball courts pickle ball has become wildly popular and I think it will remain so and as far as a restaurant I don't think you need to have a big prestigious restaurant I think something like maybe a Dairy Queen or the Brad and pickle at Lake Harriet would work very well as was said in Field of Dreams if you build it they will come people will come on foot people will come on bikes you would need a lot of bike racks and they should not be just generic bike racks but kind of sculptural bike racks so there you go one more thought despite uh the inability to get this done in 14 years I have obs OB erve that the Edina Edina is exceptionally well governed and well managed thank you so much thank you Mr hey anyone else wish to speak with the council this evening on a matter of concern to them that's in the audience all right let's go to uh the virtual world and see if we have anybody that wishes to address the council a matter of concern to them I do don't have anyone online tonight oh yeah smile threw me off I thought you were excited that you I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude yeah I like that uh so our practice is that uh if there have been Community comments uh at the prior meeting they get addressed uh on our website by uh Friday of that week uh but then the city manager also responds to those Community comments that were made at the prior meeting and I'll turn now to manager Neil to see if he has any comments with respect to comments that may have been made at the prior city council meeting which is now was about a month ago it is and we did not have any com Community comment at that meeting so there's nothing to address tonight very good um one thing I would manager Neil I think M Weston raised this notion of um uh requiring notification of adjoining school districts when there's a project in our town that might be in their school district it I don't know if it's a requirement but our practice has always been that we notified in southill District the Richfield School District when we had a develop a land development project going on regardless of what type of a project it was and I think I don't know whether it's a requirement by law but it has been something that we've done by practice I can concur on that we T we do and we typically do that you know around the final approval date so that they can have a sense of a better sense of when construction might begin and what the actual size is how many how many it makes a difference to them not just that there's going to be 523 new apartments but are they 523 new three-bedroom apartments or single bedroom apartments that makes a big difference for for how schools uh would estimate the impact of this but it's a good idea and we can formalize that that's good yeah and and Mr Kendall I member R has a question to but I want to go to Mr our City attorney um with uh with a project in the saltdale district being potentially in the Richfield School School District but in the city boundary of Edina uh when it comes time if there were Tiff that were requested wouldn't that ad joining school district have the ability to comment on whether or not they would like to see us use Tiff regardless whether we contacted them or not yes they would mayor um regarding the Tiff issue my understanding is it's the school board and not the district that gets to weigh in on that I could be mistaken on that that was what I thought was the case the other thing is um I think Tiff comes in later after a project has been approved and my understanding is the concern is the project is underway it gets going and so even early on um if there's a possibility of Tiff being something that's going to come into play the school board or whatever body um makes that call should be notified well yeah we always notify our own School Board of course if it's uh in play but uh We've also had the practice of notifying those adjacent uh districts as well um all right so let's go next to the uh consent agenda uh there's one item that member Rissa requested comment yeah I H yeah okay um with respect to the items on the con agenda they'll be handled in a single motion unless any city council member wish wishes to remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion and member Jackson would like to remove item 6 h member rer would like to remove item 6n uh from the consent agenda with uh any other council members wish to remove anything from the consent agenda with the exception of 6h and 6n is there a motion to approve the balance of the items on the consent agenda on a single motion so moved right member Jackson moves member appear seconds the adoption of the items on the consent agenda with the exception of items 6h and 6n any further discussion those in favor of adoption of the motion is sta say I I I opposed carried uh then let's turn to 6h which is the traffic safety report of May 28 2024 and I'm going to turn no to member Jackson yes thank you Mr Mayor so in this traffic safety report I didn't see any mention of the request um to limit parking on beard for during the soccer games and the soccer season's almost over so it really the for the you know neighborhood summer hockey or soccer program so I wanted to know if we were going to see anything on that or not I think the last communication I got was well they're going to study it but it's been another summer of soccer and and dangerous streets so I was uh asking you know what's the status on that I think and city engineer uh Milner can speak to that okay L great good evening thanks for the questions so our Traffic Safety Committee has reviewed that request and as practiced now that goes to the ETC before it comes back to you so this has been an issue um for many years uh it's not going to get addressed next week but it's going through the normal process of a traffic safety request okay so it's still moving forward okay terrific thank you with that I'll move item 6h all right member Jackson moves the adoption of the traffic safety report which is item 6h second member Pier seconds the adoption of that traffic safety report any further discussion all those in favor of adopting the traffic safety report of May 28th 2024 say I I I opposed carried Traffic Safety report is adopted and now uh this is an interesting item too that member rer wanted to pull we've been working on it for several years before she was on the counil but 6n deals with a memorandum of agreement for the Wooddale Avenue Bridge and it involves the bridge right down by the Episcopal Church uh and the country club and you've got some questions I think about that oh not questions but just wanted to underscore all of the work that has gone into this and how it has involved the US Army Corps of Engineers the Minnesota state historic preservation office um as well as edina's Heritage preservation commission and I know this is a bridge that a lot of people in Edina really care about and so just wanted to note that this is on our agenda today it's moving forward uh but there has been so much care and consideration and if you want to know more you can click on the link that is in the packet for tonight and I believe it's a 23-page document that goes over so many things that are being considered as this project gets underway and it will result in a safer um pathway for pedestrians and bikers and so I just was really impressed with all of the effort that went into it and wanted to call it out yeah very good and and care to move it as well I would love to move it so so uh moving item n for approval second all right uh member Risser removes the adoption of item 6n which is the approval of the memorandum of agreement for the Wooddale Avenue Bridge member Pier seconds any further discussion all those in favor of adoption of item 6 n say I I I opposed carried um and that completes our work work on the um on the uh consent portion of the agenda and now we're going to move on to special recognitions and presentations through this uh last half of the school year we've been trying to recognize different organizations at the high school and individuals uh teams uh whether they be sports teams or robotics teams you know there just a variety of uh kids over there young people that have been so successful uh on the things that they've been doing and so uh tonight we've got the uh we got a couple of pieces of recognition that we're going to do and one is the Adina High School pep band and they've got quite an interesting story to tell in fact made the NBC Nightly News uh uh during the winter time actually actually after the Frozen Four I think it was that that they were on um on national television with their story and I think we should hear their story here tonight and asked them to come up if you would members of the pep band and your director and whoever you got with you that uh and uh come up and identify yourselves and um we're going to get a photo at the end but I think we use one of those side microphones and and and tell the story both of being the pep band I think for our high school team and both high school teams won the state championship uh and in hockey and then what happened with the University of of of Denver sure yeah I'm Andy RoR I'm one of the band directors at high school Andy thanks for being with us yeah thank you um shall we introduce the members of the band or do you want me to tell the story yes I think we should have introduce themselves you can just pass down my name is Oscar Sanchez Christensen I just graduated this year and I play the trumpet my name is AUM bolz I'm gonna be a junior and I play the trumpet uh my name is Mahar Jane just graduated and I play tenor saxs I'm Alex lungren I also just graduated and I play French horn I'm Josie loock I also graduated and I played the quads I'm Abby RoR and I also just graduated and I play French horn I'm Michael Howard I'm going to be a senior and I play the trumpet I'm Wilson schaer um I'm going to be a senior and I play the tennis axone good thanks you guys for introducing yourselves and uh Andy how many total in the pep man we had uh 24 students in the pep band and um the the story is kind of interesting where the the Denver University's athletic director knows Troy Stein um he used to be the athletic director up at duth and so when they were sending their hockey team to the Frozen 4 they didn't have a pet band to send to go uh support the team and so he was pulling a favor for Troy Stein say hey would you ask your pep band I see you've had some success the the pep band is accompanied both the boys and the girls hockey team and were undefeated at the Exel uh at the Excel Center so yeah and then um I thought sure let's give it a try and we were able to get a number of students to join in and um we became a college pet band uh and they had some great success they won their first game which brought them to the championship game and then we