Well, good evening everybody and welcome to the um uh Wednesday, April 16, 2025 meeting of the United City Council. It is 7:01 p.m. Uh as Director Benerrod indicated, we've been conducting these meetings in a hybrid fashion. People can tune in uh virtually and and participate in these meetings. We've been doing it since uh the COVID era uh since the pandemic and post pandemic. And uh some folks are here in person to uh uh share their thoughts with us uh during one of two uh opportunities this evening and one is during community comment where you can speak uh to the council about a matter of concern to you that's uh uh not scheduled for a future public hearing or otherwise on the agenda this evening. Uh and then we've got a couple of public hearing matters as well that people will be able to participate in. Um, having provided that information, I'm going to call the meeting to order and ask our clerk Sharon Allison to call the role. Council member Agnu here. Council member Jackson and Pierce are both absent. Council member Risser here. Mayor Hufflin here. Uh, next is the pledge of allegiance to the flag of America for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thanks everybody. And um we talked about uh the meeting agenda briefly. Uh I'm going to talk about that a little bit more in detail. Right now we have a form of meeting agenda that gets published in advance of these meetings so the public can review it and decide if they want to attend. Uh and then council members and staff also get that meeting agenda and uh sometimes there's modifications of that meeting agenda. Is there anyone on the council or uh staff from a staff level that wishes to modify the meeting agenda any form or fashion? None from staff. Okay. All right. Is there a motion to approve the meeting agenda as published? So moved. Second. Got a motion by member Agnu, second by member Risser to approve the meeting agenda for this evening's meeting as published. Any any further conversation? Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the motion as stated, say I. I. I. Opposed. Carried. We have a meeting agenda. That's approved for the meeting this evening. Uh we talked a little bit earlier about community comment. And um it is now time for community comment. We're going to get up on uh the screen here. The number that folks can call into if they want to call in to express their thoughts to the council on their concerns. um or anything that's on their mind other than something that's on the agenda this evening or scheduled for a future public hearing. But first, I'm going to turn to the audience at large and see if anyone in the audience wishes to address the council on a matter of concern to them. As folks know and director Benerro has indicated, you'll have three minutes. You'll get a 30 second yellow warning light and then you wrap up your comments at the red light. and this gentleman that's with us that knows that rule in particular since he serves the city in a different capacity. That's right. Yeah. Good evening. So, good evening everybody. Um my name is Ryan Day live at 6808 Chapel Lane and uh not here to talk about the Lincoln very small area plan yet. What I wanted to ask a few questions about was something that was on your work agenda tonight before this meeting. Um and that being the utility franchise fees. I figured it'd be easier to come ask questions directly than to sit through that work session for two hours. So, here I am. Um, so as I read through that packet, uh, the, uh, introduction to that, uh, agenda item stated that during the 2025 city council retreat, council directed staff to evaluate an updated flat fee model and new percent fee uh, to generate an additional $1 million in revenue to contribute to street reconstruction projects. really the you know evaluating whether you want to do a new a flat fee or a percentage fee. Um um so really about that opening statement, you know, I had a question about the million dollar a dollar amount. Um how that number was determined. Um why not more? Why not less? Uh and you know who really identified that number, right? So when I think of street reconstruction projects specifically, why was that specifically called out in the agenda item? Um is that a funding gap that exists today? And was it council or staff that identified that gap? So just kind of curious about that that piece. Um and then a couple questions quick about implementation the um as I think about implementation and and that fee. I wonder if there's a cap on how much those fees um can be raised or increased annually. So when I think about like the gas tax for example and that how that tracks to inflation or really the construction cost index um I wonder if there's any similar model for this this fee or if it can be increased by really any percentage on an annual basis. Um, and then I also wonder if there's somewhere where it's explicitly detailed uh what these funds can or cannot be used for. Uh, honestly, as a resident of Adina becomes a little hard to track all of our different fees, park dedication, utility, franchise fees, what those can be used for, where, how much they can be increased by every year, etc. So, if there's more information that the city can share about that, eager to hear it. Um, and that's it. So, thank you. Good. Thank you. Yeah, we just had a work session on that this evening and we won't we were missing two council members. So, uh we're going to postpone this to a broader discussion on the 6th of May, I think it was, uh in full council presentation. So, you might want to be able to you be able to set your schedule to be here. That might be valuable for you. Uh otherwise we've got some materials that uh are uh available online I think that we can provide to the to you and members of the planning commission. So anyone else in the audience who wishes to address the council on a matter of concern to them. Okay. All right. Let's turn now to the online world and see if we got anybody. No. Yeah. All right. Um should you want us to wait just a moment to see if anybody decides to call in? I think Mr. Day spoke for more than a minute, so I think you're okay to move on. All right. Very good. All right. We're going to move on. Now, our practice is that when we have community comment, uh, such as Mr. Day provided tonight, uh, the city manager usually provides a written answer online by the Friday following the Tuesday meeting. And then we supplement that information that goes online live at the next council meeting. So, I'm now going to turn my u attention to manager Neil and see if there was anything he needed to address from the prior council meeting uh that was raised at that meeting concern. There weren't any questions for us to respond to at the last council meeting. All right. Thank you. Um and next we've got the consent agenda. There's several items on the consent agenda this evening. Uh those items on the consent agenda to theoretically be handled in a single motion. adopting all those items on the consent agenda in a single motion. Is there anyone on the council that wishes to remove an item from the consent agenda? Is there a motion to adopt a consent agenda uh in its totality in a single motion? So moved. Second. Member Agnu moves member Risser seconds the adoption of the items on the consent agenda in a single motion. Um any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the items on the consent agenda and the single motion say I. I. I. Opposed. Carried. Uh those um 16 items on the consent agenda are here with adopted and approved. Uh and next we are uh quickly at uh the special recognitions and presentations portion of the agenda. We'd love it when you we've got these teams from Edina High School here. Uh young men, young women, in and this evening we get to recognize the United High School boys swimming and diving team. We've got uh Coach Johnson with us and I don't Do we have more coaches with us? Oh yeah. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to have you identify yourself in a minute. Um why don't you all come up around the podium there and uh tell us a little bit about the uh uh the the event and uh you know you we read in the paper how you won. I think I think talent and depth was really an important part of it. uh and uh so eager to hear from you. Coach, you want to lead it off and and bring up some of the young men with you and we'll identif you we'll have you identify yourselves as well just for the record. So um and then you're all going to be on television so families can see you, friends can see you as well. Uh thanks Mayor Hland. Uh first I'll I'll let everybody identify themselves and they can uh say uh what event they want. If they want to say they if they were a state champion in the event or third place or whatever, that's up to them. So I'll let everybody go through. We'll just kind of just go through and kind of make a little circle and then I'll come back here and I can That's a good great way to handle it. Thanks, coach. Yeah, we got it. Oh, do it that way. Perfect. Hi, I'm Mike Riolo and I swim the 100 breast and 50 free at state. Hi, I'm Willie Turk and I swam the 500 and 200 freestyle escape. I'm Joe Hamburger. I swam the 100 fly and two free at state. Um I'm Liam McAuliff and I swam the 500 freestyle at state. I'm George Gri and I swam the 200 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke at state. I'm Logan Bracken and I swim the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle. Uh my name is Patrick Abler. I won or I I swam the 50 free and 100 free at state. I'm Reed Mallister. I swim the 100 fly. And I'm Alex Laco and I swam the 200 free pre and the 500 pre. Good. And this is our assistant coach, John. I'm John Dailyaly. I'm the diving coach. Thank you, coach. Coach, anything you want to add? Oh yeah, let's celebrate these guys. First of all, please we're going to do a photo up here in a moment with the council members that are here. Uh but let's hear a little bit about the the event and the season. Oh, thanks. Well, we had a we had a great season. Uh we were undefeated in our dual meets and we were late conference champions for the first time since 2022. Uh we were section champions and uh we were state champions. We won the state meet by uh 20 I think it's 26 points. And I I'm pleased to say that we are the first uh large class boys team uh to to have four divers entered in the meet and they all scored. Unfortunately, none of those uh gentlemen are here tonight, but that's a uh that's a boys class doubleA first. So, very very pleased. It it put really put an oomph in the diving part of swimming and diving this year. So, we're very pleased about that. Go ahead, coach. No, go ahead. I was going to say I was just thinking about another state championship and uh remember Troy Stein gave me a hat last year that had like 200 state championship logo on it and now uh I'm going to have to modify that thing I guess. Yeah, we are put magic marker on. We are 208. 208 and and I always like to say whenever we come here that we were the first Edina High School athletic program to stand in these chambers uh 21 years ago. So always kind of consider this to be our home and we initiated this back in I think it was April of uh of 2004. So it's 21 years ago. So and we we like to come back. Well, congratulations again and I'm going to come down. They're all gonna come down for a photo. We're so appreciative you took the time all you help us celebrate and help us celebrate you. It was great. Everybody sort of angled in towards the center as skinny as possible. You want us in one room or two? Two, but I don't I don't Just come over by Thank you so much to see. So these are little carders. No matter where you track All right. Thanks, guys. See you. Thank you. Well, uh, a couple of wonderful, uh, parts of the special recognitions and presentations portion of the agenda this evening. The second part is following that uh that state high school championship swimming and diving team. We've got two of our very own uh passed their prime on swimming on the team, but uh maybe they did that when they were in younger days. Uh we've got resident Bob Thompson and United resident Jack Warren. I had the pleasure of being with them a couple weeks ago. They made a presentation over at the uh historical society and it was just delightful. And um I think they've got some they've well they have a book they've produced together. Uh and Bob will talk hand it out first so they can Yeah, we can have that in hand for the council members. Uh and Bob has just an uncanny knowledge of it history coupled with Jack's photography. It's just a delightful sort of experience that I had on that Sunday and I think you'll all enjoy it today. And this gives us a chance to get it out in front of the citizens of Edina as well and get it recorded. So Bob and Jack, come on up and introduce yourselves. Well, I'm Jack Weston. I'm the photographer and uh see Bob and I got together what about four and a half years ago during CO and um basically with the restrictions of CO I you know I've lived on the creek with my wife for about 36 years and uh uh at that time you know I I just really appreciated being there at the creek and and and taking pictures at the creek and and just the wildlife. I just got a different perspective of of wildlife at that point and so I started taking a lot of pictures. I started uh put putting them on Facebook, posting them on Facebook and a lot of people uh were giving me a lot of likes on it and Bob and I got uh introduced to each other when you were trying to get uh what was it the uh the heritage award for Edina. I was helping out with the uh looking for homes for the Adina heritage preservation award and I was heading down North Avenue and I talked to somebody next door to Jack and they said, "Well, you got to talk to this guy next door. Right. He's been taking photographs and Right. We're both we're both history buffs. Yeah. So that's that was kind of the union. So we we started uh you know talking about the history of the neighborhood. You were you were really into the you know the aspects of the historical nature and and you know you talked about it at the uh at the historical society. We put on a presentation I think it was a couple weeks ago at the historical society and I I don't think we had enough time to even cover everything we really wanted to cover. Did you bring a few of your slides with you this evening? We did not. Um, we I mean we're limited to 10 minutes. Yeah, we're if we weren't limited to 10 minutes, we we we could we could talk for two hours. Let me jump in here. For those of you in the audience, Jack and I produced a book about the life on Minihaha Creek. Uh, history, photos, it's gorgeous. Um, I wanted also, we didn't do this alone. Among the people that helped us were a lot of city staff. Um Emily Dal Rimple planning. Uh Jessica Wilson, we walked the creek with her. Um Jennifer Garski helped us get this set up. Jane Lquist who is or was on the uh preservation commission was also my neighborhood mentor. She's the one who really got me digging into this stuff. and then the staff and the volunteers at the historical society. And in particular, a guy I really learned a lot from was um Bob uh Bob Cotin. I always stumble on that name. Uh he was the Adina Parks director, but he has encyclopedic knowledge of u Adina. But for the book, if you want to just breeze through it a little bit, if you go to page 26 or so, you're going to see the photos, aerial photos of this stretch of the creek that we've focused on. Um, as Jack said, I was he was documenting wildlife. I was looking for historic preservation homes. uh and we decided we needed to do a book about this very short stretch because we realized we needed to focus and I wanted to bring the history and also the natural features in. So in a way I I said to Jim when I first wrote to him this is kind of a love letter to a dinina. It seems a little hokey but it really shows the beauty of this place and how much can inspire people to even go out and make a book. But anyway, that's uh we'd like to get your comments, thoughts on this. I think you should just take that book that you've got in your hand, Bob, and put it on the, you know, go to the middle podium there and uh Yeah. Open up a few Jack for a few key photos there. Carrie will show you how to do it, right? Projected somehow. Yeah. Yeah. Just And then we just have you hold it open. Jack, you pick a few photos that you would like to Well, show the cover of the book first, Bob. The cover of the book, uh, is an egret. Uh, no, upside. You got it upside down. No. Okay, there you go. I get it. Okay. Okay. So, so I I the other thing I want to mention on this book is uh uh all these pictures were taken at my house. I did not leave my yard for any of these pictures. We still we still got about 45 photos in the can. Our plan is to expand the book. We want to get it published. We've uh uh we've already contacted the Minnesota Historical Society Press. There's one. So, that's kind of where we are. Yeah. I'll put it right in the middle there. Right in the middle. So that was just taken directly across uh the creek from my house and that's a red tailed hawk about 100 feet up in the tree. Red fox across the creek going up a snowcovered hill. This is one I like. Yeah, I like that one too. Teamwork. Yeah, that's that's pretty rare to get a northern flicker and a piated woodpecker on a tree right next to each other at the same time. So I I had literally 10 seconds to take that shot. A lot of these shots. Show Show them the Show them the deer. Yeah, show the deer. This uh 11point buck shot I took uh last fall and and and I was watching a Vikings game and a player got injured. So I I stretched for a commercial break and I was looking out the picture window and all of a sudden here's this huge buck crossing the creek. I have my camera on a tripod with a quick release on it. So I and a sliding glass door so I went like that. I had literally eight seconds to take that picture. But that's why I have my my camera on the tripod. And that was shot with a that was shot with a 600 millimeter prime lens. So, and Bob, if you put that book back down there, I want to ask you a question. So, people at home can how do how do people go about ordering this book if they want to pick up a copy? Can can they still get it through the historical society? Um, do we have inventory? We haven't set anything up for the historical society. Um, if I could leave my email address and if you contact me. Okay. Okay. I don't know how you how you want to do that. We can put it online. Online. Okay. The website. Otherwise, it's art thompson1123gmail.com. Um, so we, as I tell people, we didn't get in this to sell a book. We got in this to wasn't sell an idea, right? Was about the beauty of the creek and the history and the natural features of it. So anyway, we're not really making a business out of this. No, we understand that. It's not a business proposition. It was a labor of love. It's a labor of love. We're both, you know, it's really hobbies. Bob likes to write. I like to take pictures. So, it was a good So, what we really like too is to see how Adina can take this and and just use it as part of telling people about this place. As I said, it's kind of a love letter to Adina. And we'd be happy if that ever happened. I know that's kind of a pitch, but you know, it's sincere. What's that? We just use this book to show people what this place is like. Oh, yeah. Really? Oh, yeah. I mean, when we show it to people, they immediately want to go look and like, where is this? Is this in our city or Yes. You know, there's very few people that know about this book at this point. I mean, we haven't really spent time marketing it. We don't have a website. We're we're talking to the Minnesota Historical Society, we hope, about whether they want to publish it. We'll see. So, this is in a sense a prototype. We put it together to demonstrate that visual images have terrific impact. I need your inner. Oh, I'm sorry. And little and big stories can be told through little stories. And that's what we really wanted to do. And so, we're going to find out if somebody wants to publish it. We'll see. But anyway, it's been great. Yeah, we know that a lot. It was still fun. What's that, Jim? Say lot We know a lot of these photos were taken outside of Jack's uh house. Well, we won't give them the address. We won't give people the address. So, we got a map of this with his house in the book. So, so it's doesn't take a rocket scientist to find my house. Okay. I'm bird watchers. Bird watchers in your yard here shortly, right? All right. Well, thank you. If you're interested, rtompson1123@gmail.com. Thank you, mayor, for inviting us. We appreciate everybody. Thank you. Thanks for being here again. All right. Um, this is a tough act to follow. Thomas, you got the you got this state championship team and then two guys that did a book about life along the creek from a wildlife standpoint. And uh but what you have to talk about is very very important in our community and we uh we're pleased to have you here this evening. Thomas Brooks is our diversity, equity, and inclusion manager in the city of Adana. And uh he's got some good things to talk about here uh that we've been working on. And um we've also got a proclamation involving something that Edina has been involved in for probably close to 20 years now and that is days of remembrance uh with respect to the Holocaust. So uh Mr. Brooks, welcome. Yeah, Mayor Council, thank you for having me yet again. Um I've been looking forward to this update because um this has always meant that the project is moving just as planned. Um so that's really the takeaway from today's update. That's an update on our equity strategic action plan and the message to you all is that the project is moving um as planned. Um I will try to be brief but really wanted to just give you an update on what we've done so far and what's to come. So as um a reminder this project uh for the equity strategic action plan began uh in January of 2025. Um it's an approximate six-month project timeline. So we hope to have this wrapped up uh early summer of this year. Um the outcome is to have two strategic priorities for improving the organization um and how we serve the public. Um so the public was asked to uh one uh participate in a diamond inclusiveness assessment. So a big survey that went out to all of our staff and then all of community. um that ended February 28th and gave us some good insight into what we're doing well in the city and some areas for improvement. Um the second piece of this project was the equity framework and I'll talk a little bit more about that coming up that's currently in development. Um and then the big part of this is the equity strategic action plan um in its totality um and that part is coming up soon. Um so the diamond inclusiveness assessment went out to community. we uh promoted it to make sure that it was accessible to anyone that wanted to participate. Um but really um because of the types of questions that were on the survey, it was really intended for those that have interacted with the city in some capacity. So whether that's as a staff member, um a commission member, a vendor, um someone that just has a little more insight into what we do every single day in city government. Um there were 64 questions um across eight different dimensions and we got uh 358 survey responses between uh both employees and residents. Um a majority of that came from employees. Um we did promote it pretty heavily internally um as they have the most insight into what we do every single day. Um and as you can see this doesn't add up to 100. Um so that remaining percentage is really uh volunteers uh vendors and just others that have some sort some sort of a stake in the city. Um what came out of that uh which is probably no surprise um our biggest strength uh so far is natural environment. Um so that really um hit at uh environmental sustainability. Um so all of the efforts and investments we've made over the years in that area. Um that really came out and both staff and community were pretty unified. Um with that being a strength. Um our biggest area of opportunity based on the results so far is our built environment. Um so that really gets at um really everything that you can see when you go into a city facility. So um artwork, furnishings, that sort of thing. So, um really the the vibe and the feel that um our city facilities um give um as it relates to the diversity of this community, the history of this community um and uh what represents um Adina and its totality. Um and then um as a leadership team um a third area that we looked at um just based on city priorities um and some of the the work that we have been trying to drive on a day-to-day basis um from the survey was human development. Um so human development is really important. Um the more that we can develop our people in the city, whether that's staff, commissioners, um you all, uh the more developed we are, the better that we can serve the public. Um so these were the eight DIA dimensions. Um so there were a number of questions. I would say generally um around eight for each of these dimensions. Um and again uh the three the the strength was natural environment. The weakness or biggest area of opportunity was built environment. Um and then one of the additional areas that we're trying to focus on is human development. Um the second uh big part of this project that I mentioned before is the equity framework. Um so when you see the final ESAP document um the first section of this is going to be the equity framework. um it's really the introduction. It's what sort of lays the ground for um the the planning work that that comes after it. Um so a big part of it is our organizational profile. So just grounding ourselves in our mission, our vision, um our values here in the city. Um so it recaps that um a timeline of Adina's journey on human rights and equity. Um so Adina um following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and uh the development of the Department of Human Rights here in Minnesota was one of the earliest cities to adopt a human rights commission and and start this work. Um so we sort of lay out that journey as well. Um equity commitments and operating principles. So we have uh embedded within this document uh which is still in development uh close to being finalized um our commitments to equity. So essentially um really making sure that it's centered um in people um that it's centered in data um that we are um engaging the public that we're engaging staff um those are essentially what our commitments and operating principles are around um the um there's a section where we are able to ground ourselves in our in demographic data. Um so we have been trying to use data more often and so just uh knowing where we're at today in terms of employee volunteer and community uh demographic data as part of this and then a glossery of common uh terminology. So um this a lot of the terminology is um around um diversity, equity and inclusion um but it's common terminology that we use every single day um in projects that come up um in community meetings. So this serves as sort of a glossery that um employees um or commissioners that anyone can sort of reference um to know what we mean uh when we talk about some of these terms. Uh so the remaining ASAP timeline so uh right now we are simultaneously working on um analyzing the DIA results. Um so what you saw earlier in terms of strengths, weaknesses, areas of opportunity, that's just an initial analysis. Um, so we're continuing to dive into those results. Um, and then also working to finalize that equity framework language. Um, so the ESAP priorities will be identified um, this month. Um, and we'll work to develop um, a project plan associated with each of those priorities. Um, so this strategic plan is a little different from others in that it doesn't just lay out what our priorities are. um there are measurable um timebound goals and milestones associated with each of them that sort of lays out step by step what staff need to do in order to reach a desired outcome. Um another big part of this um over the next few months is really uh focusing on communication as well. So we wanted this process to be uh fully transparent. We wanted it to be open to the public which is why uh we made sure that that survey was open to the public and all staff as well. Um, and so we'll be working on uh releasing and communicating the results and the priorities that come out of this. Um, and as well as making sure that people are able to access our progress along the way. Um, and then the last piece, I think this is it. Um, just wanted to make sure that you knew from a community perspective, um, the human rights and engagement task force continues to be involved in this process as well. Um this ESAP was actually one of their um sort of work plan items or within the scope of uh their charter. Um so they um have been involved so far in reviewing and commenting on the equity framework. Um they were a big part of completing the diamond inclusiveness assessment um and will be providing additional context on the results. Um so they will actually be reviewing both the equity framework and the DIA results at their meeting next Wednesday. um which is virtual. Um and then um the last piece is they'll review and comment on the project timelines as well for the ESAP. So providing feedback on like the length of time um it's going to take to reach a desired goal um if the goals hit home um to them as community members, that sort of thing. Uh let me see. So yeah, and then I wanted to just throw in for anyone interested. So task force meetings are open to the public. Um, again, this ESAP process was a big part of their work this year. Um, so this month they'll be talking about the DIA results and the equity framework. Um, next month, um, they'll be actually be talking about, um, a board and commission experience survey that went out. Um, so they'll be looking at those results and just talking about some of the, um, insights that came out of that survey. Um and then in June for anyone interested uh they will also be receiving hopefully a final presentation of the equity strategic action plan at that meeting. Um and that meeting currently is scheduled to be virtual. Um all of this information can be found on better together adina. Um so we try to keep that up to date with uh dates, locations, times. Um and then you can also see meeting summaries on there as well. Um and that's it. All right. Let me check with my colleagues to see if anybody has any questions about what's taken place so far or what's yet to come with respect to the equity strategic action plan. Member Risser, at some point will there be a document where all of us can read comments that were submitted and all of that? Yes. So um so far um most of the commenting has really been on um like editing. So language of really the equity framework document. Um there were some comments submitted through the demographic questions on the diamond inclusiveness assessment. Um so the specific comments won't be a part of the final sort of report that comes out of that because that's not what the questions were asking. Um but we do provide a summary of some of that feedback that was received. Um just to make sure that community members know that we saw them and heard them. um you know no regardless of their responses to uh the survey questions. Thank you. Other questions for Mr. Brooks at this point in time. All right. Yeah. I know that we probably all participated in those online conversations and that was an interesting experience. So thanks for the work you're doing. Thank you. Okay. All right. Uh and then you've got one other matter in in front of us this evening that's uh related to something that we've been involved in over the years and that's Holocaust related and that's a proclamation involving days of remembrance. I don't know if you have any comments on that in advance of me reading it or you want me to just go forward. No. Uh I think the biggest comment is just thank you for u recognizing days of remembrance. Um this is essentially uh a renewed proclamation from uh many years ago. Um the city's always recognized days of remembrance, but uh we thought we'd bring the proclamation back this year uh to council. So, thank you. And and apparently there's no event this year. Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah. Which is also a we've probably been doing that for 15 17 years having a Sunday afternoon event. But okay. All right. I'll read the proclamation days of remembrance. uh Wednesday, April 23rd uh 2025 through Wednesday, April 30th, 2025. Whereas the Holocaust was a state sponsored systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jews, Gentile Poles, Slavs, Soviets, Romani, Roma, the physically and mentally disabled LGBTQ plus individuals, political opponents, and religious dissident of Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945 with 17,000 people losing their lives. And whereas the history of the Holocaust offers an opportunity to reflect on the moral responsibilities of individuals, societies, and governments. And whereas we the people of the city of Vana should always remember the terrible events of the Holocaust and remain vigilant against hatred, persecution, and tyranny. And whereas we the people of the city of Vana should actively rededicate ourselves to the principles of individual freedom and a just society. And whereas the days of remembrance are set aside annually to coincide with the national celebration of Yam Hashawa for the people of the city of Vidana to remember the victims of the Holocaust as well as to reflect on the need for respect of all peoples. And whereas pursuant to an act of Congress, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council designates annually the days of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust, including the days of remembrance known as Yam Hashawa. Now therefore be it resolved that the city council of the city of Van has hereby continue to recognize the days of remembrance and memory of the victims of the Holocaust in an honor the survivors, descendants, rescuers and liberators. It is further proclaimed that we as a community will work to advance and protect human rights in Edina. Is there a motion to adopt a proclamation as read? So moved. Member moves. Um second million. Member Risser seconds the adoption of the proclamation on days of remembrance. Uh any further discussion? Those in favor of adoption of the proclamation on days of remembrance say I. I. Opposed. Carried. The days of remembrance proclamation is adopted. I'll hand this to you. I don't know where you'll want to post it up. I've signed it. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um we're going to move on now to the um public hearing portion of the agenda. And the first matter in front of us this evening uh is potential reasonzoning subdivision site plan with variances at 5100 Eden Avenue uh for Opus. And um we all think I think we all recognize that as near the hilltop. It is the building on stilts as it's commonly referred to. And there's a um purchase agreement in place, I believe, to uh have Opus purchase that building and make it their corporate headquarters. And there are some things that we need to discuss that the planning commission has already discussed and and approved at their level. Uh but we've got to make these considerations here as well. The public hearing will be tonight. Uh we'll have a staff presentation. Addison Lewis, our community development coordinator, is here to make that presentation. And I think we've got a team of architects and and representatives of the developer here. I'll let you introduce those folks as well. And and they may have some uh portion of the presentation they want to make also and then we'll take public testimony. So Mr. Lewis, go ahead. All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, so Opus Development Company has submitted applications for reszoning site plan and a new plat and variances at uh 5100 Eden Avenue. Uh, this is a project that came before you back in January for sketch plan. Uh, the site is located in the Grand View District at the northeast corner of Arcadia Avenue and Eden Avenue. Uh you may recall as well that this site received preliminary PUD approval in 2023 for a sevenstory 136 unit apartment building with ground floor commercial. Uh that project has not moved forward. Um so the new proposal is to construct a fivetory 112,000 ft office building that would potentially include a commercial or retail use on the ground floor. Uh, Opus has indicated that they would relocate their headquarters from Minnitonka to this site and occupy a portion of the office building. Uh, so in order to accommodate this request, the following would be required. Uh, resoning from planned office district 1 to planned commercial district 2, subdivision of a new plat to consolidate uh the seven parcels into one. Uh, site plan approval, uh, variances for building setbacks on all four sides of the building. Uh a variance to allow floor area ratio at two where one and a half is permitted. A variance to allow building height at 81 feet where up to 48 feet is permitted. Uh a variance from the requirement that all facads on the first vertical 60 ft of building shall use natural materials uh brick or stone facing the public realm. And a variance from the screening and setback requirements for utility equipment. Um so this would involve removal of the existing fourstory office building that's there um that was constructed in 1968. These are some photos of the building that's there today. Um, so the current zoning on the site is planned office district 1. The applicants are requesting a reszoning to plan commercial district 2. Uh, which would allow for the ground floor retail use. Uh, that would not be allowed under the existing zoning of planned office district. You can see that the PCD2 is how a lot of the surrounding property is zoned there. Uh, kind of the red hatched color there. Um the site is guided mixeduse center on the future land use map of the comprehensive plan. Uh these are mixeduse areas intended to serve more than just the surrounding neighborhood. Grand View and 50th in France are the only two areas within the city that have this designation. Uh and they are envisioned for a roughly 50/50 split of residential and commercial uses. Uh in 2012, the Grand View District Development Framework was completed. And in terms of land use, that plan states that the plan emphasizes a mixeduse sub area between Vernon, Eden, Highway 100, and the rail corridor. Uh that's kind of the area in orange there in the middle of the slide. Um it says, "Acadia is seen as a more residential street with a range of condo, apartments, and multi-level townhouse types. Mixed and office buildings are anticipated and may be oriented to Vernon and or south toward Eden and Our Lady of Grace Fields." Uh here's just another rendering from that plan kind of showing what's depicted for the site in the greater Grand View District. In 2016, the city completed the Grand View District Transportation Study. Uh and that plan envisioned a new frontage road along the east side and along the north of the property there. Um we kind of talked about this bit at the sketch plan review that that's um probably not likely to happen anytime in the near future because it would require replacement of that Eden Avenue bridge and that's um not planned for anytime soon. Um, so here are some renderings of uh what is being proposed and the applicant team has some slightly updated renderings um that they'll show you. Here just some additional views here. Um so here's a look at their site plan um showing the first floor uses. So that commercial tenant that would possibly be a restaurant would occupy this space here at the corner down here on the southwest part of the building. Um there's an outdoor terrace along the west and south side of that space um that would be available for that tenant. Uh most of the ground level would be devoted to vehicle parking. Uh there would also be two levels of below grade parking and two above. Uh just as there is today, there would be um two accesses, one off of Eden and one off of Arcadia. Um the service vehicles would primarily use the Eden access. Uh they have a designated space within the garage for loading and and trash pickup you see there. Um they also have an indoor bike storage area and plan to install new 8ft sidewalks along Arcadia and Eden. Um they as I mentioned they are requesting setback variances on all four sides. So, um, this rendering kind of shows the footprint of their building with the required setback. So, on the west side, um, along Arcadia, that's considered the front of the property. A 35 setback foot setback is required. They're at 21 ft. Um, along the north, a all along all the other sides, a 25 foot setback is required. On the north, they're at about 4T. On the east, 11 ft. And on the south, the closest point is 2 feet. here. Um it's just this corner of the building right there. Um but you can see most of the building is set further back. Um and just a reminder as well, there is about a 30 ft of rightway there from the edge of the property line to the street. Um here are some elevations showing kind of what the building is going to look like. Um and again, there there have been some updates to this since the planning commission. I'll let the applicant team talk about that a bit, but um the building will be primarily glass. Um originally they were thinking on the ground level there where you see kind of the brown material, there was going to be a metal panel that was uh to kind of look like wood. Um with some comments from the planning commission, they're now looking at doing a stone material there. Um here's again just some of those materials that they're proposing. Um here's the compliance table that's from the staff report. So, um, this shows how the proposed project compares to the existing zoning of planned office district 1, the proposed zoning, uh, standards for plan commercial district 2, uh, as well as how it compares to the PUD that was previously approved in 2023. Um, and the items in bold there are all the the items where variances are being requested. Um, the majority of the staff report is devoted to analyzing each indiv individual variance. Um, and kind of to summarize, you know, staff generally finds those variances to be reasonable. Um, the requests for things like the setback height, floor ratio, uh, we found those are generally consistent with, um, a lot of recently approved projects within the area, including the project that was recently approved for this site. Um, so just as a reminder with these each request, we have kind of different levels of discretion for each. So with the reszoning, the city has quite a bit of discretion, but when we're looking at the variances, we're we have a little less discretion. we're really looking at do um those requests um meet the statutory criteria. Um and then with site plan review, we're really just looking is is the code being met? Um so staff is recommending approval of this project. Um tonight though, we're just uh recommending that you close the public hearing at noon on Sunday, April 27th, and continue action to Tuesday, May 6th. Uh the planning commission considered this item on March 26 and voted 8 to1 to recommend approval of the project with the following conditions. Uh one that the applicant reconsider the site plan to provide a safer pedestrian and bike access to the east entrance of the building along Eden Avenue. Uh continue the sidewalk along the commercial space of the building to the east entrance and south to provide a connection to the sidewalk on Eden Avenue. revised the building materials plan to provide naturallooking building materials on the ground level at the garage entrances. Um, and I think you'll see tonight from their presentation that they um have a plan in place to address all three of those conditions. The last thing I just wanted to make you aware of tonight um is that when Highway 100 was originally built, um, MDOT condemned the roadways surrounding this property and restricted access along the areas shown in red there on the screen. Um, and after the highway project was completed, Mindot determined they no longer needed control of those roadways and they transferred those rights back to the city. Uh, which included control of, um, a a no access easement around this property. Um, obviously the applicant would like that removed. City staff does not see any reason to keep this and would recommend releasing them of that no access restriction. Um, our respective attorneys are still kind of working on the best way to resolve that, but I just want to make you aware that that's something that will likely