remain undefeated at the Excel Center this year the only undefeated pet band we went eight this year at the Excel Center yeah I'm have the council come down too Ry let's to line up here by the D some you want to hang around and t a hard time when he comes up you can certainly do that okay let's s together make a couple I don't think you have to switch just make window between all right James to get in a little bit more all right here we all right and then we have car coasters for you um and the message that goes with them is wherever you travel know your hometown is proud of you thank you books books toer I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but I think you're the first one we've individually uh singled out so to speak uh to um and I want you to come up to the to the side Podium here and so folks can see you both here at the meeting and uh at home on on television we're going to let you talk in just a minute about your experience but uh you've been doing such a a great job uh I really enjoyed the what was about three four weeks ago now visiting with you and your brother out at the at the practice green I think was right before the State High School t tournament yeah and then you won the State High School individual uh tournament uh and what were you nine under par or something like that oh yes sir I was all right and um so tell us a little bit about that experience and and what's next for you this summer uh yeah well uh thank you for having me first off um just really uh grateful to been in this position to have succeeded uh we didn't make as a team unfortunately after have won it the last couple years so that was a little disappointing but I'm just really uh happy and proud to be uh hornet and be able to win for us individually so that was uh pretty exciting and then the summer the year schedule uh yeah I'm right now I'm in the inota stadium which is which ends tomorrow and then um later Regional tournaments up in Detroit Lakes and um yeah me not too busy but I saw torer and his brother out at Brar I said what you guys got going on this summer and he talked about golf tournaments and then it was also living at the lake and they they both looked at me and said we got a good life yeah we do and they've got a good life [Applause] because bring your parents up with you so these are parents Jeff and Al o and uh he's a past president of the N rotary and just like Jennifer venro was and so here we are you guys want to come up to thank you for being uh events like this this recognition of the pep band and torer and other teams that have come through here it's really been a nice way to spend part of the city council meeting uh every few weeks and it seems like there's no end in the recognition we can give to the kids in our community so it's really a a special special place and a wonderful School District um so uh we're g we've got a couple other things to do in this portion of the agenda and our assistant city manager Ari lens has uh an introduction that she wants to make yeah and we'll turn to her now to introduce somebody that's a new relatively new member of our staff yeah thank you mayor I have the pleasure tonight of welcoming Thomas Brooks I'm gonna have Thomas come on up and give a little bit about his background but in the short amount of time that Thomas has been here I found him to be quite thoughtful and I think he's going to make a huge impact here in Adina so welcome Thomas yeah thank you uh mayor and Council um I know I've had an opportunity to meet you all uh individually uh but formally it's really great to be here um and I'm honored to um have the opportunity to follow up the pet band and a golf champion um I am uh most recently coming to you from the state of Minnesota um as director of Enterprise equity and inclusion um and prior to that um had an opportunity to be the city of roseville's first um equity and inclusion manager um so with that um I really missed local government and couldn't be more excited to be here in Adina um although I live on the other side of town in Brooklyn Park um I do and have spent quite a bit of time in the city um on a daily basis so uh looking forward to getting in and helping out uh with staff uh yourselves and Community um as much as possible as it relates to um our strategic goals uh for inclusion and Equity uh throughout the city well welcome Mr Brooks say we're really pleased to have you here thank you and one other introduction you wanted to make as well sure I'll introduce her I want to introduce you tonight to Zoe Johnson uh Zoe is our newest uh City management fellow and as she approaches and prepares to speak uh to you tonight I just want to let you she started on July uh 8th so she's been here for a little over a week and we wanted her to come tonight cuz she will have interaction with Council just a give you a brief introduction of who she is and and why she's here hi mayor hi Council I'm Zoe Johnson like Scott so kindly introduced me um I'm originally from the adaa Minnesota area um just recently did a year in Kansas at KU there to get my MPA um so I'm very happy to be back in my home state I love it here and I never want to leave again um I um originally did uh my first dent in local government as a city manager's intern in the city of Morehead Minnesota um fell in love with Local Government after that and decided that I wanted to go to school for it extra on top of my bachelor's which was a very different choice for me um but I loved it and uh wanted to continue back here after meeting with Jillian the past uh City Management in uh fellow excuse me and so just chatted with her a little bit about the structure of the fellowship and um about how the team works together with the community and everyone else in the region and just knew it was the place I wanted to be so I went into the fellowship at um uh excuse me the fellowship at KU knowing that I wanted to continue my time in local government here at the city of adina's Fellowship so I'm very excited to be working with you all um and everyone in the city but thank you all happy to be here happy to have you here we look forward to working with you so um all right let's move on then to the reports and recommendations portion of the agenda and the first matter there is resolution 202 24-48 which uh we have to do when we have donations to the city of V we have to accept those donations uh with a super majority of the council voting and so um is there uh anyone who cares to move the adoption of resolution 202 24-48 so move second member Pierce moves and member Jackson seconds the adoption resolution 20 [Music] 2024-25 48 is adopted uh in this reporting period we had uh gifts to the park and recck Department from Carol Miller and Bob Barb jerich uh Karen do Barbara gabler Susan run Peggy Stevens was a tree at brison Park that they all cooperated in sponsoring and uh the police department uh has a um matter that they had to receive a donation on as well and that is flock cameras for the Rolling Green neighborhood so those will all be posted on the uh the website uh next we have uh these are always interesting uh parts of City Council meetings when we have an award of the sale General obligation bonds and Nick anhut our financial adviser from ERS and Associates our Public Finance adviser and PT to our finance director are both here this evening to talk about the sale of the general obligation bonds uh what they were for uh and then also the um the purchasers of those bonds and the and the rates uh of interest that will be paid on those bonds so uh welcome good evening um so tonight with us we have resolution uh 2024-the P mayor members of the council Nick anut from Ellers and Associates and here was some exciting news um the city authorized the placement of 32 million of General Obligations bonds that were intended to fund a variety of different projects that are either completed or underway here at the city this year uh Street reconstruction to be repaid by special assessments from the properties benefiting from those improvements uh sanitary and storm water sewer infrastructure improvements construction costs related to the fire station project that is underway here in the city as well as uh the construction that was mentioned around this vicinity uh the roadway improvements within the Eden Wilson Tiff District the roundabouts and other improvements that are going on right now those were all packaged together in one offering of General obligation bonds these would be tax exempt bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the city of Edina since the council authorized this sale back in the beginning of June we've gone to work verifying the various funding uh costs and preliminary repayment schedules um circulated offering documents out to the Marketplace to solicit bids on the city's behalf and we did also receive affirmations from both Moody's and standard Andor related to the city's AAA credit rating uh that is the highest credit rating that can be bestowed upon a municipality a Sovereign Nation a business or any type of uh entity that's repaying debt uh basically affirms that the city of Edina is a very low-risk proposition in terms of a investment uh in the in the form of its bonds and very unlikely to default and that high credit rating leads to lower interest rates and the best uh most flexible terms of financing that the city can muster and so um the city has maintained that status since the year 2000 with Moody's and 2003 with standard and pores and all signs from those analysts and the agencies they represent are that's going to continue going forward in the future so that was good and welcome news especially for this sale and because of that we received uh I think I think the second most bids that I've seen in the 12 so years that I've been working with the city on its financings but we got 11 bids for the purchase of these bonds from a variety of different firms across the country and all types of underwriting desks uh both East Coast West Coast and then you know even here Piper Sandler in Minneapolis but the winning bid came from UBS Financial out of New York at an indicated rate of 3.68 n5% um the bids varied from 3.7 all the way up to 3.84 so a 0.15 percentage Point difference between the low and the high bid which sounds like a very very low amount but when you're talking about 32 millions of dollars this this results in hundreds if not a million in interest costs uh that can be saved from the low bid from UBS so uh very welcome bids very competitive uh very tight grouping as you see that most of the bids came in within just a fraction of a percentage Point within one another which indicates that there's some consensus in the larger Marketplace that this is where that financing needed to be with the UBS proposal we're able to actually fine-tune the amount of borrowing uh and resize the principal