come before you in the future. Um, so with that, I'd be happy to take any questions, but um, the applicant team is here as well to to give their presentation. All right. Anybody has questions for Mr. Lewis? Yes. Member Risser, can you go back to the pyramid of discretion? Um, one of the things that I've been pushing back against is votes where we as council are being asked to in one fell one single vote go all the way across the pyramid. And I think this is not a PUD. This could be separate votes, you know, so we could um use our vote in a way that is logical. Um so I just want to get that out there. Certainly. And I think um you know staff is recommending approval of all the requests. If you know there was a particular variance that you weren't comfortable with, you could approve the other items, pull out that variance and and make a separate motion if if you were to you know wanted to deny a specific thing. Um but you're right, they could be separate motions. Thank you. Questions for Mr. Mr. Lewis. Thank you. Um why is it seven parcels today? That's a great question. I don't know how that came to be. I don't know either. Okay. So, we just never had gone through this process of combining the lots in previous reviews, basically. So, we're just doing a little bit of cleanup with that specific line item. Correct. That building's been there since 1968. So, yeah, they maybe just decided to approve that building with it as seven parcels since they were all under common ownership. Sometimes some cities will do that, but yeah, it's it's kind of a cleanup item. Okay, thank you. And then if we could go back to the compliance table. Um, yeah, this one. So, what was confusing to me, and I think maybe this is just my misunderstanding and how I'm reading this. So, on the I'm looking at the second setback. So the side street to Eden Avenue under the PUD it was 10 feet which is 34 feet [Music] from Oh is that the is the 34T feet from curb? Cuz I guess where I'm confused then is like where are we losing 6 feet in the proposed? But maybe I'm being too nitpicky but I just was not tracing that. That's a great question. Hang on one sec. Okay. And the reason being I really do like to kind of compare to what had been improved, what were we comfortable with at one point. Um, and how far off are we from that? And so if we're confident in the, you know, the 10 ft to the 2 feet, that is plenty sufficient for me to just understand that. But I I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a discrepancy there. Um, yeah, that's a good question. I believe, you know, the setback would have been 10 ft and I think the intent there was that it was 34 feet to, you know, to the curb. Um, we could go back and verify that and come back at the next meeting to maybe try to find out why there's that little discrepancy. Okay. Um, so the proposed though, we're confident in what's there of the the 21 ft, the 2T, the 4T, the 11 ft. Correct. Those Yep. Those are the setbacks from the property lines. Okay, thank you. Those were the only like logistic based questions I had for me. I think you could just stay right on that compliance table because one of the first things I wrote down was and I couldn't remember um before I saw the compliance table that seven stories uh that was approved on the prior PUD for an apartment building. Uh really is a foot it was a foot taller that was approved than uh than what we have in front of us now as a possibility at five stories and 81 ft. So, we've got um higher ceilings obviously. Yep. Bigger, you know, floor plates with um more space floor to floor. Exactly. Yeah. With the with the PUB for the apartment building, you know, they weren't complying with the 20 foot first floor ceiling requirement. In this project, they are. And I guess I would assume, yeah, the other floors have greater ceiling heights as well to get you to about the same height as they were at with the seven stories. And then the apartment building also involved a floor ratio of 3.2 two as opposed to 1.5 and now we're it's being proposed at at two. Right. So the massing of this building is quite a bit less. Um one thing too um you know you were you asking about the setback along Eden being 2 feet compared to what was previously approved with the apartment. You know, this the slide two shows with the apartment that was 10 feet along that whole length of Eden, whereas with this project, but it has that little corner piece that sticks in. Otherwise, it's 17 ft, I think. Right. It's just the corner of that building. But yeah, most of it is really set back and and it's two feet from the lot line as opposed to Do we know how far that is from the street on that corner or the curb? Back of the curb. Uh well it would be about 32 feet. 32 feet I think maybe that was in the combined table too. It was maybe the same question asked differently than what member Agnu asked. Okay. And then you know really where the height of the building is where the five story is is this you know this dash line back here. So that's further set back. Okay. All right. Uh, and then would you walk through those? Uh, well, I guess a applicant will do it for us, but I think it'd be good to have your input too on the three conditions that were imposed by the planning commission as long as you get this site plan up there. Maybe you want a different site plan to show us what they were thinking about and uh what you think they've done from an applicant standpoint to address those three concerns of the planning commission. Yeah. So they'll they'll their presentation will show it better than kind of the any renderings I have, but essentially what they did was the planning commission wanted access better better bike and pedestrian access to the site from Eden. Um because really your kind of only option was to just walk in through the parking area. So they've added a sidewalk that comes down here. And then the other thing was to kind of continue um or I guess provide access to this patio from the sidewalk as well. So, they've got a second walkway that connects to Eden. Um, and then the other was changing out the building materials. Um, they've made where you kind of see the brown, this was going to be a wood looking metal panel. Um, and then here along the entrance to the parking ramp was concrete. This they're showing now is all like a stone material. Okay. It'll be a wood appearing panel. I would think that would be somewhat akin to what we saw in the bower. Yeah, you remember that. I mean, I see it weekly. So, that I'm thinking of as a frame of reference. Okay, that's all that's all the uh questions I have for now. Member Agnu has another question for you though. If we can go back up to that overlay of the setback. Um, so we have noted I think down in that like lower corner point where it's 2 feet. Is it then similar to 2 feet um kind of just norththeast of that where the parking entrance is? Um yeah, like right thereish. Is that also like similar to 2 feet? Um well, and that's just the parking area. Uh or you know, part of part of the It's just like a paved area. That's not the building. Yeah, this is the setback to the actual building. This is just where you're driving into the parking area. So, like there isn't any building in this kind of triangular piece here. Thank you. If that helps. Um, going to see if I have a rendering that shows that better. It's like this. So, like this corner of this building is what's at 2 feet and then this is all open in here. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh, and who do we have with us from the, uh, Opus Development Corporation? We have Nick Bernan, uh, Bob Loken, and Matthew Axman. Okay. Good to see you, Mr. Lo. Mr. Axeman, welcome back. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Nice to see you all again. Uh my name is Nick Bernan with Opus Development. I'm joined again by uh Bob Loan and Matt Axeman from ESG. Uh thank you Addison. Appreciate the presentation. Uh we'll run through a little more details, some updated renderings, and then we'll focus uh as well on some of the comments that we received from planning commission uh as well as sketch plan. We've received a lot of really great comments that have enhanced the building quite a bit. We're excited to show that tonight. Um and then we're here to uh answer any questions and have discussion. So, um, with that, I'll turn it over to Matt Axeman to run through some of those changes. All right. Thanks, Mr. Man. Perfect. Thank you. All right. So, we're going to quickly run through the couple of meetings we've had um since you first saw this during sketch plan where it was um this lovely blue box on the left here. So, um, from sketch plan comments to planning commission, um, a couple of the major ones were shifting, um, the building and the podium itself further east to really increase the setback along Arcadia. Um, so we've we've go ahead went ahead and pushed the podium portion back 17 ft and then additionally the building proper an additional 4T and then we additionally recessed um, that parking podium uh, as noted kind of there on on letter B there. Um really what we kind of found in talking to folks is that the the the real focus and activity um really wanted to be on Arcadia versus what we were previously showing as that pocket park on the corner. So we've really started to focus the energy and the gravity um of the architectural expression to Arcadia. Um additionally we added again just to kind of further that Arcadia connection added balconies to that southwest corner of the of the building there. Um and then obviously um articulated all the facades with the the building material um from previous and then uh to compound a little bit on on some of Addison's comments. So from planning commission now to city council um that upper left image um where we were previously showing a portion of the building kind of touching grade with the silver metal panel. We've now addressed that material up with obviously a more natural um warm material as noted um in the in the variance. And then obviously hoping hoping to kind of bypass that with this this move here. So we're showing more of like a limestone colored kind of cassota stone um material there in a in a more unique pattern. Um and then additionally kind of all the way across this this podium component we've added that material. And then on the lower kind of two images you can see how we've changed the the way that the building is addressed from the east. Um if you're kind of coming across the Eden Bridge there. So, we've moved the primary entry to that retail component, um, that commercial component over to the side so that if you're kind of making your way westbound, there's a kind of clear indication of where to go. Um, so there's opportunity for additional signage and then obviously the front door there and the addition of the two sidewalks um, just to give a little bit more wayinding for folks coming from that direction. Um and then again just um the site plan that Addison had had previously pushed or pulled up um noting specifically uh letters J and letter I there for the additional sidewalks as egress into the building. And then this is just an additional kind of macro um site plan just in case we want to talk about just proximity to the other kind of urban built environment um as it relates to the building. Um, this is an architectural diagram really just to kind of help us all get on the same sort of vocabulary and lexicon as it relates to the building. So, there's a couple of of of nomenclature things that we've been using. For instance, this this green piece, we've really started to kind of coin this as our dock is, you know, it's it's a portion of the building that comes out, it tucks underneath and really kind of celebrates the history of of Minnesota. And we really like the idea of this being this really natural element. So now claded with a natural warm material and kind of celebrating itself by sticking out into this kind of sea of of greenery. And then additionally the building on sticks, we're still celebrating that um with our our payload tea expression um on the the southeast there. Um, we've been working with Damon Farber Landscape Architects and we've we've really started to hone in some of our planting medium along the um along the Arcadia uh facade there and we're really just loving the verdant nature of this with with various pollinator mixtures and shrubs and introducing some additional color into the uh the planting pallet. And we still obviously have maintained this this kind of pocket park um component on the um on the southern portion of the site. We pushed that sidewalk actually out a little bit further. So, there's a little bit of a crust. You can get to both of the the uh the crosswalks, but it makes it a little bit more safe for pedestrians. And then there's a little area kind of tucked into the topography there for some additional respit. And then here we'll just look through some additional imagery and renderings again really showcasing the the dock piece as it relates and and really juxtaposes of the glass building above it. This would be the primary entry off of Arcadia. There's a series of cascading steps with integrated seating. You can see there's also opportunity along this wrapping kind of porch component for additional seating. There we go. Um, this is a just a a more zoomed in image of the the kind of previous one from the entry condition coming from the Eden Bridge. And then lastly here, just a kind of golden hour kind of showcasing again this this dock element coming out and greeting the street. and then just the kind of plethora of of greenscape that we've we've developed with Damon Farber um to really capture the the architecture as it meets the ground. That's what we got. Yeah. Thank you. Um questions from council members or comments at this point in time? Member Russer? Um, thank you for the presentation and I did listen to the planning commission and um, one thing that I do want to say is I do appreciate how you are sizing this for your needs and um, I think it's important to, you know, not necessarily say, oh, you should be going higher, you should have more floors, you should, because you know what you need. Um, so I I wanted to get that out there. My one concern is the impervious surfaces and if there's anything you can do to reduce that and just context u the work session that we had before you gave your presentation for your previous plan focused on our water quality and one of the things that we're doing and all of those buildings that um Mr. Lewis showed where we have all these setbacks that we've done. Part of the reason we don't have very great water quality is we keep granting a lot of setbacks. We get more impervious surface. And so if there's anything you can do and it it looks like you're you're trying a lot, but you're still, you know, covering a lot of that space. So that's my only concern. Thank you. member, anything at this point in time. I think my immediate reaction, especially when I'm looking at this visual, is I'm really excited about the landscaping. Um, especially for this corner that feels inviting into the overall site. So, really nice work on on at least the visuals related to the landscaping. Um, I I will admit I was maybe a little I'm not I don't know what word. When we saw this before, I was like, it's just a big box. And now it's a big glass box, so it's still kind of box-like. Um, and I don't know if there's a way to get around that because I know that you need you're trying to optimize the space. Um, so I'm just trying to like internally come to like um being okay with that, right? Because I I guess I don't know what else I would um recommend adding from like a different layering perspective. Um, but I I do really appreciate the inclusion of the transparency and glass and I I do feel like overall this feels like a modern um kind of addition to the area. So, um I know that wasn't even really good feedback, but that was just again my initial reaction, but love the green space that you're doing. I did have one question, and this maybe actually routes over to um Director Milner. Um, but when we think about that overall connectivity to this area, and I appreciated you including that um, visual within in this as well, will we probably take this on at a later point, but do we think about like where we might be adding in a crosswalk or enhancing that pedestrian experience beyond what we already have today? I don't know if that's something you can speak to this early in the process. Um, well, we've done a lot. right there at the roundabout. There's three crosswalks there. I probably wouldn't add anything towards the bridge because pedestrians have no destinations there. And then I think the one thing we want this project to work with us and mindot is that hill uh the mindot off-ramp between Hilltop and this project. We want to so just off the screen to the north, if you can pull it down a little bit, we want to definitely enhance that portion. And then in the future, you can see that one crosswalk way on the top by the heart link there. I think that one needs to be enhanced at some point, too. So, um, we're always looking for those pieces to make things better for crossings. That's where I was really thinking about it is, um, kind of extending the bridge that we have, um, the pedestrian bridge and how, um, if then they route up and then walk down and kind of what that full experience looks like. just knowing that the the main pedestrian entrance is there on Arcadia. Just trying to think through that experience of where are these pedestrians then coming from and how do they navigate to that portion of the site. Um I think there's one more piece is what are we going to do on the other side of the street with our own property. So, there's a good opportunity when that one comes that we might have a nice crosswalk right on that north west corner of this facility with whatever is done on that site and that could be a great time to look at those additional things. Okay. So, definitely opportunity, but we'll kind of wait and see. Okay. Thank you. Um, those are the main questions that I had. Thanks. All right. Thank you. I'm going to go back to member Russer. Um, one, I do love your design. I think it is very very good and um I I like the transparency. I like the dark lines. Um I think it's broken up enough so that there's kind of a pattern and it's not just a you know solid box. Uh I do walk in this area a lot and um what I've sensed is there tends to be more pedestrian flow along Eden Avenue and so I think actually the little pocket space that you are creating I could actually see people using that and my husband and I were walking along France and there's that little pocket park um north of Restoration Hardware and we were and I'm like we need to stop and experience this and but I you know I was kind wondering how many people actually hang out in the pocket parks that we're creating. And I do actually think there could be people here waiting, you know, to meet somebody to go up to Hilltop. You know, I I could see this one actually getting some use. So, I think that's a good thing. Yeah, we were excited to bring the sidewalk away from the roundabout a bit. We had heard some comments about, you know, just when people are coming into the roundabout, they're coming in a little fast. So, I think by bringing the sidewalk a little bit north and away from the uh the curb and away from the edge of the roundabout creates a nice little pocket park area that's a little safer than if you were kind of right up against the edge. Yeah, that's a very interesting elevation. I think that southwest elevation to to give you a real sense of how you connect to what we've done with the roundabout and and the and the crosswalks and the as you point out, Mr. and setting the sidewalks potentially further back uh away from traffic to enhance a sense of pedestrian safety. I think really important sort of uh changes that you made from sketch plan. You know, I'm going to bring Mr. Lewis back up here. I forgot to ask him a couple of questions that were um were fundamental to the to the work that we do and and I'm sure this was done in conjunction with the development team and the architects, but one of the one of the things that if we move forward on this, we'd have to approve the resoning to PCD2 and and I guess you know we know that there's a lot of other properties in that neighborhood that are PCD2, but with respect to this particular piece of property, could you explain why you kind of settled in And the best way to go forward on this would be PCD2 as opposed to PUB or some other um zoning classification. Yeah. So PCD2 is kind of the main commercial district that we've used at um at Grand View primarily and and 50th in France. Um it is kind of a a mixeduse district. It allows them to do the uses they're proposing. So office with some kind of possibility for a retail tenant or um a restaurant in this ground floor level. It gives them that flexibility where the current zoning would not have allowed that. Um and as far as whether to do um you know a PCD2 versus a PUD, um we kind of talked about that a little bit at the at the sketch plan. We you know asked for feedback from the planning commission and the council and I think what we heard was that there was a preference to stop using PD so much. um and and rely on our conventional districts with variances. Um you know, PUD is a good tool. It gives a lot of flexibility. We have a lot of discretion with it. Um but I think really it's best used for, you know, really kind of like unique projects that can't fit within a conventional district. Um where you can't really write a district like things things that are just like really unique. Um, so this this worked well and um, yeah, I think it will work for us. Yeah. And as a result of settling in on that zoning designation, I guess that triggered the variances. So you've got eight variances we that we need to deal with eight variance requests and and we know that you from a staff standpoint support this and have done that analysis, but I think it would be helpful for uh others to know uh what the standards are for a variance and why you believe from a staff standpoint and why the planning commission which voted 8 to1 to recommend approval to the council decided that they would uh be comfortable with these uh these eight variants. ES. All right. So, as you mentioned, we for variances, we rely on criteria that's outlined