amount to 3,735 th000 so that will be the final principal amount and that's the amount that is included within a revised resolution that was provided from your bond attorneys at dorsy Whitney that amount is still going to fund the $32 million worth of projects that we intended um but it does account for a reduction in the issuance costs that were anticipated for this financing as well as the winning bids reoffering premium of about 2.2 million that reoffering premium would have resulted in excess proceeds that we don't necessarily need for this year's project and we don't want to sit on money and pay interest on it at the same time and so we're able to uh within the terms of the sale have the final say on adjusting the sizing and so we fine-tuned that amount so we're borrowing only what's necessary to construct the projects that were uh talking about again the amounts are shown on the slide as far as the various components and all the different projects I mentioned in the introduction but with that a final true uh interest cost calculation of 3.69 these bonds are actually going to be paid off over a term of 30 years the fire station is a very large sum and a tax levy associated with that and so that 3.69% interest rate TR on a 30-year financing is phenomenal it's a very very low cost of borrowing especially in in today's marketplace where we've seen elevated interest rates for the last year and a half um so this was a very good results and it blew our estimates that were admittedly conservative uh out of the water um so the final consideration from the council is a revised resolution as I mentioned your bond attorneys have updated that uh it's in the amount of 3,735 and would award the sale of the bonds to UBS Financial Services based on their low bid uh proposal that was given to the city it would lock in the proposed rates and terms finalize the repayment schedules and then we would be targeting a closing date of August first which is when the funds will actually be wired into the city's accounts to reimburse costs for the money you've already spent on some of these projects as well as to continue to fund the construction as they are completed over the course of this next year and a half and so with that said I'll I'll be certainly standing by for any questions but we certainly recommend the council do take action to approve the sale of bonds thank you thank you standby here Mr anut uh council members have questions comments yeah thanks I think when we runan into each other earlier out in the hallway when um we were talking about the uh interest rate uh the final calculated true interest cost I guess about 3.69% uh you said that was one of the lowest you'd seen this year I think amongst the cities in our region that are know going out and borrowing money to do certain things especially for the 30-year repayment term the longer repayment term usually you see a higher interest rate associated with that so that was that was definitely a welcome sign for that length of a financing does anyone in the council care to move the adoption resolution 2024 46 which authorizes the issuance awarding sale prescribing the form and details providing for the payment of 30, 735,000 in general obligation bond series 2024a to UBS Financial Services uh at the final calculated two interest cost of 3.69% so moved second member Jackson moves member Pier seconds the adoption of the motion of stated that did we cover everything in that motion that you need cover all right um any further discussion all those in favor of adoption of the motion is St say I I I opposed carried uh resolutions adopted thank you for your continuing good work on behalf of the city ban it's a pleasure working with you you always do such a superior job for our for our community and our Public Finance Endeavors thank you appreciate it thank you all right um now in this part of the agenda we have a sketch plan review which we do from time to time with the proposed land use or possible land use projects and I think for for folks that may be in the audience or watching at home uh sketch plan review is basically um uh somebody that has an idea on on on a particular land use project can come in we used to say you could come in with an idea on the back of a napkin and we'll take a look at it and sketch plan it's not meant for public hearing it's meant to give advice uh both at the Planning Commission level and the city ccil level uh about a particular idea uh and a particular site and that developer then takes that feedback and goes back and huddles with their team and decides whether they want to proceed and file for preliminary approval sometimes they do sometimes they don't based on the feedback that they get so the uh matter we're going to hear about tonight which is called Station Pizzeria is going to be introduced by Carrie teager community development director never going to have a presentation by uh the group that's involved in Station Pizza and and uh and their architect as well so I'll turn now to director te yes thank you mayor members of the council this is a site you're all familiar with we've had a couple of Redevelopment proposals on this site over the last couple of years the first one was to expand the existing building and build a restaurant um expand and remodel uh that was denied there was then within the last year a proposal by Green Drop to do a uh donation collection center that also was denied the biggest issue that we've been struggling with on this one is that our comprehensive plan guides this site for medium density residential um it that designation has been in place for a couple of decades now however the site is zoned plan commercial District 4 which allows what the uses have been on the site over the years a gas station and auto repair um so we've got this conflict between comprehensive plan and Zoning The Proposal before you this evening is for a uh by Station Pizza they're currently located in the city of minetonka they have a restaurant there this isn't a sitdown restaurant proposal this is for takeout and delivery only Pizza they would repave uh the site install a fence along the north and west lot line um add Landscaping uh for screening to the single family homes to the north a formal request would require a rezoning of the site from the pcd4 to pcd1 that would allow a restaurant that was the request um the first time through with that restaurant but again that was a much larger building at that time it also would require an amendment to the comprehensive plan to reu the site to some type of a neighborhood commercial designation with that first request you may recall the proposal was to designate it in the the comprehensive plan for neighborhood node the site is only 16,000 Square ft doesn't really constitute a node it's really just one small parcel so as we talked about with the green drop proposal U maybe it's a new land use designation um but nonetheless it needs to be ruid commercial in order to accommodate the use some of the issues that we would ask the council to comment on as part of your discussion is the the the proposed land use appropriate for the site should the comprehensive plan be amended for commercial uses and is pcd1 that appropriate zoning District so with that I will introduce the architect Jesse HR hope I pronounced that right and uh Jeff schaer or Jake Schaefer from Station Pizza and they'll go through more of the detail of the project thank you director G good evening good evening uh my name is as you said Jesse HR I'm with momentum Design Group and the architect working with Jake on his uh proposed um Pizzeria so the the project on Vernon Avenue I we got the we got the um the site uh that we're looking at here we're looking for uh an Adaptive reuse of the existing facility very specifically we're not expanding the size of the building uh we would simply be remodeling updating cleaning it up uh and uh making it appropriate for the the pizzeria use that we're proposing that use would be a uh drive through or sorry a drive um pickup up and um delivery only uh it is not meant for uh a larger sort of restaurant which have a lot lot of parking requirements Etc uh the site's just not really large enough to handle something like that in our opinion uh we as mentioned are uh suggesting are proposing uh fencing and screening uh added along both the North and West sides uh repaving of the parking lot um we would be you know obviously this is a sketch plan uh this is a an idea it's a con except uh there's a lot of work that would need to be done to be looked at we've worked with civil engineers to figure out the the the best pro possible sort of interaction with the the curb cuts that sort of thing with buron Avenue uh we'll locate the U bicycle parking and uh the trash uh areas and and get all that kind of sorted out I think um we think it's a very good fit for sort of what we uh what we need as in terms of the the pizzeria station but it also I think makes a good fit for this particular location in this neighborhood it's going to be close by people can walk people can bike uh to uh to their homes um we had a number of we had some really good conversation with the Planning Commission uh and uh some ideas sort of came out of that that I think we're we're willing to look at and we think a good ideas um some from as simple as reorienting our uh the direction of uh travel through the uh for cars through the parking lot uh from a counterclockwise motion to a clockwise motion just kind of makes things a little bit easier and cleaner for for Access but like I said we'll work with civil engineers to figure out those details um and then the uh the inclusion of a u extending the sidewalk apparently along Vernon there there's a sidewalk along most of that road but in this block it's missing uh and so they wanted to to get that in there as well I don't think we have a problem with that at all um the uh the third item that they suggested was possibly Shifting the um Shifting the fence on the north side uh back to the property line so we in our proposal pulled away from it the existing fence is on the property line right now all the parking runs up right up next to it uh we pulled it back 10 ft in order to get that additional screening in there uh the suggestion was made that they would be fine with us pushing that uh screening in the Landscaping onto the RightWay uh pursuant to the requirements of the the RightWay and the the and the city's rules on those uh but in order to free up some space on the Southside of the the fence to possibly add a little bit more green space possibly add a small sheating area not a dining area not a place that we would actually uh be serving pizza or anything like that but just a small little seating area that would be an amenity for the for the neighborhood for the along the the uh the added sidewalk um or um yeah or