in state statute. So, that criteria includes um the variance would be in harmony with the general purposes and intent uh of the ordinance. the variance would be consistent with the comprehensive plan. Uh and then three is that there are practical difficulties in complying with the ordinance. The term practical difficulties means the following. Uh that the property owner proposes to use the property in a reasonable manner not permitted by the zoning ordinance. That the plight of the land owner is due to circumstances unique to the property not created by the landowner and that the variance if granted will not alter the essential character of the locality. Um, so we we analyzed each variance against that criteria. So it's uh probably 15 pages of the staff report. Um, but I think kind of to summarize um, you know, what they're proposing is really consistent with our comp plan. There's I think as we've kind of talked about, there's a little bit of a disconnect between what our zoning ordinance allows and what our um, what our small area plans and what our comp plans guides. Yeah. What they what they guide, right? So, um I think and that and that's kind of why we've relied on on PUB quite a bit. So, um in general, you know, we find that this really advances a lot of goals of the comprehensive plan. Um you know, they've really done a good job to to um improve kind of the pedestrian environment. Um I think injecting, you know, 300 daytime workers into this area is really going to do a lot to support those surrounding businesses. Um, and then also as we kind of noted throughout here that um, it's it's reasonable and that it's really consistent with what was already approved for this site in terms of the height, the setbacks, floor area ratio, as well as other properties in the Grand View District. Thanks for that member. One thing I if we could set some kind of policy because when you look at that chart and you look at the setback variances and you see two feet and you're like um and then you see the drawing that has the red line around it and you better understand that that two feet is just a couple pinch points and I really feel like it would help with transparency if when we have the chart we also have that image below or above the chart. So people can look at it and go, you know, this isn't a case where the building is going to be, you know, twice the legal buildable area or something like that or two feet from the street, right? So I Exactly. But I think and there are so many people who are visual learners and and you really don't when you look at the chart, it is so unhelpful. Um Yep. Yeah, that's understood and and yeah, I maybe could have done a better job of explaining that to in my presentation because that's the kind of context we try to try to give in the presentation. The other thing I would know too in comparison to the last project that was approved, you know, I think that was um not only was it a 10, you know, 10 ft, but it was, I believe, you know, six, seven stories along here, whereas this project, yes, it's it's 2 feet, but it's just this corner that's 2 feet and this is only one story. the mass of the building is shifted way back from Eden Avenue as well. So that's that's just kind of another piece of the context that I think helps explain that justification for the two foot setback variance. Thank you. Thanks for that. I don't have any further questions at this point in time. Uh my colleagues, any further questions for Yes, go ahead. Member Agnu. Thank you so much. Um so as we are looking through all of the variance components the the last one number eight is a variance from the screening and setback requirements for utility equipment specifically. Can you just highlight that for me on this visual? Yes. So there's going to be like a transformer um located here. Um because the utility equipment is greater than 36 ft. It's supposed to meet the building setback. Um, I believe they're kind of limited by where Excel wants to place it. Um, the other thing is that the it's supposed to be screened and the screening is supposed to be on their property. They're going to screen it, but some of the screening is going to be located within the rightway, but they have kind of cut out a notch in the building that kind of it's sort of tucked into. So, that helps screen it kind of from some of the other sides. Plus, they're their landscaping plan shows um more vegetation here to screen it. Thank you. Yep. Thanks for that. Good question. All right. Um, gentlemen, uh, Mr. Man, Mr. Lo, Mr. Axman, stand by. We're going to open this up for public testimony. Mr. Lewis, thanks for the presentation. And, um, uh, as we indicated when we started this conversation, this is a public hearing matter and people are certainly welcome to testify. Uh, our practice is that you'll have three minutes and you'll get a um, you know, green light that you can you can just start speaking. Don't worry about the lighting system. You'll get a yellow light when you got 30 seconds to go. And then so to make sure that we treat everybody equally from a time standpoint when you hit when you see the red light come on, just try to wrap up your comments so that uh we're giving everybody equal time. So if you're interested in testifying regarding this matter uh of whether the conditional use or whether the um uh variance requests and the uh zoning uh change ought to be made on this particular piece of property. Uh please feel for free to come forward. Not seeing anybody coming forward. Not hearing anything. Um let's check online to see if you have anybody that wants to testify regarding this matter. Thank you, your honor. I do not have anyone online at this time, but because there is a short delay in the broadcast, I would recommend we wait one minute or so um giving people that time to do so. My clock shows it at 7:19. I'll come back to you at 7 8:20. I'm sorry. 8:19. Back to you at 8:20 or when I have a caller, whichever is first. Okay. Uh while we're waiting for that, I just want to indicate to people that uh we've been in the practice of taking public testimony the night of the public hearing, but also leaving it open for further public input uh to to the following uh Sunday noon. And that can be done uh either verbally by calling city hall, leaving a message, or sending something in online. Uh and that's what staff is recommending again in this particular matter. And that's what we're going to do, I think, is that'll be the motion that'll be made would be to close the public hearing at noon. Close the close the public input at noon on Sunday, April 27th, and then continue this for action by the city council on Tuesday, May 6th. It is now 8:20 and I still don't have a caller. So, I think it's safe for you to move forward with the agenda. Good. We've got a recommended motion as I indicated from staff that we close the public input uh in this matter on Sunday at noon. That's April 27th, 2025, and continue the action to the Tuesday, May 6, 2025 city council meeting. Is there a motion to that effect? I second. Second. We got a motion by member Risser, second by member Agnu to adopt the motion as stated. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the motion as stated say I. I. I. Opposed. Carried. Uh the testimony in this matter will be accepted through noon on Sunday uh April 27th and we'll continue the action to the city council meeting on May 6th. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Nicely done. And gentlemen as well. Thank you. and we'll see uh first first Tuesday in May. The only other public hearing matter we have in front of us this evening involves um something that the city has been working on with neighborhood and uh businesses, residents uh over in the Lincoln London area. We've done a small area plan over there and um Mr. Lewis has this matter as well. He's worked hard on this from a staff standpoint. We've got some really uh outstanding uh people on the on the planning commission that have helped guide this work. And then we've got an excellent uh outside consultant uh in Zack Locker and his group men collaborative I think that has done very good work here. Um this is going to be the same process I think that the staff's going to recommend on this particular matter. We're going to have a presentation. and we're going to open it up for public testimony and then we're going to let public input occur until April 27th at noon on that Sunday and then continue it to the May 6th city council meeting. So, I'm going to turn back now to Mr. Lewis uh to uh guide us into this conversation about the um the small area plan work that was done and the uh proposed course of action next. Mr. Lewis, thank you, Mayor and Council. Um so, we're here tonight to present to you the Lincoln and London area small area plan. Uh this was a 2024 work plan item for the planning commission. Commissioners Day, Felt, and Miranda were the assigned leads for this item. Uh commissioners day and felt are here this evening with us. Um there was um six additional members that made up the rest of the working group that worked on this project. Uh those individuals were Nancy Spanis, uh Steve Brown, who I see is here tonight, Jagnasha Pandia, Karen Griffith, Jim Dy, and Russ Rubin. Uh the city hired Men Collaborative as a consultant to assist with this project. Zach Lockroom is the project manager. Um and he's here tonight to present an overview of the plan. Um the plan was recommended unanimously by the planning commission on March 12th. The intent is that we would adopt the small area plan as an amendment to the comprehensive plan uh which would then require review by the metropolitan council. So the action requested tonight is a motion to close the public hearing at noon on Sunday, April 27th and continue action to Tuesday, May 6th. Um, one thing I just did want to mention real quick before I hand it over to Zach. Um, in the staff report, there was a comment from engineering with some some recommended uh, language for one of the recommendations um, regarding the trail going over 169. When we come back on the 6, we're just going to revise that language is to incorporate uh, engineering's recommended language, but that is a pretty minor change. Um, but yeah, with that, I'm going to hand it over to Zach to run through the plan. All right. Thanks, Mr. Lewis. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, we're gonna hand it over to the commissioners here. All right. Commissioner, welcome. Thank you. Both commissioners. Yeah. I think we're both going to talk a little bit here. And make sure you identify yourself for the record, too, please. My name is Mary Weatherfeld. I live at 4116 Grimes Avenue South. Um, and before I start, I want to acknowledge all of the work that Lou Miranda has done as the planning commission chair for the Lincoln London small area plan. He worked on this diligently for much of the past year and only because he is not here tonight am I helping to introduce this um report. So, how to plan for our city has always been a topic and some has been a topic and sometimes intense debate. Um, what can individuals and businesses do with their land? What are the needs of the community, the city, the region, and the state? What are the existing conditions? How is the site currently zoned? Where do we want it to go? If we want to be responsible to residents who live here, businesses that operate here, and to the health and well-being of our children, it is important to take the time to take into all the information that goes in to the planning of our communities. We need to identify and understand the place, the people, views, traffic, engineering, infrastructure, shared amenities, land use, and land values. This happens through gathering information from our planning staff, engineering staff, urban planners, and by talking to and listening to each other. This is why our city takes the time to do small area plans. It is both for hearing the residents and businesses and communities, but is also to allow us um as individuals to participate in learning about each other, our city, and how we learn to engage in building our community. I appreciate the city allowing us to learn through this SAP process. And I also appreciate men for spending this past year helping us understand. I'd also like to thank Mand to in guiding us in through this plan and creating a document that is both comprehensive and I feel clearly written. Um and I also want to thank the people that joined our group. I know um Addison already has but um these people were homeowners, retirees, some currently working, former commission members, new residences, lifelong residents, current business owners, and former business owners. I'd like to thank um Jim, Jagnasha, Corey, Russ, Nancy, and Steve for taking the time to participate, listen, provide feedback, and most importantly to share what they have learned with their neighbors. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Day. Welcome again. Yeah. Hello again. Uh Ryan Day, 6808 Chapel Lane and a member of the planning commission and one of the chairs of this small area plan. Um so thanks May brother for that introduction um piece as we segue into what I want to talk about a little bit before we get into the presentation um because it's extremely important to highlight I think as part of this process is the team engagement with the community and how we did that. Um so you know in order to engage with the community and come up with this small area plan uh we did a number of things. So we had public engagement events at the Caribou Coffee over there. Um the we had a couple events at Walnut Ridge Park. I know Mr. May you were there one of them and we actually went and uh were able to tour one of the small business build small business building afterwards. Form of public engagement over there at the building. That's right. That's right. We got a personal private tour. Um you know we did during the Walnut Ridge uh park event, we did a bike tour and a walking tour. So I was able to take part in the bike tour where we kind of explained to residents, you know, what the initial thoughts were on things uh what a small area plan is intended to do, what the limitations are, right? So it's not simply us coming in and developing the area and prescribing exactly what goes in there, but really giving a overall vision and using that to guide us as we go forward. Um we did uh another I guess sorry another public engagement piece that was a crucial part of this was a business survey uh with the different businesses in the area as you're familiar with there are a few small businesses in the area um because that is one of the very small uh pieces of the city that's remained P. Um, so that business survey I I need to give a lot of credit to Steve Brown who's here um for really leading that um but we went through and talked to all the different business owners there and said you know and asked them what were their plans uh for the future you know what did they want to see what did the area need the most so we took that into consideration as well with resident feedback. So um very important piece. Uh once we collected all the engagement uh or all the feedback uh with the from the public uh we did several draft reviews with residents and I know the council as well. Um we had I think those were very uh well done you know in terms of how we engage with people. Uh we had kind of really interactive quizzes um which you know I wasn't allowed to take part in because I knew the answers right away. Um, but the residents sure seem to like that. Um, there's a lot of hands-on activities in terms of visioning out the space and kind of seeing, all right, if if you were to go down Nine Mile Creek and you were to put, you know, a mass transit lane here or if you were to put an extended curb, what how would that actually fit in the area and stuff? Um, so I think that really helped people visualize the space. Um, so at the end of the day, you know, we got a lot of different perspectives. Um, which is a very good thing, right? We we really really tried and mend really did a good job of seeking out input and not trying to direct the conversation. Really, you know, wanting to hear from others rather than prescribe what we wanted to hear and just waiting for other people that give that back to us. Um, very very well done and um, with that, I guess I'll turn to Zach to give the presentation on on the plan itself. All right. Thanks, Commissioner. Mr. Locker, welcome. Well, thank you for having me tonight. Um I'm glad to be here uh Mr. Mayor and and council members um to talk a little bit about the small area plan. Um as you know we started this project um around a year ago. Um we did this in uh four phases. Um the first starting in May and June we took the time to really work to understand both the community perspective on the site as well as really digging into the data and analysis that we needed to do in order to help think about what could happen in the future. Um second phase we called envision. Um happened roughly from July through September and it's where we began to actually present some of the potential ideas for the area and really begin to dig into those with community members in more depth. Um finally in October and December we brought those more finalized and more vetted ideas back to the community. Um worked to ensure that we were moving towards consensus about um opportunities to move forward and really thinking about implementation steps as a part of that. And now we are here in what we call the adopt phase. Um we'll talk quite a bit in this presentation about the community engagement. I want to have you understand how the plan itself developed out of the process that we had. But as um our our commissioners pointed out, we did do pretty extensive engagements. Um they included a number of community workshops um the business owner survey. One thing that I particularly want to point out is um we tried to evaluate along the way who we were reaching and look at whether or not there were potential gaps. So you see, you know, on this slide the events that happened in July, for example, the pop-ups at the Caribou and the Loaden um apartments. That was really a response to seeing at the first community workshop. You know, we're not totally sure we're getting the visitor or shopper experience and we're not totally sure we're getting a lot of renter feedback. So wanted to try and go to specific areas where we could make sure that we were adding that feedback into the whole as we were moving through it. Um in our first workshop we really focused on asking people what they love about this area today and what they felt is miss missing. Um we discovered that people really love the natural environment. The trail really was the centerpiece and the heart of the community in a lot of ways and the creek. Um and then we also heard from community members that we wanted to hear more third spaces. So the use at Caribou and some of the other um spaces that actually serve as gathering points um in the neighborhood were very very important to people and there was a lot of interest in seeing small retail of that type continuing to expand in the area as well. Um there were a number of other um needs and themes that that came out of it. We heard about um wanting to make sure that we're working on not increasing traffic, that we are looking at ways to make the streets safer and more comfortable to cross and to be around. Um with regards to housing, we heard kind of a lot of different directions. We there was not really a community consensus that immediately emerged when we talked about housing. Um some folks feeling that they really wanted to see a lot more housing in that area, others who felt like other uses were were better in that. And so that became an area where we tried to continue to receive more feedback and work to um clarify some of that. Um the connection to nature uh was more or less unanimous as was um the real desire to see community and spaces and businesses grow in that area. So based on this first round of feedback, we developed a set of community priorities in these six areas and from that also developed a vision statement along with our working group. So in 2040, the Lincoln London Dairy area will be a welcoming gateway to Western Edina. There will be shops, restaurants, homes, and jobs, all in a natural setting along NM Creek. It will be thoughtfully and sustainably designed, blending eco-friendly amenities with natural beauty. The area will be easy to get to and move around in with bike lanes and trails, walking paths, bus stops, and carefully integrated parking. The Lincoln and London area will be a great place to live, work, gather, fostering community, and encouraging people to use the trails and gathering spaces. And then we also wrote priority statements around each of these areas. I won't read these all out loud, but these were really the goals that when we started developing recommendations, we had to come back to and say, are we actually meeting these priorities in with the recommendations that have been developed? Now, it was about at this time we and and actually coming into the project, we knew that one of the key issues that we were going to face is an issue of sewer capacity. And this has been an issue that had been a topic of conversation in the area for a long time. The um key finding here is that the sewage capacity is nearly fully utilized not just for the Lincoln London area but for all of the area that you see in orange um in that um western part of Edina. So it's a much much larger issue than um just this area. Um there are a number of um options to help deal with the capacity or lack of capacity for new development in this area. There's a potential to shift capacity on its site. Um, at its most simple, that is if you have a building with six toilets and you take it down, you can put six new toilets somewhere else. Um, at its most basic, um, there is an opportunity potentially to connect some of the parcels to the Minnotonka system. Um, it is unclear whether that would be a short or long-term solution and again, it would only impact the parcels that are north of um, London Dair um, within the area. or there is the much larger much longerterm potential to actually upgrade Edina system within this whole area. So as it relates to this small area plan that kind of created a large um known unknown for us in trying to think about how we would move forward with a