just some additional Green Space some additional Landscaping space just it was one of the ideas that they suggested so yeah I think as Carrie mentioned we're just kind of here to kind of hear your thoughts on the appropriateness of our proposal and uh yeah we're just kind of looking for a path forward yeah thanks Mr Hammer let me ask did Mr schaer want to comment at all anything oh no I'm is on can you hear me yes I'm I'm here for questions that you guys might have okay all right very good um so it's uh when we look at the Adaptive potential re use and then the pcd1 you wanted a little bit of conversation around um the fact that it's guided for Med medium density residential and it's pcd4 now but go to pcd1 opens it up not only for Pizza Station Pizzeria station but Downstream it could be other things as well correct it would be any land use that would be allowed in the pcd1 zoning District would be allowed then on the site can you give us some examples of some of those things I know you given us a long list but yeah it's it's more the somewhat smaller scale um retail as you know our zoning ordinance is unique and we have a long list of uses that's one of the things we're looking at in our zoning audit to tighten that up um some of the some of the listed uses you just don't see much of anymore but it's generally um smaller retail type uses coffee shops and that nature depending if it has a drive-thru or not um I do oops the Planning Commission did have some concerns about whether the proposed use actually makes sense as a pcd1 um type of use and in fact a couple of Commissioners noted that they thought it would be more appropriate in more of an industrial kind of uh zoning because it is um producing Pizza in a way you know to take out it's not a sit-down restaurant and it was likened more to an industrial kitchen I think was one of the terms that was used so um I am concerned about the idea of rezoning to pcd1 for that purpose but I I do have other concerns as well I don't know do you want to address any of those with the applicant or they more leg they more zoning and zoning and legal in nature and code yeah right what you care to remember Pierce I can start um I so I think this is a a really challenging um project when I look at it I I actually think it makes sense to have a quick serve kind of a a small restaurant there and I think about um I always say this wrong Pastor Margo Margo yeah they are Bakery right they're open their hours like they are uh open from 7 to 2: and then they're open from 8: to 12 on Saturday um they're not open on Sunday and Monday right and so it's very small seating in there uh people go I go get a muffin get some coffee or whatever um I'll have a meeting there um and that's it um and so I kind of think the original restaurant we looked at was a full service restaurant I think the original proposal they might have had a a rooftop um um there's a bar there so it was it was quite extensive when I think about restaurants um and so I kind of think it makes sense to have something like this to me fits there um but I I'm challenged with if it would ever get approved and so I think as a a council like I think we have to uh really face into uh some of the challenges around this one question I would have if it's guided as res residential in the comp plan we've not I've not seen any proposal for residential in that space uh but yet it's guided for that um and so I one of the questions is why is that and I'm not really looking for us to say well that's to the discretion of the developer I'm asking more is there something related to how as a city we're managing these codes and communicating that's actually guiding um these types of projects to come forward so that's the first question I have um and do you want to address that yeah I can take a shot at that um so it was this has been the the designation in the comprehensive plan for at least the last two comprehensive plans okay so it was decided at that time that the future use of this site should be residential similar to the the um the density that's to the West at when that change was made the Met Council didn't require rectifying or um you know having uh the zoning and the comprehensive plan match they do now so we're at a point where we should um decide one way or the other if we were to proactively rezone the site for a residential use then the existing use on the property would be considered non-conforming the could do auto repair thank you for that um and so when I when I think about this it's it it'd be the same to me as if I asked everybody up here to sketch out a house I want a creative house that I'm thinking of building someplace if I asked everybody for that everybody would draw one but I'd probably only use one or two of them because the scope is too big and so I feel like we've got uh people that are coming up with great ideas they're expending a lot of energy and resources around these ideas but I'm not sure that this is an a use that we actually would prefer there as a city so the opposite would be as if I said hey I'm trying to build a twostory house three bed rooms and then everybody draws a house I'm going to every house that drawn now is within the range of ideas of something that I think I could deal that I would want and that's what I think we need for this this site at some point we really need to frame and solidify this is a great idea I think it's Quick Serve works there but if that's not what we want I feel like it's unfair to the community to keep this wide scope and and it certainly is unfair for people that are spending money bringing forward ideas that may or may not are I I guess I should say may have a lower chance of getting um approved um so that's the one the first thing I wanted to to to say in terms of the project itself when I listen to the the um Planning Commission one of the other things that they talked about um I believe commissioner Miranda talked about this for sure the traffic on Vernon um I remember him using the example of cycling uh down Vernon and then you've got this commercial establishment kind of in the middle there and people coming and going um and I think the way he asked the question would you feel feel safer if you were riding a bike or cycling along that that uh side of Vernon um and so I tee this up with the creative example that I gave before because I actually don't think that that's an issue I think what we end up doing is we look at all these ancillary potential issues and problems and I I think we kind of project those onto whatever the project is and so we had we said the same thing about the donation center traffic on Veron you know trucks pulling in and out know cars coming in and dropping off and we know that that would have been there would have been fewer vehicles for that purpose than there would have been for a restaurant um and so we live in a country where we are uh largely law abiding citizens and so if this establishment is there I just don't believe that there's going to be traffic issues um and so to me it it really warrants us as a city to just decide how do we want to guide this and then set off that trajectory um is what that's my feedback for what I think we need to do as a group in terms of your project I I think it's a I think it's a great opportunity to have something there that might be used and leveraged by the community I live in Highlands um I walk through there um we prefer Jen Maria is to but we may we may love station who knows then I don't have to drive to Eden Prairie anymore or use the new one in D so I think um there's an opportunity for this to to be in amenity uh for the community um and me the last thing I'll say when we looked at the the first restaurant we talked about the fact that there's no commercial node there and at one point we were talking about doing uh like a small area plan to kind of figure out how we could bring some services to that area uh but to your point U this is just a tiny plot of land so if we were to do that we would have to have uh we would have to extend that somehow to be able to bring a more uh commercial type node um to that area um so that's that really is all the feedback I have for now no thank you um member Jackson yes thank you Mr Mayor so I'm gonna do granular and I'm going to do big picture so just real briefly on your proposal I don't like the idea of planting trees in the right of way that right of way is there for a lot of reasons for Street reconstruction and and stuff like that so um um If This Were to go forward no picnic tables keep the setback the way it's designed um I do want to say for the general public there's been a big qu I've got a number of questions about whether we're going to be having bus rapid transit or something like that on Vernon that is not an issue um it's we're we talked about getting the bus line back but no bus Rapid Transit which isn't for you guys but I wanted to make that perfectly clear that that we just want to get the 46 bus back we're not looking at anything fancy there um so the picnic table the so this is a question for you Mr Teague um with the fence did I read incorrectly that that was a requirement to have the fence or is that something that our applicant has offered up it's something they've offered up okay so it's not required to be there but they're being offering to be good neighbors and and put the fence up okay um and I do like that um and repurposing is good so the other question so that's that's the micro so you've got a good idea here if we can make it work um I wouldn't put the picnic table in and um and the however the traffic flow is safest is the best way so then we've got the macro picture and once again we've got this funny little piece of land adjacent to single family neighborhood uh Condominiums people who really enjoy a very quiet street and if it were just this project and that we could protect it and keep it there it's it's really kind of a brilliant use of a very weird piece of land um I'm a little concerned about kind of spot zoning but it's really conforming zoning um that we're talking about um and you know in the future what would come there and so I have another zoning question um and that is with a different type of use let's say we want to put a hair salon in there would the parking be much different in what's required than than a drive-through restaurant and the setbacks and things like that how much would that change yeah restaurant would be different um it's um one parking stall per 100 square feet retail is is more that that General so it would be fewer parking stalls with a a beauty salon and so if we're looking at some of the other required use or allowed uses the parking would probably be less than what's proposed here and I think that their proposing 21 parking spaces and what's required is 12 is that correct correct y so the parking wouldn't change