set of recommendations and so ultimately what we decided to do was sort of bifurcate the plan. Um, there's a series of current capability recommendations, things that we can do today that would improve the public realm, that would improve the quality of open space, uh, mobility issues and other things like that, as well as some potential minor changes to land use, um, and setting up policies that could influence future de development that we can take care of today. And then at a future time once this has been resolved, which is most likely something that would happen in your next comp plan cycle, um there are recommendations that would what would we do if this sewage capacity issue were no longer an issue? Um those require more major changes to land use and major changes to circulation within the study area. So, we took that back to the community and started to have conversations um about more specifics around some of these potential recommendations, looking at qualities of open space, looking at types of housing that people were interested, types of urban design that people were interested in, and um really thought to dig down a little bit deeper in terms of what people were looking for in some of these areas when they were looking at some potential recommendations. Um, so we did also, this was a question that we were getting engagement. So we started asking people what neighborhood they lived in as we were doing both online and in-person engagement and found that mostly folks were coming from the adjacent neighborhoods, Breston Park and Parkwood Nolles. Um, the community really prioritized green spaces and environmental stewardship um getting around safely and thinking about the local businesses as kind of key issues within that. and they showed a preference for smaller scale private outdoor spaces for natural gardens and natural building materials when we're talking about what type of development or open spaces should be in the area. So from this we developed as I said these sort of two different directions in the plan both what we can do today and what we can do in the future. I'm not going to go through every recommendation here. I know you've all seen the report but um this is a summary of the short-term improvements. you'll see that there's um quite a few elements that relate to policy um and and updating city policy. There are open space improvements, there are water quality improvements, there are mobility improvements as a part of this um component in the longer term. Um we looked at what would development redevelopment look like prioritizing the different elements that the community has put forward for us. Um so this um longer term shows some of that. Um we were somewhat agnostic about land uses knowing that the market is going to change significantly in that amount of time. So the way that we've drawn this um there are elements in here for example putting smaller housing uh town houses specifically closer to the existing neighborhood larger buildings closer to the highway some of those sorts of things. But ultimately a lot of the buildings especially when we're talking about the things towards the highway those could in the future m it could remain light industrial they could move towards office or commercial space they could move towards retail or they could move towards housing really depending on what the market is looking like at those times. The overall strategy though of larger closer to the highway smaller closer to the neighborhood was very important in that. We also looked at ways of incorporating additional green spaces with redevelopment that might happen in these areas and really tried to think about the ways that we could improve the quality of the trails, improve mobility and improve circulation in the area as well. So we brought these final recommendations back to the public and we did an online it was a sort of polling technology that we used to really ask people um about each of these recommendations. Do you feel like it is matching the community priorities and do you think it should be a priority for implementation? And so for us that was just a test with that group of of community members to really see um are these recommendations have we have we gotten to a place where we not necessarily everybody agrees 100% with everyone but do we have an overall consensus? um and are happy to report that we were we were largely seeing um and I think entirely seeing that we were well on the side of of majority support for these recommendations and feeling like we had met the goals of um actually reflecting the community priorities that had been put forward as well. So um with that I will stop and I'd be happy to take questions. Yes, thank you for that Mr. Locker. Um very very well done and thank you again for the work of mend with our team absolutely that worked on this small area plan our residents businesses all the folks that were involved that were that were named but everybody that participated from the neighborhoods and and the broader community as well it helped you build a pretty good product right here. So glad to hear that and some nice recommendations. Uh questions for Mr. Lockham or for the planning commissioners that are present. member. Thank you. Thank you so much for your presentation. Um, and I just I do want to start by thanking and celebrating the great work of the planning commission and all of the work that you did to really integrate um, voices across the community. And I think that a lot of that was really evident too in the conversation that happened about this um, during the planning commission meeting. And just again want to emphasize like I think from my vantage point it looks like you did an amazing job of bringing a lot of voices to the table. So great work and thank you. Um I have one kind of like specific question just to clarify. So when we're looking at kind of the difference between those slides of the um current capacity recommendations like what I'm thinking of as like being short-term because then on the next slide you say long-term visioning is the real distinction. The only distinction between these two the capacity for the most part yes I there were some things that we sort of also pushed into that that capacity dependent that technically you could do them now but without having adjacent redevelopment happening the financial burden of doing it doesn't necessarily make sense. So, for example, some of the circulation things, you couldn't technically you could do those right now, but without sort of having that redevelopment happening just fiscally likely wouldn't make sense. So we we tried to kind of match up the recommendations with how they kind of fit into the community as a whole um to make sure that there was a funding strategy for them, a implementation strategy for them that really made sense based on what might be happening at at different time periods. Okay. And that that really helps. And I know that this was also a topic in the the planning um commission discussion about it, but we know that there's capacity constraints. And so I appreciate you kind of delineating of like here's what you can do now and you should do now or what this could look like in the short term compared to once this big open question is solved, this is what could potentially be unlocked. Um, and in some ways like I I heard um I think it was Commissioner Honan I think like some of her like frustrations as well. Um, and I I don't know how we would have gotten around that in this part of it. So I appreciate and I know that there have been other like area plans that were like we have water problems. How do we navigate this? So I appre I appreciate having those two perspectives of here's the vision that we can unlock together as a community if and when we prioritize um sewer capacity. Yeah. Well, and I think, you know, one of the things that we heard quite a bit, you know, ju just, you know, and it's it's not necessarily within my memory, but you know, the trail is relatively new there. You know, for a long time when this was built, um 9M Creek was kind of like that. That's like our back channel sewage dump, you know, for these sites. It wasn't really seen as that important. The trail has really become the beloved centerpiece of this community. And I think that shows that even without the ability to do major land use things right now, there's a lot that can still be done to improve, beautify, and improve quality of life in this space. And so trying to create a plan that didn't wasn't rellyant on something that we can't control quite yet and is quite a ways off into the future while still saying this place has a lot of value to the people who are living there right now and there is a lot of things that we can do to continue that improvement even while we're waiting for those answers I think was really important to us and important in what we heard from the community as well. And just another thing that I really appreciate with the work that you put into this was concluding this with the I think what was on oh well I have say page 764 the final workshop outcomes um so where it's kind of giving that pulse of how well does this fit into what you are all hoping for um because I I think that the biggest complexity in doing some of these analyses or these projects is there is no way to meet everyone's needs. Yeah, we can't make everyone happy. Not every person who is engaged in the process will see the totality of their desires within the final project. And then those are sometimes the people that you hear from, right, of uh well, this isn't exactly what I wanted and therefore my voice wasn't listened to. And I think that we've often struggled as a council of how do you still engage people and make people feel heard while also not necessarily being able to align to everybody's wishes and desires. And so being able to take this and then conclude it with a numerical what's the data behind how does how do the collective feel I think was a really really nice way of doing this and I hope it's something that we can take on to future like small area planning projects that we're doing of giving people that opportunity to collectively reflect on how closely does this match and I would never expect fives across the board Right. Um, but I think it also is that good pulse check of if it's two or three, like what did we do wrong or or how are we so far off? Um, so I just I really want to emphasize I appreciate the the emphasis you all took on on that community engagement and then making sure that those desires were reflected in as much of a way as possible. Absolutely. Yeah. I I for what it's worth, I really love this tool. Um the images you see the the red number in the dot is the average but the little slope that's coming is actually the distribution of votes. So you know sometimes you get things where there's a whole bunch of people at zero and a whole bunch of people at five and you're seeing that too. And it it really is useful I think for people in the room because it it does you know you could be sitting in a room and think well everybody totally agrees with me and you know the the loudest voice kind of gets it. This really gives you a very quick visual. Oh, I can see where the room is at um from a wide variety of people. And so we don't we don't know what the outcomes are going to be. I was very happy with the way that this turned out um in terms of um it you know we we felt that we had done the work that we were going to be in that air range of consensus. Um but um it it is it is a very useful tool and I honestly I even think in that meeting from the questions that start happened before we started this polling to the discussion that happened after the polling um some of the tenor in the room changed. I think people were pleasantly surprised or happy with where they saw outcomes go within it. So um it's always nice to see. Member Rouser, thank you for all your work and I echo um what member Agnu has just said. So um one of the things that I was thinking about is you're talking about industrial zoned land. Um but here in Edina we have allowed um a business, the drooling moose to sell product directly to public. Yeah. And so I'm wondering, maybe this is a question for our attorney, but it seems that with all that industrial land, um, you know, I guess I don't understand how that is a is aligned with our code or if we could create, you know, some kind of industrial zone where you can sell directly to the public. But I think that could be a way to move forward. It seems like there's a lot of interest in business. I I think that's a a really astute um element. I know you guys are working on doing some updates to your code. I there's been a best practice nationally to um move towards what people are kind of terming maker zones that are something kind of in between that commercial and light industrial as a use. Um it's actually something St. Louis Park has done a little bit of as well. Um because even on the retail side, you know, it's it's been a challenging time for retail. Um, but one of the ways that that some retail folks and actually I think soda clothing in St. Louis Park is a nice example of this is you have your showroom but you're also selling online and you're making the thing that you're doing on site and so it really becomes this sort of hybrid. So those types of hybrid zoning opportunities I think as you are revising your code um could be something that fit really really well um within this sort of area. Um and even you know pushing that to the point of um maybe some live workspaces and things like that um could potentially fit. There's there's less of that um there's less barriers to some of that than some of the industrial type uses that were more toxic that we might have had in the past. And this is a little pie in the sky, but just I know with the water this constraint with the sewer and everything, but just thinking about what are those businesses where you don't, you know, they're not a brewery. Uh they're maybe repackaging or they're doing something, you know, just kind of thinking along those lines. Um selling games or something like that. I don't know. But I think a lot of work went into this and a lot of care, a lot of concern. Um, and you know what is that like a goal without a plan is just a wish. And now we have a plan. But my concern is that it be something that doesn't just, you know, end up being irrelevant with a big development. And um, so there's there's that. uh and you know just trying to figure out how is it that we move from all of this work and I mean you can't necessarily be in lock step with a comp plan or a small area plan but there needs to be a way so that it's not just you know poof meaningless yeah so I guess it's just a frustration I I think some care was was taken to try even you know with the visuals or some of the other things that have been produced in this to hopefully be a little bit of a jumping off point in that continued conversation around the capacity issue as well. I mean, that that really is the next step and the next round of the comp plan is really the time to address that as a community and think about not just what it means for this site, but hopefully some of some of these visuals are helpful in in facilitating that conversation about what that looks like as well. I really appreciate that. and maybe, you know, coming up with some rules regarding if there was a small area plan, you know, there's got to be some constraints on, you know, what how far the variances can go or something like that. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. This is a really interesting conversation this evening and it's we we've thanked you and we've thanked planning commissioners and people that participated in the planning activity. But but when you when you hearken back to how we started this whole process, you have to thank the neighborhood uh and the neighbors who had the foresight to say, "Well, wait a minute. We had this proposed uh affordable housing apartment project over there and some people liked it, some people didn't like it, but we were it was it was never a comfortable sort of part of the journey. Sure. And then some of the neighbors suggested uh that we you know we think about a small area plan uh for that particular neighborhood and that was the genesis of this whole idea. And so, uh, in the realm of thanking people, let's not forget about that fundamental democratic method of contacting your city council member and saying and the whole council and saying, "Hey, what about this idea? What do you think about this idea?" And it was it was hardily embraced, I think, because of the the difficulties we were having uh in in the assessment of that one particular project. So, we end up in a in a very good place and and thank you again for the the work that you did and helping guide guide this along. Um, this is a public hearing matter. I think I don't have any more questions or observations at this point in time. Uh, but I we've got some folks in the audience tonight. Some of them may be from the neighborhood or just have an interest in opining on on what's being proposed here. And that is uh that it's being requested by staff and I think the the the folks that worked on the small area plan that the council adopt the plan and and uh uh and then prepared to um uh send it to the Met Council as part of our our our work on the next round of comprehensive plan planning that we're doing. Uh and so we're going to open it up now for public testimony. If there are people here that want to opine uh and give us their thoughts uh on this project, we welcome your voice and thank you for coming this evening and hope you'll come forward. Okay. Uh I don't see anybody coming forward. I think that that speaks well for the work you did. Uh people are pretty comfortable with what was what took place. Uh so I don't see anybody coming forward to hear anything uh in terms of who wants to testify uh in chambers this evening. But let's go to the online world and see if we've got anybody. My phone lines are also pretty quiet. I would recommend we wait that one minute or so to give people a chance to call in if they'd like. My clock shows that it's 8:55. I'll come back to you at 8:56 or when I have a caller, whichever is first. Thank you. Again, as with the uh prior public hearing matter, it's being recommended by staff that we let people continue to participate in this uh process here through Sunday, April 27th by sending uh written communication to city hall. Um guess you could do it the better better together. Do it that way. Just calling city hall, talking to Lynette, having her put you into the appropriate voice box. for observation by Mr. Lewis and other folks on staff. I'd be glad to have your opinion after the fact if you don't feel comfortable calling in or testifying live. All right, I do have someone on the line, but um that person is not yet signaling a desire to speak. If you'd like to speak, please press star three on your telephone keypad. That's the asterisk symbol and then the number. There we go. Very exciting moment for me. Your line is now unmuted. Caller, please go ahead and start by stating your full name and address for the record. Athleman at 5215. There was just a moment. There was just a moment of cut out there. Would you start over again, please? Absolutely. My name is Brian Athleman at 5215 Ridge Road. Thank you. I'm a Parkwood obviously. Thank you. Um I'm a Parkwood uh uh resident and have a couple of condos down on Lincoln Drive. Um the the one I I did go to a couple of the the meetings with the community which happen to be very small and I've I've talked to a number of neighbors and and and most of the neighbors don't even know what's going on. They think it's all gone away after the um there was the no um reszoning uh signs that were put up during the um when Ken uh or Kent uh had kind of started the the um forum with the neighborhood. And I don't think that the neighbors really know what's going on there. And I believe that the um you know, we can all I'm in business. I we all know that we can pick the the crowd that we want to um get the answers from. And I I don't see any negative comments on this. I see all um everybody wants this to go through when in fact I really don't think they do. All right. And I think that we all I think I think I think there needs to be more uh Parkwood Nolles um uh input on this than just this flying through uh you know with the people that don't even live in Parkwood. And I think the other thing we need to remember is this has been pushed through by, you know, this is started by um um in in the uh from what I'm seeing the the the real estate building and the far north building there are kind of left alone and we're taking out everything else. Um, and I believe that is nobody can answer me at the meetings that this was we were still going to not have affordable housing and are they saving that for last? That's a question for uh the council. Sure. Okay. Thanks for that one. All right. Uh, your time is about up, Brian, and um we'll try to get some of these questions answered either this evening or um uh when we I think when we take this matter up on uh on May 6th. Thank you for calling in. I have no other callers. Okay. I think um think about this here. Mr. Locker, why don't you come back up? As I recall from your presentation, uh, the people that were participating were from the immediate neighborhood. So, yeah, Brian's concern about more Parkwood Nles neighborhood input was necessary. Those were the results that we were getting um when we were asking those questions. Um, we did do, you know, lawn signs in and around the park and on the trail. Um we were actually featured in the Parkwood Nolles um neighborhood magazine which goes to every household um in the neighborhood as well. Um so you know we we do believe obviously you know there's there's always opportunities for for folks to miss what's going on but um we really do believe that we were hearing a lot of feedback from that community directly and um we were getting some negative feedback at different times in the process as well. um as the process went on, I do think that that largely subsided. Um so, um yeah, I I I believe we did we did a very respectable job in making sure that we were hearing from those voices and that we were prioritizing those who live closest to the area as well. Thank you for that. I think Mr. Lewis also wants to add in what the city's efforts were around the communication. Yeah, I was just going to add um so we had you know of the non-commissioners that were on the working group, you know, we had six I think four of them lived in the neighborhood. So they had representation directly from the neighborhood on the working group. Um including uh Corey Griffith who was the president of the neighborhood association. So I mean she had communication channels to people throughout the neighborhood. Um I know all the working group members tried to do a good job of making sure that that their neighbors were informed. Uh we worked with our communications department. Um, we have, you know, people can sign up for alerts for their neighborhood. We had a an email sign up on the Better Together page that people could sign up for to get notified. So, we we tried to do a good job of making sure people in that neighborhood were informed of it. Good. Thanks for that. Um the recommended motion uh is that um we close the public hearing on this matter uh at noon on uh Sunday, April 27th, 2025 and continue the action to the Tuesday, May 6, 2025 city council meeting. Is there a motion to that effect? Moved. I second. Member Risser moves member uh Eggnu seconds the uh adoption of the motion to close the public hearing in this matter at noon on Sunday, April 27th and continue the action to the Tuesday, May 6, 2025 city council meeting. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the motion as stated, say I. I. I. Opposed. Carried. The motion's uh approved. Motion carried. and the folks can continue to provide public input until noon on Sunday the 27th of April and we'll take it up again for action on the 6th of May. Thank you for that. All right. Now, we're going to move on to the that completes the public hearing portion of the agenda. We're going to move on to the reports and recommendations portion of the agenda. And we've got a few matters there to discuss. And the first matter there is the um uh potential issuance of a conditional use permit site plan and building height variance for the Southdale Library and Arts Center which is located at 71 York Avenue South. And our community director, community development director, Carrie Teague, is going to lead this matter. And then we've got others available for uh responses as well in the audience. Thank you, mayor, members of council. Uh you all held a public hearing on April 1st. The better together feedback closed on April 6th. There were no uh new comments. Um as mentioned, this is a site plan review and a revised conditional use permit for the library and art center. There's also a variance for building height from 40 ft to 59 ft. The planning commission uh reviewed this and their recommendation is for approval. The vote was 8 to zero. So the action this evening is for the council to adopt resolution 2025 uh 27 that would grant those approvals. Uh we have Liz Verero from Henipin County with us uh this evening to answer any questions that you may have. With that, I'll turn it back to the council. All right, we'll be um we're just going to pause for a moment here. All right, Director Teague has finished his um uh basically his setup on this matter and uh has indicated the planning commission has approved it 8 to zero recommended that we approve it as well and that is the adoption of resolution 2025-27 uh which would be the issuance of a conditional use permit site plan and building height variance for the Southdale Library and Art Center at 701 York Avenue South. Uh Liz Vadero is here. uh from the county to uh help answer any questions and are there questions from city council members or is there a motion to the as requested by director Teague? There a motion. Anybody care to make a motion? So moved. Right. Second. Is there a second? We got a motion and a second to approve the resolution 2025-27 which would approve the issuance of a conditional use permit site plan and building height variance for 71 York Avenue South which is the Salt Hill Library and Art Center. Any further discussion? Great project. All right. Uh all those in favor of adoption of the motion as stated say I. I. I. Opposed. Carried. Resolution 2025-27 uh is approved. The conditional use permit will be issued. The site plan and building height variants are approved for the Southtale Library and Arts Center at 7,000 York 7,0001 York Avenue South, Minnesota. Thanks, Miss Vero, for being here this evening uh and sticking with us through some of these other conversations that were necessary and preceding you yours, but uh it went smoothly. Yeah. All right. We'll talk to you soon. See you. Uh, next is uh conversation about uh resolution 2025-25 and 2025-34 and ordinance 2024-05, which is a proposed final site plan and site improvement performance agreement for 7200 France Avenue South. Uh, we've got an approved project there. Uh and we've had a revised landscape plan and uh and SEIPA to talk about there as well for 7250 France Avenue South. And director Teague, you have this matter too. So I'll let you begin the conversation. And then we've got folks from Orion Investments and um confluence here with respect to the landsl landscape plan too that we need to we need to visit with them as well. Go ahead, Director Teague. Yes. Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. So, this is a followup to the March 18th city council meeting again regarding the development at 7200 and 7250 France uh PUD16. So, there's three action items before the city council. The first is final site plan and a site improvement performance agreement for phase two of this PUD. That's the 7200 site. That is resolution 2025-25. With the final uh site plans, there's no changes from preliminary approval. All of the landscaping and public improvements were actually to be installed as part of phase one. And so that gets into the second uh request, which is a revised landscape plan and and uh site improvement performance agreement for phase one. Again, that's the 7250 site. Um, again, all the public improvements, the sidewalks, landscaping is to be done on the 7200 site as part of that phase one. So, this is where uh the builder had removed some of the the trees that were supposed to be um saved on the 7200 site, and they also went on to private property and removed some trees. Uh, landscape architect Terry Manaric is here to present those revised plans and show the renderings that were requested by the city council at the March 18th meeting. Um, those plans include 20 new trees planted on the 7200 site to replace those trees that were removed along that west lot line and in addition um, plantings on the private property. The applicant is still working with those land owners to come up with a a final uh landscape plan. The landscaping and planting on private property is really an issue between uh the property owners and the developers and not part of the landscape plan that's actually being approved by the city council. Uh this evening, city forester has reviewed the revised landscaping, didn't have any recommended changes for the 7200 site. Uh a letter of credit would be collected for the landscaping really for again both those sites. It will be in the amount of $750,000. There would be no certificate of occupancy issued until all the landscaping has been planted. And again, we would we would hold that letter of credit for two years after the landscaping uh has been installed. We also have a um other mechanisms to make sure that the landscaping is in place like the tiff payments. So with that, I will introduce u Mr. Manaric and he is going to go through the landscape plan. Great. Thank you. Um, Terry Manarch, Confluence, uh, 923 First Avenue, Sweet 225. Um, thank you for having me here today to go through this again. I think the last time we talked um we talked about getting you some visualizations to help you kind of understand what we're trying to do. Um there's been some discussions obviously going back and forth with the property owner um Mr. Brown up in this area um to talk about the screening, but we also felt that within our property alone um there's additional screening that we could do to be able to make up for some of the the trees that were removed and enhance some of those as well. So in general, this is a kind of an overall site view. You can kind of see the original planting that was done, kind of the enhanced planting that we'll be doing. There will be additional planting with this that'll happen within this area outside the property line as well in conversations with the owner. But as part of this plan, we've kind of enhanced what we've had in this um uh planting plan before. Kind of a best way to show this is if I could kind of move through the site and made it easy for you to kind of see and understand with the bright red. Um but this was the existing plan that we currently had in our plan. Um you can kind of see there's a lot of other green in here that we've added into it, but the original plan included some street planting. Um some planting along the prominade that goes behind both of the developments. Um as well as some planting within this wetland area, kind of keeping away from that center wetland area just because that will be primarily wet at certain times and it'll be difficult for us to grow any larger scale trees within that area that would have stabilized roots. So, um, we're adding in, um, uh, beyond this, we are looking at, uh, there we go. We will be adding in, um, a series of evergreen trees. Um, with the sight lines from these backyards, um, this being a flatter area, it's a lot easier for us to add some height and size of evergreen trees within here, as well as adding some deciduous trees along the slope. The reason for that is it's it's kind of a lower slope line. So if we try to plant evergreens and the time they take to grow, it would really take a while for them to get to a height that would cause um uh be able to provide that screening or that impact. So we feel that deciduous trees uh would be the best opportunity for that with the high canopy uh really providing a ton of screening in the summer. There'd be the branching in the winter, but um that was kind of the direction we went thinking trying to replace what was their existing or previous but with a better version of tree and a higher quality tree that was um approached us by the city forester as well. So you can see some of that extended planting that would help to begin to screen that in and block some of the views. There are also uh an existing canopy that is still there. Um there's a large grouping of boxer trees on the corner. There's a series of smaller uh trees along this edge here that also provide some canopy. And then this larger mass that was never part of the removal that is still intact behind this residence here. Um the trees that in question were were kind of located somewhere in this area here. So we're trying to provide for that screening as well. So that begins to give you an idea of what the um planting area begins to look like. We've also increased all the caliber in sizes of these trees from what they originally they were kind of in and around that city requirement of 2 and 1/2 to 3 in to 4 in trees. We've upped a lot of those up into 5 in trees. Some 6-in trees as well and then taller evergreens as well that are part of that what'll be closer into that 15t range. um as part of the development as well. Um we were asked to take a look at the rear yard um views that what that kind of felt like. It didn't really make a lot of sense for us to show you the view from the 7200 7250 because that wasn't really critical. What we wanted to get at here was to show you the view of the residence and Mr. Brown allowed us to get into his property here. Uh one of the yards that was most impacted by the trees that were removed. Um so what this demonstrates is uh his existing backyard as exists today. There is some evergreen trees, some cedar trees planted back here. Um, some of these larger trees are the trees that still exist there today. Um, so they will have a tree canopy that'll fill in this area. There's some smaller trees as well along this side that'll begin to fill that in. And this is kind of what it would look like today if we did our planting that we're proposing, our enhanced planting. You would get some glimpses through to the building. This would happen um as part of that plan. As these trees began to grow up, that would begin to, you know, get more and more closed in. But I tried to show something that was more of an early on phase and not something 10 or 20 years down the road. Um there are some you know barren spots in the canopy too, but there's also um other shrub understory here that'll grow up as well and begin to kind of cover in this lower level as well. So um and then we thought we'd show what that looked like when we did fill in some of those trees potentially in that negotiation with the land owner. uh the idea of putting some faster growing um higher quality maples in there that could um get to a height that would be suitable to begin to get begin to close that in. And then also we were requested to kind of see what that looks like in the winter, which uh which is a little different, right? Because this is what it kind of looks like today. Um you know, the trees are very transparent in the winter and and you can see a lot through it. But you can see some of the branching here of some of the maple trees and the other trees that would be growing in here. But again, over time, the evergreens would begin to get some height, begin to screen some of the building and provide some of that uh screening potentially um for what was there. But um you know, this is very um representative of kind of what was there before. And I think as these trees grow over time, they'll kind of get that same kind of representation. So So that's kind of where we're at. And I hope that helps. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them on what we're showing here today. That is helpful. Um, my understanding was that well, the last time you were here, we talked about um, maybe I should let my colleagues go first, but um, this question just came to mind. Maybe you can, this might help guide it a little bit. Last time you were here, we were worried about the slope and the trees being able to hold on the slope. And then my understanding was that since then you've had conversations with Mr. Brown about creating a retaining wall, but I didn't hear you say anything about a retaining wall to create a a flatter planting area between the between the west end of the of the water I'll call it the the holding pond and and the property line. Yeah. So I didn't specifically represent what we're doing with Mr. Brown because we're still in discussions with that. But the intent here is to not plant within his backyard. We did have some previous ex exhibits that may have been forwarded to you. I don't know if they were. They were. So that kind of showed some of this evergreen planting in his rear yard and some higher up planting here. Um we decided not to do that cuz he wanted to keep his backyard the way it is. So what we're looking at now is to actually plant. This is the property line here, this bright red line. So on the edge of that property line, the intent is to provide a a retaining wall to be able to give us a flatter area. There is a an easement that exists back here and and for some reason within that easement there is kind of a little bit less slope than there is there. So our intent is to put a retaining wall on the edge of the property line to be able to flatten out that grade for us to be be able to bring in larger spaded trees that'll be of the larger caliber size 6 plus in in caliber and you know 20 to 30 ft tall. So those larger trees as a root ball are somewhere around six feet. So to give them a flat area to grow and it would be pretty impossible for us to plant on that slope. So yes, we will be providing a retaining wall in that situation. Is there an intention to do some planting yet this spring or is it is it after the projects are are built out that all this takes place? I think it's sooner than that, but I'll let Ted answer that. Yeah. So good evening, Council Ted Carlson with Orion Investments. Uh we are, as Terry mentioned, fully engaged with the land owner who's most impacted by this um to provide a a solution on his property in addition to the trees we're adding on our property to his satisfaction. And I I would suggest that um I thought, oh, Mr. Brown is here tonight. So I I would um thank you uh represent that we will absolutely make best efforts to ensure that Mr. Brown is more than satisfied with the efforts that we put forth to um provide adequate screening for his property. Yeah, thanks for that. And I just wanted to also offer this up that manager Neil and I met with Mr. Brown this morning and and and I'll ask you to concur with this. He said we we do not have yet have a solution, but we're heading in a good direction. Is that kind of the way you think about it, too? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, everyone knows that we you know, we made a mistake, so we got to own it. what do you you know character is a definition what you do after a mistake and so I think we will absolutely make sure that we do go above and beyond best efforts to satisfy Mr. Brown well and thanks for that Mr. Carlson because uh Mr. Brown told us that both you and and your partner Mr. Stafford have been very very responsible here and that you've taken ownership of this issue. So, um, I'm going to turn to my colleagues here now for some additional questions that they may have because based on the conversation of Mr. Brown and the conversation with you this evening and understand that we're partway there, but we're looking for some approvals. In the past, I'll ask I'll ask Director Teague this question. It seems to me that we've we've approved landscaping plans in the past where we've conditioned uh final approval of a landscaping plan uh on its acceptability to the city and in this case also would probably have to be with immediately adjoining neighbors and property owners which would be Mr. Brown and Miss Stonen. you recall that we've done that before that we've given you that latitude as a council to Yes, the council has but that's on the developer's property. In this case, this is what's still being negotiated is on private property. So, that's really between u the developer and the private property owners, but the city is comfortable with the final landscape plan on the development site. But there will be changes on the private property. Could we uh Mr. Kendall, could we condition our approval of a final landscape plan, not only on our satisfaction with the plan, but our understanding there's that there is indeed a plan with the private property owner that's adjacent to the to this property? Mayor, at this point, I don't think so because it doesn't seem like there's a final agreement between the property owner and and I don't think the city could ask them to wave any rights or claims they have um if they should choose not to finally reach an agreement, they still have the option to take other action and deal with it on their own. So yeah, I may not have articulated what I was thinking about very well, but I was thinking that we we condition the approval that we have upon the developer making an agreement with adjoining property owners. Well, I wouldn't recommend that because I don't think the city has control over, you know, whether they can reach agreement on that. The city has site control over the 7200 and 7250 site based on the applications before the city to develop those sites. uh the city doesn't have any control over the private property. So the city couldn't force the if they didn't want to, the city couldn't force the developer to go onto the private property owner's property and plant trees because the private property would not be permitting that and the city couldn't force them to permit that. Let me ask Mr. Carlson then. Um are there is there some timing urgency to all this that you're asking us to do tonight? Yeah, there's certainly timing urgency as it relates to the 7200 approvals. uh as you know we've represented here we are working on closing on a construction loan in June and starting construction in July and I think that as we all read and understand what's happening capital markets that further turbulence could be cumbersome for us. I would also represent that as far as it relates to the landscape plan that you know the city has a $750,000 letter credit and tiff requirements and certificate of occupying requirements. But aside from all those significant what I would call traditional financial or legal hammers, uh what we have is a is a reputational um responsibility. Mr. Brown's been a member of this community for longer than I have and I've been here for 25 years and we've known him personally and professionally for a long time. So, um, you know, I think that I can assure you that we will continue to make robust, significant, and severe, um, attempts to fix this to his satisfaction. Period. So understanding that we're working towards a solution and people think we're heading in a good direction, we could do what we've done in the past and that would be to have a conditional sort of approval upon uh having the the developer submit a landscaping plan that was acceptable to the city on 7200 and 7250. Is that right? Yes, we believe they have submitted a landscape plan that's acceptable to the city for their two properties. I I think to further that that we've added in excess of 20 trees. We've increased the size and significance of the trees and there's additional trees to be added for us and Mr. Brown to his satisfaction. member, I believe the the primary residence that we're talking about about right now was the one to the north. Um I I also believe that the property to the south was also impacted. Um can you provide any narrative on the progress that you're making in collaboration with that resident as well? um our project manager had reached out to that resident without a further followup and I believe that the impact was really only to Mr. Brown's home in the middle and to the north where the trees were taken. I don't believe there was any trees inly taken for the property of the south or any other property for that matter. Yeah, Commissioner Agnu, the trees that were removed were right in this area right here along this edge. Those were the ones that were