dramatically if over time this position or this business morphed into something different unless they came and asked for a variance that's right and it's really based on because the building is so small you recall with the restaurant they were expanding up and they had some basement space and expanding out so they were more than doubled the square footage and that's where the parking requirement went up as far as setbacks and things go if we in the future were to look at this how how much of a variant or how much bigger could a building be without asking for any variances I don't think you could do any expansion of this building without the need for a variance okay so this is this is pretty much it it is and it's non-conforming even as it is correct yeah so we're not without further Council action it wouldn't get bigger correct okay and then the the variance is on the Pyramid of discretion is it the same level we're at now or is it higher up it's as what they would need now it's on the low end where the city has complete discretion it it requires a comprehensive plan Amendment so it's a four fifths vote of the city council and then if we were to approve that and in the future change the use it would be a 3- fifths vote correct but the same level of discretion or would it be a higher you know we have less discretion on you would have less discretion okay and then I remember one of the elements is caused by the piece of land but if we had an existing business here that was fine you know Kevin Keys was fine this might be fine and if another use came along that wouldn't be a reason to Grant a variance because the use changed it have to be caused by the piece of land right correct so let's say they as an example this got approved and it was rezoned to pcd1 the business goes away and a beauty salon wanted to go in there as long as they had enough parking stalls they could just move in as a permitted use okay but if they wanted to double the size of the building then they'd come for a variance correct and um but my question is if they came for that variance and this is goofy little triangular piece of land could they say hey it's the piece of land that's forcing us to do this that would be one of the factors that we're considering is the shape of the lot is unique and it has restrictive setbacks being on having two street frontages but another factor is is the use they're proposing is that expansion reasonable given the g whatever the parking needs are so there's more factors that could go into it I know it's a multiactor thing it is um so those are my thoughts it doesn't help you guys much but um as you probably sensed it's you know people who want housing there and people want a restaurant there and then we're pretty much 5050 from what I hear um and I I think like I said if it was just your use um go forward so that that's something I will have to think about um I think I'm actually kind of reassured that there's a little bit more zoning protection than I thought previously um for this use let me see if I've got all my questions answered um oh yeah if I added a second story would that need a variance it would yes that the the Second Story would have to meet setback requirements as well and given the fact that the existing building is non-conforming that Second Story Edition would require variances as well okay so pretty much what's there is what's there and um anything else would need variances to expand the building correct yeah okay um but if it was the exact same footprint would that still need variances if they tore this one down and build a new one because it's non-conforming yep if they tore the building down and built a new one they would have to come in for variances yes okay even if it were in that same footprint okay so the other the third part of what I'm we've got the micro we've got the macro and then just a general use and this touches on part of what member Pierce said and that is this is a really odd piece of land and with we keep getting proposals and at some point do we want to think about whether it's just better for the city to buy it um are we going to Zone it or have such zoning requirements that nobody can build anything there and um that's that's an issue I'm thinking about I mean obviously it costs money and everything but um we don't want to condemn it by through the zoning code um I wish there was a way for uh housing to come forward but we haven't seen that like I said in a vacuum this is a great idea but it's not in the vacuum and I got to go try your pizza um but it's not in a vacuum it's in the real world in a real neighborhood and so those are my thoughts and I I hope that that's helpful appreciate it thank you so I am going to start with two questions um one I'm going to begin with uh director Teague so when this was guided for residential I think you mentioned and if I'm getting my years correct that would have been for the in the 2008 comprehensive plan is that correct I know it was in the 2008 plan it might have even been in the plan before that but I'm not 100% sure okay and you might not know the answer then to this question but was it discussed considered in the 2018 plan or was this area just not touched yeah I can say going through both the 2008 and the 2018 this site was never discussed okay thank you I think that that's really helpful context for for me especially the amount of times we say this is what it you know in the comprehensive plan is guided for um I think that that's a it's an interesting data point but for me that's not the most swaying thing because we haven't looked at it it sounds like in 15 years minimum um so next question that I have is how much bigger is the kitchen here I remember some conversation about this with the Planning Commission how much bigger is the kitchen here than your other site um at our other other site we have our line where we cook meals and then we have a small prep room so as far as total square footage I don't know that off top of my head it this would be different because everything would be in one we' use the garage space basically so I would say ballpark 30% larger like net space wonderful thank you I I got the impression that it was substantially larger from the Planning Commission so just was seeking some clarity on that so that's helpful yeah and and we are in an old gas station as well currently our stores and but we have seating so it's that takes up the building itself the footprints bigger but we have seating in there okay wonderful uh so my my thoughts on this and and I think I'm going to kind of maybe reverse uh the way that um member Jackson did this is I I fall into the camp of I would like to see a restaurant or something on this site um and the reason being I live I've timed it out I can get to town hall station in like 90 seconds if I really need to um including pser Margo Snuffy like that whole area and I know that there's an important distinction there and that was a neighborhood node right um but I was there the other night and met some neighbors who they still didn't have power uh 20 hours later and I was like oh my gosh so we talked about that for a little while um saw a former our commission member and and and spoke with um that member for a little bit and the way that these kind of things within our community can bring people together I love and I I do um I think that the first proposal that we saw here while I think it was larger than what we want is in some ways I think it was called like the Westside Cafe or maybe it was a different name um that to me was the closest to what I want to see minus the I think they had some rental space and some additional components but I love the idea and so now Maring it with what this proposal is in front of us I love the Adaptive use of the space that we have and I think that you know again echoing what we see with Town Hall Station um using what is there is a very sustainable way of going about development and I think it it's what we know more or less fits on the site um so I'd love to see some type of restaurant some place that people can gather together which is I think maybe where this proposal in front of us tonight sketch plan doesn't quite Meet The Mark of what I want to see for this site um it to me says people are going to you know Drive in pick up and leave and so the part that is missing is how are we bringing people together in the community where are people going to whe even if it's is just a coffee shop similar to Patisserie Margot or Edina coffee roters where are we encouraging that Community Connection that I think is so essential when adding in a restaurant or a cafe or something into a neighborhood right because this isn't a neighborhood node this is a neighborhood um and so that's where I'm really trying to strike that balance of creating something that everyone in this neighborhood well I know we won't get you know a ton of support directly there but people in this neighborhood do eventually want to walk to and it is that Community Gathering Spot and so you know it's kind of hard to to sus through I would love to see this B pcd1 i' would love to see a restaurant Cafe there um I want it to be something that's going to bring people to that site for a longer period of time coffeee or otherwise and I think we were closest with that first proposal and I just want to see some tweaking on the hours potentially no liquor license like I I know that there were some aspects to that that I think we could have just trimmed down um and so to me the fact that the Planning Commission did refer to this as industrial which like we we could argue that one way or another um but I've seen how you know you just get so much traffic in and out and and I hear what member Pierce was saying about you know there's traffic on the street already and and we can't really um solve for that 100% but that was also what I didn't like about the um the donation site e either is I was envisioning like lines of cars like I've seen at other sites here I don't want it just you know so much rapid traffic but more of a a community location thank you thank you thank you and um I have requested that we look at the zoning map this is the third proposal that has come before Council and um with each of the proposals we've talked about traffic and that was a very strong concern uh and I remember listening to commissioner Lou Miranda talk and he was frustrated about how this this isn't you know we're not planning we're reacting and um I don't know if we could zoom in but what the area that we're looking at um that little teeny tiny red triangle um is the potential site and if you look at our code and you go to anyone you can Google Edina City code go to chapter 24 streets Article 4 um which pertains to standards and guidelines for roadways and if you look at item seven curb cuts on collector streets and one thing we need to note um and maybe director Teague what classification is Vernon it's a collector or an arterial right I can't remember which one it is but it is identified as either a collector or arterial in our comprehensive plan it is it's an arterial it's an arterial but in this case city code doesn't apply to it cuz it's managed by henpen County city code does not manage but we are curb Cuts so it's hennipin county has a jurisdiction on how many curb cuts and where they're located and stuff like that for Vernon Avenue right but in our city code and uh it's important to recognize that item seven curb cuts on collector streets the number of driveways intersecting a street designated as a collector or arterial by the comprehensive plan shall be limited to those driveways essential for adequate access when properties adjoin more than one street driveways shall be restricted if possible to the street with the lower volume of traffic and then it goes on to say the following additional restrictions apply to Lots in the R1 district and R2 districts and if you look at that little red dotted triangle it does appear to be surrounded by R1 and R2 okay there is multif family and R3 yes so um but I do see a lot of R1 I do see a lot of R2 and you know does that meet the definition of in I don't know if all streets adjoining the lot and so there are additional requirements including on Corner Lots or through lots and this is considered a through lot it's not a corner lot um no driveway shall intersect with a street designated by the comprehensive plan as collector or arterial okay and I think you know when you read that and you think about you know safety and we have talked about traffic and we can't control the traffic and all that kind of stuff our code offers standards and guidelines that help us direct what is safe development what makes sense for lots and as has been noted um my colleague uh member Jackson this is a very I can't remember small unusual site I'm paraphrasing but uh I think that's the gist of it and the question comes comes down and this was also something that was wrestled with by the Planning Commission what is the job of the Planning Commission um our you know what is the job that we have before us is it our responsibility to make sure that there is an economically viable uh project no matter how much somebody's paid for a piece of property um is it our job to ensure safety I think safety is definitely very important um I think the reason why it is guided for residential has to do with the idea that you want to have it be accessed off of Eden Prairie Road and I think you know what we need to see come before us is a project that meets code standards and it would be very helpful to start with a diagram that showed us what the legal buildable area for that site happens to be and I know with the site that is most often compared to this one um 4404 Valley View Road uh the development that went up was over 2 and a half times the legal buildable area and what we need to do is start really thinking in terms of having developments be guided by our code and our standards instead of flipping it around and you know turning it upside down and having our zoning and our comprehensive plan um be guided by a development Vision there needs to be um recognition of what is in place and I think you know this is sort of frustrating for me I did support the green drop but that was before I looked at standards and guidelines for roadways and driveways um the more I look at this and I look at the area I am very concerned about what this could do for safety I'm concerned about about spot zoning um and I really do take to heart what commissioner Miranda said um and it it did sound you know very much coming from a point of frustration that we are not planning we are reacting and um we need to really start moving in a direction where we're following the things that have been developed and because this is really something that the community should be able to count on so I'm I'm troubled by the amount of traffic this would generate I'm troubled by the access off of Vernon um and it just the more I I think about each of the projects that come before us it it seems like sky's the limit we'll we'll rewrite our code we'll create a whole new Zoning for you we'll do you know whatever you want and and I don't think that is The Logical way to proceed I I really don't think that that is appropriate I don't think it makes sense thank you thanks member rer um yeah my thoughts you know when we uh looked at the restaurant idea and um we had so much feedback on that uh that was positive in nature and when we decided that that wouldn't work in the form that it was suggested at be in it was primarily because of parking and so now what I see you folks trying to do is react to that and and recognizing that parking was an issue we didn't think it was appropriate that people would be parking up in the neighborhood uh and walking down to the restaurant we knew they couldn't Park along Vernon you know County wasn't going to ever allow that so the parking really had to be contained on the site and so as member U points out the this notion of you looking at this piece of property and seeing an Adaptive re possibility just like you apparently did out in minaka or Eden Prairie or somewhere it's it's pretty creative I thought and when somebody called me about what do you think about this take out pizza idea I thought well it's you know it's something worth exploring because it does create some Vitality but I thought member egna made a really great point is that want if we have something there that causes us to think about a use that we need need to change the codee for and we need to guide it differently have a place where people come and stay instead of come and go is something we're thinking about so um if there were you know like one thing I thought of when I heard about this idea was if you wanted it to be a place where people came and stayed sometimes you know what if there were a second floor on it and it was used as a an event room or a party room like kids kids have a pizza party or somebody people from the neighborhood wanted to get together and have a big room where they could have uh pizza made downstairs and brought upstairs but I don't know what that would do in terms of parking if we added you know if you added another 1,200 square ft to it on a second level I think that's about the footprint of the main building is it what did you say it was a one stall per 100 square fet correct you need another 12 stalls and how many do they have now 21 I believe it is 21 so they're overp parked right now they are overp parked yep okay um well that's at least one train of thought is that this this idea had possibilities based on what we heard people saying that they like the idea of but we are also highly sensitive to the neighbors not wanting to have people parking in the neighborhood that caused the demise of that first project as I mentioned other thing thing that you think about is well if we did change it to pcd1 we just had a conversation upstairs about cannabis and we've got that coming to our town you know it's coming to every town in Minnesota starting the first of the year and we're going to be issuing not licenses but registrations on at least five cannabis locations and we're talking about what zoning District should they be in uh without being too prescriptive if we have them in the same zones where we have liquor stor and you know we we could look at pcd1 pcd2 and PCD 3 so it could be a theoretical situation where down the line if this were approved as a project and uh you didn't like the way it was functioning and you decided this wasn't for you this location wasn't doing what you wanted it to do got to think about the multitude of different possibilities that would be available to people wanting to come in there including retail cannabis if we decide at some point in time here this Summer that we would allow the retail sale of cannabis in a pcd1 zone so you know when I look at the list of things that are permitted under pcd1 I see a lot of things that if they would have been there at one point in time Barbershop beauty salon art art dealers art galleries antique shops uh um uh gift shops you know I think some of those things might have stood the test a time a floor shop you know people might like that but when you get into things like other things that are permitted under pcd1 like uh secondhand clothing stores and um we don't allow liquor stores uh municipally owned only the municipally owned ones that wouldn't be a site for us I don't think because we got one close by uh medical and dental clinics it's another possibility so it it causes you to think uh on another train of thought well is it more important to think about what could be than what is but you know you you you're dealing in here and now and you've got a decent idea about a pizza uh location um but beyond the life of the pizza pizzeria station then what if it's zone pcd1 so that's something that all of us have to think about and I can't tell you where I land on that I just just I just know it's something I got to think about so you're getting some kind of theoretical discussion here out of the council that's that's different than we're getting feedback we're maybe what you expected but I'm hope it's I hope it's provided some level of guidance for you to go back and sit and yeah we'll have a conversation have my Cent confence whether this was a good idea or not not under the circumstances because I don't think you can get a sense from anybody up here what what what they're what would happen you know no we understand that it would be a contentious issue regardless uh and it would not have a guarantee of passing if we brought it Forward uh so we'll have to talk about that and he and Jake will have to decide ultimately if it's worth his his time and effort and money uh to uh to to pursue it uh I mean I know he's passionate about it he he sort of loves the idea um but uh but he also doesn't I mean he's a businessman he doesn't want to waste his money and time if he can avoid it so it'd be great pizza you know it' be it' be fantastic Pizza I can swear to that well thing that for people on the West Side to exess in just a couple minutes you know but uh this whole conversation has caused member Pierce to think of something else he wanted to add to the conversation well no I was just going to kind of double down on on the comment it from that side of the Das it seems like it is contentious issue isue and that is one way to internalize it the way I would internalize it is that we don't know what we want to do with it and so it is incredibly hard for a business developer and entrepreneur or what have you to try to make sense of that to bring something forward with when there's um um this VAR um this range you put it