removed. Nothing over here was marked to be saved or not. There wasn't as many trees there and um we're well within what was in the first plan to be removed. Um there is a lot of debris back here that looks like we may have done something, but we think that's a different party and we don't know what the arrangement between the land owners are with that and why that's like that. But there is a lot of debris in this area as long and then along this side of the property as well that we have no relationship to. Okay. So you're you're stating that but we are still planting more trees here that we didn't really have to but we are adding them in just for additional buffering. Okay. So the only private and I'm also going to look to city staff to confirm this. The only private properties that were impacted by additional trees being removed that shouldn't have been is just the the property owned by Mr. Steve Brown. I believe that's correct. Yes. And and technically his neighbor beside that that has a limited view. But yeah, thank you. Yeah, member RER um I did go out and visit with the resident to the south and he does really feel like he was impacted and um I think what we're getting um it's getting confused by the fact that if we're only counting trees then um your statement holds up but there was a lot of shrubbery there was a lot of other vegetation U and that had value even though you know as a screen it was very much a natural screen and so now that natural screen is gone and I would also like to push back um against the idea that the only view that matters is from the resident's backyard because as you are approaching this area you know it used to be sort of invisible all those houses you never really saw them because of all of the um growth that had happened and um now they're just they're out there. Um and I think that's rather unsettling. So I do think that neighbor to the south feels impacted and that something needs to be done. Um the other question, but I do have another question and that is with this retaining wall. Is this going to be something that is there to hold the the ground in or is this going to rise up so it'll be a clear barrier? It's it's intended to hold the ground. It will be um vertical compared to the slope. Okay. But this isn't the place where people go and walk or are intended to hang out. Um this is a wetland area that can fill with water at any time to quite a depth. So, um, and this will be on the edge of that wetland area. So, my concern is I have two concerns. I want to make sure that the slope that belongs to the residents, you know, doesn't end up eroding and even, you know, some of that shrubbery was holding the dirt in and all of that. Now that is gone. So, do we have concerns about erosion, especially with that pond coming in? So to be clear there um the shrubbery and everything that was removed was removed from the 7200 7250 property and that was part of the original approved plan to remove that. What was in question here were the larger trees that were removed that weren't supposed to be that were agreed upon and that were on the edge of the property line. the shrub uh area that was in there, that was a heavily um it may have looked like it was a dense shrubed area, but it was a lot of leaves and debris and old retaining wall and stuff that had been put there over time that kind of made it feel like it might have been a more, you know, robust place back there. But whatever was there that was cut down that was of a smaller scale will grow back in any event along this edge. But the intent of the retaining wall is to provide us a flat area to give us the ability to grow a tree. When a box elder grows from a seed, it can establish itself on the side of a any kind of plant can establish itself on a side of a slope over time. But when we come in with a larger tree, we have to provide it with a area that can handle the root ball so the root ball is not exposed. So that's what the intent of that wall is. The wall will help actually stabilize this slope um and improve the slope. And the intent of the wall is to only be by the properties that were impacted directly by those trees that were removed. The property to the south never had any further tree removal at all on its property. To be clear about that, any of the stuff that's back there that's open and exposed now was done by somebody else. That wasn't done by us. I I did look through the fence with the gentleman who lives there and he said I you know I I didn't used to be able to see anything. Now I can actually watch my wife go into lens you know so it was a very different view that he is experiencing from his backyard. So I want to get that out there. Um, the other concern I have is is there going to be a clear demarcation of the property line when the project is done so that we don't have people going up onto land that belongs to the residents? Yeah, I think that can be established pretty easily. Yeah, for sure. Okay. So when you So the was there a conversation about the debris and stuff that was back there when you did talk to that property owner? There was a conversation about the plants, the foliage that was no longer there. Okay. But not this the stored stuff and the rocks and the stuff that was there. I was just wondering if that was a concern that that resident might have had since we haven't had an opportunity to talk to him. No, it was, you know, seeing how his view was no longer um protected by vegetation. Okay. So, wouldn't that always be true in the winter time if it was all deciduous material? I mean, wouldn't that have been as would always been his winter view? Um, I don't think so. I think there was more when you stand and you look um from 70 or from h what is it the street there and Bristol Court? Yeah. Well, no. When you're looking at it from 72nd, um there is still a lot of there's areas where you have a lot of growth that is still there. So, there there is some thickness to it. And so, uh all all I know is that he is experiencing his view very differently now. So, um it would be good to touch base with him. So, let me make sure I understand where we are here properly. And I know everybody's trying to work towards a common goal here. What I what I think I heard you say, Director Teague and Mr. Kendall, is that Mr. Teague, you're you are satisfied with the landscaping plan that Mr. Manaric has put together for the conference has put together for uh the developer and have you had interaction with Mr. Mr. Brown on that. Uh not not directly because you were only concerned about 7200 7250 where we had control. That's correct. Okay. Um All right. And so what I think Mr. Kendall was saying was that uh if we agreed to move forward tonight and approve this at the next phase so they can get going and get working. Um Mr. Mr. Brown still has his legal rights based on what what he what what occurred on his property that shouldn't have occurred on his property. Mayor, that's my opinion. I I'm not giving Mr. Brown legal. You're not his lawyer. I'm not aware that he's waved any rights. So, unless he has, then he should have all available rights. He can negotiate a deal with Mr. Carlson or he could sue Mr. Carlson, whatever he wants to do. But he's not waved any rights and we're not asking him to. Okay. We're just trying to make sure that we get things properly screened and it's going to have the supplemental benefit of benefiting his property and the property next to him from Miss Thon. Correct. I think part of staff's requirements and recommendations on this updated landscaping plan were to create additional screening on the 7200 site which the city has control over to mitigate some of the issues that you know are occurring on the adjacent sites. And if I remember properly when you were in here last time, the landscaping plan is really part of the financing on 7250. Yes, sir. And so that that mean and that's that's been approved. You're moving forward on 7250. So remind us again then when you think some of this landscaping work would be done uh on 7200. It's well I would I think it's two phases. I think our intent would be to complete the landscaping with Mr. Brown as soon as humanly possible. I think the remaining of the landscaping on 7200 needs to take time as it's related to the relocation of the cell tower, the excavation of the basin, and a bunch of other things. But I think we got the opportunity to fix the immediate term on Mr. Brown's property for sure this summer. Okay. All right. Good. That's helpful. Thank you for that. Um, okay. Other questions from council members? So, Mr. Dr. Teague, walk us back through where we are here. What what do we what what you're asking us to do and can it be done on a single motion? You could do them in a single motion or you could uh break them up into as many as three. The first would be the final site plan and site improvement performance agreement for phase two. That's the 7200 site. That's resolution 2025-25. The second piece is that revised landscape plan and and basically an addendum to the SIPA 47250. That is resolution 25-34. And the third item is, and I didn't mention this before, but it's second reading of the ordinance that incorporates the new site plan for 7250 into the ordinance and also reduces that first floor uh height from 16 to 14 ft. So, second reading of that ordinance amendment. Okay. Mr. Kendall, do you have any preference from a legal standpoint as to how we address this? Well, mayor, mayor, I I guess if there would be any potential for disagreement or no votes, then you could address them separately. So, anybody who disagrees with the issue could voice their objections. If you feel like there's agreement on all of them, that's the direction I'm heading was to do it separately. I think that's fine. Yeah. And and so as to 2025-25, uh there's no changes to the site plan from what was previously approved. Is that correct, Director T? That's correct. Okay. And then we've got that site improvement performance agreement for 7200 France Avenue as part of that proposed resolution 2025-25. So, all right. Let me see if there is a council member who wishes to uh move the adoption of resolution number 2025-25 which would address the issue of the approval of the final site plan and the site improvement uh performance agreement for 7200 France Avenue. So moved. There a second. I'll second. Got a motion and a second on 2025-25 relating to final approval of the or approval of the final site plan and the um site improvement performance agreement that staff has put together for 7200 France Avenue with the developer. Any further conversation on that one? All right. All those in favor of adoption resolution number 2025-25 as described say I. I. I. Opposed. Nay. Carried. Resolution 2025-25 is approved. It's approved. Okay. And then we're going to go to 2025-34, which is the proposed site improvement performance agreement for and revised landscaping plan for 7250 France Avenue South. Correct. All right. Is there a motion on that matter? So moved. Is there a second? I'll second. Um, any further discussion on 2025-34? All right. All those in favor of adoption of resolution 2025-34, which would approve the revised landscaping plan of site improvement performance agreement, amended site improvement performance agreement for 7250 France Avenue. Say I I opposed. Name. Motion carries. Uh, that resolution's approved. Uh and then finally um the um resolution uh let's see what we got here 20250 which would uh what was that waving second reading? It's second reading of the ordinance. It's it's the second reading. Yes. Approve the second reading. All right. 2025 resolution 20250 approves the final site plan and second reading on um actually just the second reading on uh the ordinance involved. Ordinance number 2025-05 is what we're approving. Uh is there a motion to that effect? Approval of that uh second reading of that ordinance. So moved. Second here from the chair from the mayor. Uh we got a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Yeah. Go ahead. Member. Um when I think of our process, this is really frustrating because um we set up these PUDs and then we define them with a specific proprietary plan. And so there's only one developer who can really benefit from the zoning, the actual zoning. And then we add TIFF financing on top of that. So there's only one way that public financing is going to flow and then we've added spark on top of the tiff and so there's a lot of public money that ends up going to just one little area and um then you know you try to figure out what exactly the zone is and you try to look and see what PUD16 is and we're not simply we're formally amending this EUD essentially and so it just I feel very uncomfortable with the process that we have and I just wanted to articulate that. Thank you. Thanks member. Um any further discussion? All those in favor of approving the second reading of ordinance number 2025-05 say I. I. I opposed. Nay. Uh the motion is approved. the ordinance uh the second reading of ordinance number 202505 is approved. All right, I think that in that concludes all of our work on this matter. Okay. And then um yeah, come on up, Mr. Brown. Thank you. D Brown, uh resident or owner of 7205. I I I just want to make this comment. I've been involved in this city for a long time and I've been very cooperative in this process as have the developers. I'm very disappointed in this legal position about the fact that we can't figure out a way to document something in a three-party agreement because now what you've kind of forced me to do is say, "Well, am I going to get an attorney? Am I going to go threaten to sue or try to have some kind of injunction as opposed to coming to a common solution? That is not the way to solve this kind of stuff. All that does is create strife. These guys have been great to have interaction with. We had a conversation this morning and if there had been a legal issue, you should have said in advance that that should be something that could be addressed. This puts me in a horrible position because and I'm trying to be cooperative and you're now forcing me to go to a situation and say, "Okay, well, I'm going to go out and get my saber and now I have to fight ugly because I've lost any kind of ability to collaborate using the city's uh position with the developer. I have confidence that we'll come to a solution, but there is a way there has to be a way to come up with an agreement that would work in a three-party situation." We talked about it this morning. And our mayor is a lawyer. Yeah. I thought we had it figured out. Yeah. So, here I come up. I wasn't going to come tonight and I was like, "Okay, well, we got this figured out." And now we got Well, no, we really can't do that agreement. Sorry. Adios. That's not right. And as someone that's given as much as I've given to this community, it really pisses me off. Pardon my French. So, I have confidence in working with these guys. Very disappointed in that response. Just gonna say it. Thank you, Mr. Brown. All right, gentlemen. Thank you for coming in this evening. All right, we're going to bring bring Mr. Milner up here now. We've got to talk about the uh project that's uh imminent. starting to do things on this project I think the end of April and that is um uh he is now looking for a request for purchase for the Vernon Avenue Highway 100 interchange project. Thank you, Mayor. Director Milner. Exactly. I'll be seeking that this evening and just want to give an update to the council and anybody watching online. Uh the project goals, we've talked about these many times, so I'll I won't read through them all. They're also posted on our better together website um with the project links and I'll give you that here in a little bit. Uh this is the project. It it goes from Interlockan Boulevard on the west over to Graange Road on the east. Two new bridges, one over Vernon Avenue or one over the CPKC rail line on Vernon Avenue and then the Highway 100 bridge over Highway 100. Uh this is called a tight diamond interchange. the interchange uh for the ramps on and off the Highway 100 with the bridge, big wide sidewalks, new turn lanes in both directions to improve traffic operations. Um so it's a bike pad safety improvement and traffic operations improvement project timeline. Uh we had a lot some delays working with the rail, but we are now right at construction. So tomorrow we are hosting a pre-construction meeting with a much more detailed schedule. They want to start some work the 21st. Uh the 23rd is April 23rd, next Wednesday, one week from today. They want to close the roads and start work uh on that corridor. The project was bid with a completion date of November 15th, 2025 to reopen those roads. And that's what we're focusing on right now. Just a little bit on the detours. This is stage one that'll start next Wednesday. So stage one is April 23rd till late summerish and stage two which I'll show. But this just shows that those on andoff ramps and the interlock and Vernon Avenue intersection will stay open for a majority of the project. Uh of course things could change. We might see benefits to tweaking this. But this is what we're starting with our traffic operations next Wednesday. Could we uh talk about that a little bit? Uh, you know, I'm thinking to about last summer when we did the work out in front of city hall here and um we got signage up and and the first few days everything was just a mess and it did affect down at 50th in France. I think uh us doing our work up here that Met Council doing the Eline work down on France Avenue. It just seems to me like those first few days are critical that you don't just have signage up that maybe we got people out there too directing traffic or helping people navigate this because this is going to be really uh kind of challenging. Exactly. We are ordering extra signs just to say Grand View District businesses and 50th and France district how to get around in this. I'll show you an example map. We're going to have maps. We had 9,000 postcards go out to people last week. Uh, we got a business specific landing page to sign up for email updates. Lots of lots of stuff. I've had already one of those weekly meetings. I got another one tomorrow at 11 for people. But we're really trying to make sure that doesn't happen again with some of that confusion that happened when we closed those roads last year. Okay. Yeah, thanks for that. Stage two, real similar just that we're working on interlock and Vernon intersection during that work. This would be again sometime during the summer to early fall. And then the last stages 3A and 3B are when it's going to be the most impact impactful to the traveling public is when those ramps get closed and they have to either head down the highway 62 or the Benton Avenue access for local access in this stage or when they have to go up to Interlockan Boulevard or not Interlockan Excelsier Boulevard in St. Louis Park to do this movement because that offramp will be closed at this time. So, we'll again publish much information every time there's a change in the traffic control on this project. So, if it Oh, here this might the next one might be helpful. Um, let's say somebody's coming up interlocking to the and they're by the holiday station store there and uh they're heading for 50th in France. Uh, how do they get there? I mean, just walk it walk us through that, would you please? Uh, the start of the project, you could take Gus Young to Arcadia down to the roundabout. We're gonna sign it as use Vernon Avenue to Eden. Eden's going to be your primary east west connection. Go by the go straight south past the liquor store. Turn right the left on Gus Young Lane and you can do that and then turn right on uh Arcadia. Yep. That's one option. I would suggest using Vernon Avenue down to the Speedway gas station and making a left on Eden. Eden Avenue has got capacity. I would use that facility for any east west connections between West Edina and 50th and France district. Okay. But there will be a couple other options if you know some of the local streets. Yeah, that's a good route, too. Go Yeah. Go Vernon to Eden and then go Yep. That I think is a better capacity past city hall through the roundabout. Exactly. Agnu. Thank you, Mayor. I know we don't probably know the timing of this, but you may be looking at um Director Teague, if the Opus project is moving forward, what would be the potential timing of that, the start of that construction, and could this be completed prior to that? Uh I met with their construction staff. Uh they want to start ASAP, so they're going to overlap if they meet the schedule that they discussed with me a couple weeks ago. Okay. We told them they cannot impact Arcadia Avenue. Okay. They cannot impact the offramp street closures as a part of their only two is they got to make a water and a sewer connection and I already said that I would approve a night work so we don't impact all the other stuff going on here for that one night and those connections. We said you can't close the offramp and you can't close Arcadia. The timing just stinks for them but it's our project and we got to make sure the public can get around. So great question. So, just want to make people aware of where the construction areas are, where you're going to see equipment and materials. All the stars on this are spots where you're going to see equipment, materials spread out. We're allowing them to rent a half the old public works site. And then the the X marks or the do not enters. They cannot use Devan's parking lot. They can not use the Starbucks parking lot. They cannot use Washurn McGravy or Hilltop or any of those. They can't use City Hall. So, we have someone out there that's going to be out there every day representing the city kicking people off of any parking lots if they are related to this construction project. We have signs going around Devanis. No construction parking, no traffic, no materials, none of that. So, we're working diligently to make sure those business are open for business and their lots are not being taken by construction. Now, where you going to have them parked? Down at the old public works site. Yep. Or on the Vernon Avenue themselves. The big work is building bridges. So, they're going to have that those middle stars are going to just be available for materials, equipment, parking, all that. Um, their plan, they want to remove the Vernon Avenue bridge over the rail first so they can haul that material to the east side