that way of of ideas because I could tell you if if one of us propose something I would say there's probably two of us that would go I don't know if I would want to do that but we talk about it we wrestle with it we might come up with something that could work um and so I it's I think it is fair to perhaps suggest that Beyond this maybe you have some independent conversations to I think that really is going to be the only way you can kind of tease out uh what might go forward um and then the other thing I would just offer um and you you saw it play out if we want to have a neighborhood node there I don't know that you can do that in that small piece of land and so this is where I do kind of agree with with commissioner Miranda made the comment about planning uh versus reacting um a lot of what we do it it's part of the process we do react to when things come forward so that's not a negative thing but on the west side in that area we could spend some time thinking about all right we want to have a neighborhood no how do we accomplish that given that it's there's residential surrounding that area um and I know there have been some work U that um the city has done to see if there are other Parcels available that kind of a thing to start to sketch together maybe we could do a neighborhood note and here's what it would look like um that's work that I think if we want that as a city that we need to to spend some work some spend some effort in dollars in trying to figure that out and and I honestly I think not until you have that or something similar to that will you have more you're going to be comfortable moving forward I in my opinion with um uh spending more money um to to further develop an idea Pierce uh mentioned something that I I think is something I want to touch on as well and I forgot to do it and that is you're faced with this situation where you got this funky piece of property it's almost trapezoidal I think it's it's not triangular yes yeah it's and then it's guided medium density for residential but it's been an out of repair place for 50 years and and uh as member Pier says we we don't know what we want to do with it either and it's it's confounded us as well um so thanks for trying yeah to come up with an idea and this notion of planning versus reacting I mean to me you know we we were we were I guess the first city in the metro to have a planning department and uh so you you get your city set with these different zoning districts but then you've got you've got exceptions to the rule it's just like everything else you I mean the you're you're reacting to situations so I don't agree with what I heard on planning versus reacting it's inevitable that you're going to have to react because sometimes you have to go outside the box a little bit that's why variances exist as a legal Concept in principle you know you got the general rule and then you've got exceptions to the general rule when when are you going to make an exception to the general rule well it that's why they exist in every zoning District M and so you know we might face that situation here remember rer mentioned when we faced over on valy view that was a funky triangular piece of property and and more tow houses are on there than she thinks are appropriate but I think it looks good you know but you got different opinions for different folks so um I don't know where that leads you you you just have to kind of huddle with your'll side we'll talk it through and and talk to our our folks talking to car as well they can sometimes tease a out of our conversations things that uh that we didn't detect ourselves he can expect my call tomorrow Pearson's uh comment and and visiting with council members one off is certainly something that's permitted as well well thank you I mean I I do genuinely appreciate the feedback that you've all given us tonight this is real feedback that allows us to make decisions based on the best sort of information that we have it's it's better than a smoke screen it's better than a well maybe you know maybe you know try and see uh so this gives us something to work with thank you very much yeah thanks for being here thank you thank you guys I'm going to go out and try your pizza too appreciate that thank all right thanks for as I said thanks for coming in with this idea um okay and now we're going to turn to manager Neil and council member Jackson who is this Relentless tireless worker on uh commission appointments in this case at student commission appointments and we're going to go through the list and we're going to have a motion on the approval of student Commissioners for the upcoming uh school year manager Neil thank you your honor each year the city council appoints um students to uh boards and commission members uh so they have an experience uh of what it's like to serve their community and and see kind of city government from the inside uh this year council members uh Jackson and agnu were the interviewers uh of 13 applicants 12 of which were appointed uh to our boards and commissions uh those ter those uh those terms begin on September 1st 2024 and end on September 1st 2025 let me thank member U too for doing this work per Miss and not mentioning her earlier so thanks to both of you for doing these interviews all right uh who's taking the lead on the I I was going to take the lead all right and uh and start out by saying I had a new partner this year was awesome um member agu joined me um and I think you know I just want to make it clear that we had 13 applicants one of whom did not come to the interview so I think they kind of lost interest I don't want to to sound like uh you know that everybody we talked to was awesome and that's the point I want to make and one we didn't get a chance to meet so I'm sure they're awesome too but they're not on this list because we didn't get a chance to meet them um so 13 engaged engaging students again the theme this year was very much around Public Health again um the students having been through school during a pandemic are aware of of the world of Public Health um I think every one of them were happy uh with with they we were able to place them where they wanted to be and um and it was just a wonderful uh experience and a wonderful chance to meet them and I want to see if member agnu has some comments the only thing that I want to add uh other than being immensely impressed with the students that we have within our community is I think also the reminder to us as a council that we should take some time over the next year to think strategically of how do we want to evolve and use the student Commissioners in this role and in this capacity um because I I do think that um similar to some of the conversations that we've had about our commissions and what we expect of them I think that we could tighten up a little bit about um what we want from our commission members um so that's maybe just a call of action for all of us but I think at the end of the day I left every interview that we were able to conduct uh just thoroughly impressed and I think left with a smile on my face of like hey this is our next generation and and this is pretty cool so with that hand it back to you all right thank you um and so yeah I just want to encourage our commission chairs to spend a little time um eliciting feedback from the students because they really do have a different perspective and I found on the energy environment commission a Priceless uh perspective so I hope that that they um we expect them to be full members not voting but otherwise full members and I encourage our chairs to think of them that way so drum roll please this is our fantastic slate of student Commissioners for the arts and culture commission Anna shank for Community Health commission anush kja and adita Gandhi for the energy and environment commission Anushka Shasta and Angela lwi uh we didn't have any historians this time so we don't have any student Commissioners for that for the Heritage preservation commission uh for human rights and relations commissions we have Ellie doich and Pika Kumar for Parks and Recreation Commission we have Suliman Sayad and Emma ellson for the Planning Commission we have adja and Ben jonus and for the Transportation Commission Auggie lesing and I can tell you every single one of them was amazing um don't see uh Mr Teague but both of the students who we put on the Planning Commission promised that they liked hard work so oh there you are um so so hopefully they're they're hard workers for you and we told them it's twice a month it's not once a month and they were up for that so I was really really pleased with that so with that I will move this slate of 2024 2025 student commission appointments you tell when they start when they end oh yeah their term begins in September they've got training in August and then their term begins in September we hope that they continue to serve throughout the summer um because it is a year-long term and I'll second the motion very good we got a motion to second to adopt the recommended appointments that member Jackson read uh with terms starting September 1st 2024 ending September 1st 2025 uh for the various commissions named and the various students named uh any further discussion all those in favor of approving the recommended appointments uh by our colleagues for the student appointments to the various commissions named say I I I opposed carried the uh students are appointed thank you is um let me ask a quick question on human rights and relations Is it's it's Ellie do not docot or is that M do scotches I think it is the typographic I think it might be a typ I think it might be a typo so it's ell dokot it's Matt dok's daughter apparently or I think that's correct yeah yeah I who's also on one of our commissions all right uh very good thanks um nothing's come in I take it LK Ellison all right um and um turning now to our manager for his manager's comments thank you your honor I just have one thing for you tonight um I just wanted to give the council an update on uh the settlement of the the national opioids official settlement um one aspect of that that involves the Sackler family and their um and their corporate organization I think it's been sidelined for for the time being but a couple other uh Mass lawsuits that are that have settled out now one of them is with pharmacies retail pharmacies and we got settlements today for for for from Walmart Walgreens and CVS a total of $65,000 interesting that's all that I got thank you okay uh member rer you want to lead us off and sure tell us about some of the comments you got from residents when you we ran into you as you were walking we were all walking to the parade yes I went to the Fourth of July parade um before the parade I always like to go and talk to people and it's nice um I sort of check the pulse to ask if people have Joys and concerns and got some both positive feedback and some constructive um ideas about what we're doing and so that was really nice and then it was kind of rainy but you know it it was all lovely uh I also went to the league of Minnesota cities um meeting in Rochester and that was really valuable I think in terms of um providing opportunities to talk to people from cities throughout Minnesota it's always good to have time to meet and chat and find out what people are doing and different ways they are negotiating through things and so that was good I went to sessions that had to do with affordable housing cannabis um there was a lot that was there for me to learn about and so that was really kind of neat and staff members were there as well so um it was a a good event um on another note I have been hearing from a lot of people people about tree limbs after the storm and I think probably all of us are getting emails and voicemail messages and I remember several years ago I think the city did pick up limbs I have I recall that um we may have picked up limbs if they were from public property or there was a tree that was on public property that fell but we have not picked up um private property storm debris before okay all right um I did get a oh sorry follow on that I thought we had coordinated where people could bring limbs to a location we have done that before yeah that's what I was thinking about okay I don't know if member Jack well I have an ancient memory that predates manager Neil uh where we had a I don't know when the the wind comes straight down or it was either straight it was straight line winds and it hit the East it hit Richfield really hard Mr Mayor you'll remember this that hit Richfield very hard in eastern Edina hit Western Edina too where I live and I we lost limbs but Eastern Edina got the the limbs picked up because it was so severe and Western it did not but that was before 2011 so and this could have been before I but I I have a distinct memory of the city picking up limbs from my yard I I'm pretty sure it happened yeah um but this raised a question somebody's on a road that on the opposite side of the street is St Louis Park and they came through and picked up Limbs and then Idina did not pick up Limbs and I'm just wondering um if other municipalities are doing that um if we're sort of unique or not and I know that's not really fair to ask this right now without giving you advanced warning but yeah I I think uh members and member rer I think we have seen we have seen certainly different cities have different uh procedures when it comes to storm cleanup um we uh we require residents to handle their own tree and and storm debris in that way uh I know that St Louis Park has a more permissive approach to that and and do provide uh assistance um for some for some cases where they have private tree damage and we have not done that in the past this was specific to Boulevard trees you for that okay good anything else member um no I think that's all jackon thank you Mr Been while since we've been together I think it was uh it has been end or middle of June yeah so A lot's been going on um uh we had an event at the um Centennial Lakes that got together five panelists of people who had helped plan that historic development and if you missed it it's available on Edina TV and it's a it's a great story and they they were really interesting fellows um talking about the process I do want to thank the um explor Minnesota and the community Edan Community Foundation for hosting the parade it was it was rainy until it was not and then suddenly there was a big crowd and it was a great parade so I want to say thanks for that and I think that's all I've got right thank you member Pierce nothing from me uh this evening thank you all right remember so over our summer break is what we call it when we have that one meeting off I have just been enjoying all the amazing City things with my girls so I have a 3 and half-year-old and a four 3-year-old and a 4 and a half-year-old I don't know they're so close together um and so first I don't remember the exact order of this but we went to the retirement celebration for Griff and it was at Centennial Lakes Park and it was a beautiful site for it was an amazing event but the whole time those darn boats go up and down the Waterway and so my girls are just like when are you going to take us growing so now I have to do that which will be actually a lot of fun um but of course they want the swan uh and then the parade parade was amazing we've already had some comments on that um which was was really a good time um and then lastly have gotten to enjoy the Aquatic Center um so just another plug for that especially on those hot days uh absolutely love that we have that and excited that we as a council were also able to go and do a tour um our Capital Improvement project tour and got to I don't know I really like the behind the scenes tour of the aqua Aquatic Center in particular um but I think just a good reminder of of everyone that wants to stay cool and enjoy some of the amazing amenities that our city has um and then this is kind of embarrassing but I walked um the Roslin Park Trail for the first time on Sunday um because apparently I can walk there from my house and it was a 45-minute Loop and it was beautiful and amazing and so if you haven't gotten out to do that trail yet which I've lived in a walking distance from for six years and just got out there this year for the first time um but I wanted to go across that bridge and so kind of used it as an opportunity to just think about all of some of the amazing projects we have that I think are going to make other amazing things that we have a part of the city even more accessible so just a reminder for folks to enjoy all of our amazing summer things thank you thanks I want to give member Jackson a big shout out for that Centennial history of Centennial Lakes event it was her brainchild put it together the panelists former mayor Fred Richards and one of the developers Peter Jarvis uh John brightling who I think worked for the the one of the real estate development companies and there was a fourth was there one more panel well Tom Shirley well Tom Shirley was there because he ran he was the first manager of the park and Hughes and then Gordon Hughes are who was a planning director at the time I think that Centennial Lakes was created and uh back in the mid 80s and they talked about the difficulties involved and the challenges around you know we think we go through these periods where there are Financial challenges they had them there too at that point in time and and here we are all these years later with a fabulous uh part and loved by all um and then uh the parade uh you know um my wife is a introvert and for her to get in the back seat of a convertible and sit up on the back and wave at people that's about as tough as it gets for her really really hard but her comment was the people were so kind and so nice and so friendly uh even though it was it somebody put I remember Jackson that had it had stopped raining uh for the the parade itself and uh the people were just wonderful and uh as always it's just a a great peace of America it makes you really feel good about everything where you live uh every everything about being here and being in need it was a wonderful wonderful morning um we had our last meeting I think it was on the 18th of June and then on the 20th of June I went to the US Conference of Mayors meeting and as we're sitting here I realized well I haven't even reported out on that thing yet so but just I just briefly I can tell you a few highlights that the standing committee that I chaired on the on transportation we had uh a significant meeting there I had us do people there and then all my vice chairs the mayor of Austin Texas the mayor of Normal Illinois who's on the Amtrak board and mayor of Gres Morgan who's our Transit person they all gave great report outs on the things that they're working on uh and then the next day I was on a panel the Bloomberg philanth Michael Bloomberg is all those years as mayor really committed himself he really committed himself to local government and local government work and so they he helped fund this local infrastructure Hub and then they had a panel and the local infrastructure Hub of Bloomberg helps cities like ours uh process applications under uh you know the bipartisan infrastructure act Ira so uh we had a really good panel discussion there and then um the the president of the of the US Conference of Mayors the last president Hillary shivy who's the mayor of Reno asked me to be on the nominating committee so that was a really interesting experience for the first time putting in place in the queue for the next few years the leadership team so this it's now the Mayor of Columbus Ohio U he was in the queue and ready to go and then it's um David Holt the mayor of Oklahoma City and they try to go um party party independent party party independent so uh and then the one the last one in the q& now is the um mayor of San Diego who will be the first um gay mayor to lead the US Conference of Mayors three years from now so that was a real interesting experience as well with about a dozen people on that committee and then some other fabulous meetings um you know meetings on on what we're seeing in our our world and we even seen a little bit of it locally about misinformation and disinformation um that was uh you some good conversations around that and I'll I'll report out on some of the other things at a later time but that's I think that's good for now umon yes at some point I'd love to hear the trends in transportation that'd be really helpful yeah we got a really fascinating report out of Amtrak they're at alltime record high for ridership wow so you can see that passenger rail is coming back and now it's a matter of trying to develop effective systems like the the new Borealis line between here and Chicago is more of a um uh not cut rate but it's it's a more affordable sort of way to get down to Chicago then the Empire Builder which is a you know the fancy train with the it cost probably twice as much Li does that yeah and um and so this Chris kous who's the mayor of noral Illinois who's on Now new to the Amtrak board is they're they're pretty pleased with how things are going especially up and down the East Coast people using their train um so yeah I'll do that so that's it uh that's it for me it caused anybody else to think of anything that happened over the last since June 18th when we last got together okay all right is there a motion to adjourn so moved a motion and a second to adjourn Mo motion by member Jackson second by member Pierce to Jour the meeeting of the city council uh this Tuesday July 16th 2024 any further discussion all those in favor of Ajman say I I I opposed carried We Stand jour for