of the highway where they can stockpile it and reuse it, recycle it, reuse it, then take down the highway 100 bridge, which has to happen over night nights and weekends. Mindot won't let that work happen uh during normal business days because of the traffic volumes. and we'll communicate all those changes of traffic when it happens within all the channels. So, what are those channels? Again, better together website. Here is the address. Um, Richard's got a question for you. Sorry. Do we need a no parking at um Frank Tupa Park for the um historic buildings? I know it's a small little parking lot, but is that something that I think that's too far away for this project, but we'll monitor that, too. Just like we did when the development was happening across the street, we kicked contractors out there out of that parking lot all the time. Okay. We have been in touch with uh the operations of that facility. They know this project's coming. Very good. Thank you. So, what are we doing? We're communicating in a whole variety of things. We've been doing that already. It's continuing to go out. But here's the Better Together website. Uh, I have a meeting tomorrow at 11 11:00 am. This is a bi-weekly meeting for anybody, residents, businesses, people concerned, want to learn more. Uh, there's the the website backhighway 100 talks. And then there's some specific business outreach. Again, there's another website for specific. The postcards that went out have all this information whether you're a resident or a business. And the map down here is one of those maps that we're using to communicate to the public how they can get around. So you can see the green arrows, green dash, those are all open open streets and the red is closed. So if you get off southbound 100, you can use the ramp. Basically, you talked about that on that earlier project. Uh then decide which way you want to go on Arcadia Avenue and the ramps near city hall will stay open so you can get on and off the highway there for stage one of the work. And then as those stages change, we'll communicate those changes out to the public. But I'm really here tonight is asked you to award a contract. And I'll just review the costs and the funding one more time. Um the total project is 28.2 million that's split between our partners Henipin County, City of Vina and Mindot. Uh we have 11.2 million of federal funding that's been allocated and as soon as we start construction, we'll start requesting that money. So that's under contract under agreements. We're very confident in that funding. City's on the hook after we take away the 4.2 of our federal funding, $1.2 million uh for the project. Again, that's really close to our June estimate. And here's the recommended funding that we shared with you at a work session two weeks ago and again this evening. U we're showing about a $5 million municipal state aid, three million of debt, and then the million dollars of our utility funds, the water, storm, sewer, and sanitary, 200,000 with packs, electrical budget for lighting, Centennial Lakes, TIFF. There's an inind MDOT is providing construction services, testing, surveying, inspection. They're going to have five guys out there doing all the work. We're going to have a a representative out there also. So, they're doing more inkind services than cash for this project. We also were successful in a million- dollar grant last fall, an additional one. We still have a bonding request. You heard that at the work session earlier this evening for 5.3 million. So, I put arrows on those four uh funding sources. state aid, the debt service, Centennial Lakes TIFF because that was a question from member Risser last time and the state bonding. We can adjust this funding table through the whole summer through the fall. It doesn't matter. So our recommendation is we wait to see how the request goes at the state. We can have the discussion on the tiff stuff with the broader entire picture of the budget that you guys are having. Um there is a cash balance in there of 1.5 million. That was one of your requests member Risser to understand that amount and we have that discussion on that. So if we get bonding money we could have lower the debt service or state aid and just have that discussion with a bigger broader. I don't need all these today. I need you to award a contract and to know that we do have a way to fund this. So I'm recommending that you award the contract tonight. Contract NG25-5 to A as Construction for 22 million62,441.3. Happy to stand for any questions. Thank you, Director Milner. It was quite a presentation. You kind of exhausted me. I went a little quick with this. I mean, just uh the scope of the project and worrying about people getting around town and uh doing something is very necessary um for our community and and for the region. Um and and taking advantage of the fact that the countyy's taken down that bridge over the railroad tracks anyway. You know, I think it was good thinking on your part early on and if we were going to do something, this was an opportune time to do it. Correct. And then and then clean up our little mini spaghetti junction. Yep. And create some potential space for expanding the civic campus I think is another uh great kind of undisussed part of this conversation. So uh questions for director Milner member Risser. um not a question but a request because I think there may be a lot of people out there who are thinking why is the city paying for the bridge over the highway and if you could just affirm that that is the world in which we live. Yep. It was our project we added on like the mayor said the county was going to do go back to the graphic the project overall. So the counties started with the Vernon Avenue bridge over the rail needed to be replaced. that was a infrastructure replacement needed to be. It was a structural integrity thing. Their project went right up to the high 100 bridge. Um, so if they spend federal dollars, we couldn't do any improvements like the mayor mentioned. So we solicited went through the Met Council solicitation and got 4.2 million. The original plan was to reuse the highway bridge. We could not get buyin from MDOT or the county to reuse that bridge for a diverging diamond interchange, which is a unique you go on the wrong side of the road and then go back. So, it's a unique facility just in general, but to really plop it in here uh would have been really unique. So, then we decided that the best case here was to remove the bridge and put a new bridge up. And that's where we're working with our partners right now. Thank you. All right. Uh we'll take we'll all take a deep collective breath here and uh I'll entertain a motion to approve the request from staff from our director of engineering uh to authorize the purchase for uh ENG25-5 which is the Vernon Avenue and Highway 100 interchange project awarding the bid to Ames Construction in the amount of 22,62,441. So moved. Second. Got a motion by member Agnu, second by member Risser to approve the motion as stated and authorize the award issuance to Ames construction for 22,62 62,000 22,62,441 uh for the highway 100 interchange project. Any further conversation on the issue? Any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor of adoption of the motion as stated say I. I. I. Opposed. carried. Motion's approved. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah, you're welcome. Uh next u we've member Agnes has been working on this diligently this uh inhumanely bred animals ordinance uh involving the sale of inhumanely bred animals and we've talked about refining it and I think it's in a position where uh member is comfortable with how it how it's worded how it's crafted and so member I'm going to turn now to you for introduction on the topic. Yes, thank you so much. Um, I I feel like I've now introduced this many a time. Um, but appreciate everyone's patience as we've gone through some iterations and as we've gotten some feedback from council as well as from members of the community. Um, so this really really started from um a local resident reaching out and and wanting to make sure that we were able to do what we could um to prevent the sale of inhumanely bred animals. And so the discussions that we've had including conversations um with the Humane Society and kind of people collectively legal um what we have in front of us tonight is I think a really good draft that aligns with um kind of the the input and the advice that we've gotten and as well as the conversations that we've had as a council. So with that and we'll hand it back to you mayor and All right. Yes. Would you care to move the matter? I would or does anybody have any questions for member, member? Anything? Okay. Um, so we've got a motion to adopt um, uh, ordinance number 202501, which would amend chapter 8 concerning the sale of inhumanely bred animals. U, any, we got a motion by member Agnu. Is there a second to that motion? Second. All right. Member RER seconds the motion to adopt that ordinance. uh amending chapter 8 concerning the sale of inhumanely bred animals. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving ordinance number 2025-01 amending chapter 8 concerning the sale of inhumanely bred animals and grant second reading that included that in your motion. I think yes. Uh all all of those in favor say I. I I opposed carried. The uh ordinance approval is complete and approved and the second reading grant uh is granted waiver of second reading. Uh okay, we got that matter covered and now we are down to I think the last action item of the evening and we are probably getting our city clerk pretty excited here because we're way ahead of her schedule. And um the last matter in front of us from an action standpoint tonight is uh going to be introduced by manager Neil and this is uh the potential direction to the city manager to prepare an agreement with Henipin County. I'll say again to potentially transfer assessing services from the city to Henipin County with the agreement being subject to council review and approval is the way I read the the motion. So, and we'll talk about that my observations on this. Okay. Go ahead, manager Neil. Thank you, your honor, members of council. The action that we are asking uh for from the council tonight is to direct uh city manager to meet with county uh county administrator or or our respective uh design to discuss the um possibility of transferring or assessing services from uh from the city to the county. Uh we've had a previous conversation about this on March 15th at our retreat again uh at our April 1st work session and then tonight is the proposed action. If the council uh approves this proposed uh motion this evening that will uh direct me to get in contact with my colleague uh Mr. Huff uh and and again our associates who will work together uh to put together the final agreement uh that will make that transfer um operational. Uh we have talked with our our legal adviser Mr. Mr. Kendall. Uh he and his firm have worked on a couple other agreements in Henipin County like this and and would be able to assist us uh with making this happen as well. Uh I think it's important for us to say it's important for me to say to you that we are we are not thinking about propos we're not proposing this action uh because our folks aren't performing. The folks that do this work for us uh are high performers. They're good at what they do. Uh this happens to be a a a division of work that could be done um cooperatively with Henipin County and it does have the potential to save the city uh significant dollars in terms of of being able to reduce our levy um in our general fund levy in particular in in the coming years as soon as next year and then in uh and then in the future. So that's the the rationale for this uh for this request. Uh the county uh told us that uh their their deadline to hear from city governments was May 1st. That allows them to take into consideration to receive these proposals of who's interested in in following this u this process. Uh Maple Grove, the Maple Grove City Council has already taken an action and so Maple Grove will be uh approaching the county or working with the county on on a similar kind of move. We're asking you to make a similar kind of action tonight. and I'm happy to answer any questions. Member Risser, um, this is just clarifying information. Um, one concern I've heard is that this doesn't necessarily mean a lower cost in terms of the whole assessment process. And it just comes down to how the payment is being made. And so my question to you is can you find out or get some information on what the you know potential efficiencies might be and if indeed there would be a total cost reduction. So rem Okay okay great. Yes. Um and that would end up being part of the part of the agreement that I referenced earlier. Okay. And the other thing, and I'm learning all these acronyms, which I didn't used to know, but the SLA, the service level agreement, I know that is really important to member Pearson, he's not here. And so I really do want to underscore that that needs to be a part of it, right? Um those are my two big concerns. I will say I had uh I did have an exchange with Council Member Pierce about the service level agreement. Uh it's the service level agreement discussion does happen in the next phase of of this discussion. Uh it happens in the next phase because that's when the county knows how many cities they are are looking at accepting through this process. Whether it's two or whether it's eight uh makes a big difference to how they uh respond to the service level agreement discussion. All right. Good. Uh member, thank you. Um, so I'm asking I'm going to ask a couple questions and hoping you can fill in some of the blanks in my mind right now. Um, so what I understand is the transition could potentially start in 2026 and there would be a approximately $500,000 reduction in the general fund which would translate to a impact on the percentage that we're increasing a levy. Right. That's right. And so if we did nothing, we would be on trend, right, for that 17%, which I know is off the table. I know we won't actually get there, but help explain how does the 500,000 reduction correlate to a 17%? Does it decrease it by a half a percentage? Are we then at 16.5? Does it decrease it by more? kind of put it in those terms because we've always been talking about the percentage increase. Um, and I I'm just wanting to make sure that we're talking about it in similar terms now that we have the actual dollar value, right? So, the uh members of council, council member Agnu, the uh the savings would occur when we don't spend as much money on assessing services as we used to, right? So in in year one there's there's some uh there we've made an estimate that about how much we or save or and the opposite of that is how much we'll spend and that could be different depending on when the transition actually occurs. But we we save we reduce our general fund levy by an amount equal to the amount we don't spend if we if we eventually don't spend it. Right? We have to make that decision later on this year when we approve our budget. But that $500,000 number is about uh a 1% increase in our levy. So it's approximately so if we don't spend that $500,000 here, it's it results in a 1% decrease in our levy. when we are uh we're in this budget process right now, the early stages, and we're looking for lots of different opportunities for us to save 500,000 here and 500,000 there because in the end that will make that will be that will result in a decrease in in the proposed levy for 2026. Thank you. And thanks for bringing it in back into terms that I know that we've been discussing it in. Um, and just to clarify, you are asking us to make a decision tonight. Correct. I'm asking you to uh make a decision tonight, a preliminary decision tonight for us to engage in additional conversation with Henipin County that we believe will result in an agreement that we'll bring back to you on June 2nd that that we'll you'll be able to approve. Um, it'll be an agreement similar to what other cities have uh struck with the county over the years. uh most recently Hen uh excuse me Plymouth very similar to we would like to give the Plymouth agreement to to the extent not just the the service levels that go with that but also the the cost too. Thank you. So that was kind of vague which I understand kind of where we're in the process. So there's two options right tonight we approve or we don't approve. Mhm. Um if we say to move forward and tell the county we want to move forward and then you come back in June, um are we like at what point are we locking ourselves in or what are the options after tonight if we do say progress with coming up with an agreement? What are options then in June? I would say you don't lock yourself in until the agreement, the written formal agreement is approved by the county and by the city. Okay. Um, there are people who are employed by the city that are doing this function today. Yes. And so, can you also speak to me about um what a decision tonight means in terms of those employees to the city? So, there are seven full-time employees that work in our assessing division that are directly impacted by this decision. Um we have been talking with them to let them know how this process has been moving forward. Uh we would continue to update them about how this process is moving forward. uh we would have some we would probably have some additional discussions with with our HR and and our admin teams to figure out how do we uh how do we actually put this forward if we if if we do uh if you take the action tonight and if the count if the county approves that similar kind of action ultimately with the agreement on on June 2nd. So there's there's going to be some transition um issues that we have to work out with that staff, right? And one of those is uh the county has uh has offered to give preference to uh folks that work for our assessing division to work in their assessing department if if they so choose. That's one possible option for them. Okay. Thank you. What I think about this process is to me it's akin to uh buying and selling a piece of property or buying and selling a business. So you first you have a letter of intent that's non-binding and we've kind of got that with that conversation with the county. The next phase then would be to say okay we've thought about this and now we're going to put an agreement together and we're going to look at the terms and conditions of the potential agreement and we're going to decide whether we want to enter into an agreement with you or not. That to me is the phase we're at right now is that we say, "Okay, uh, we're comfortable enough to go beyond the non-binding letter of intent and say, put an agreement together. We'll take a look at the terms and conditions of it and see if we buy into it or not, and we want to make a deal." But I really appreciate your concern about employees, you know, because we know that as we think about our budget and how to manage, you know, the the the tax burden uh in this town that we all kind of own together. Uh these are things that we have to unfortunately think about. And um to the uh other point that you were making I thought which which was which was another good one is I think our our assessing division budget for 2025 is about 1.4 4 million and and so it might be that we end up spending half and we don't know yet about timing things but we're going to save some money in 2026 if we decide we're going to do this and then beyond that we're going to spend money with the county but that cost is going to get spread ac across the whole county and not just on the taxpayers of so that that spread over a of a estimated market value of 225 250 billion I think instead of 18 billion or whatever we have. So, uh to me it's worth going to the next step to see if there are terms and conditions in a potential agreement that are would cause us to say, "Okay, we're we're good to go or we're not good to go." So, it's like step two in the process. I think that's a good analogy. Yeah. Uh so I would say that the motion should be uh to direct the city manager prepare an agreement with Henipin County to potentially transfer assessing services from the city to Henipin County conditioned upon council review and approval. Approve of your edits. I think they're very good. We have a mover. Which which one was I I move we um Okay. Approve with the edits you just gave. Yes. Adopt a motion as stated. Okay. We got a second and if I could just add a little bit um I'm glad that we'll be able to continue to think about this decision and get more information because I think specifically the SLAs's the experience side of this that we're thinking about for our residents is incredibly important to me. And I I know that that was really what I I heard when we were having the discussion with the assessing department here. Um what I continue to go back to is we're potentially talking about a 1 to 2% com like component of the levy right which impacts everyone. And when I was having some conversations with people in the community, like it is a smaller subset. I don't know the exact numbers. Maybe that's something that we could come back with as well, but how many people are interacting with the assessing department and needing to resolve things. I'm really looking at what's the overall impact the entirety of the community. And so that's where I am I'm supportive of continuing to move forward, but I really want to understand um the service level impact and how we can boil it down to the cost of that, right? I think that's what it comes down to. So I I am definitely hoping to hear from more people in the community as well about this in particular. Um but we'll support it tonight. Okay, good. Thanks for those supplemental comments. Any anything else, Member Risser? No. Okay. Uh we've got a a motion and a second to uh direct the city manager to prepare an agreement with Henipin County to potentially transfer assessing services from the city to Henipin County subject to the uh subject to council review and approval of such an agreement. Uh any further conversation, any further discussion? Those in favor of adoption of the motion as stated, say I. I. I. Opposed, carried. The motion's approved. All right. Uh, I'm going just just going to jump by commission correspondence. I don't think we've had anything come in supplementally that we need to be mindful of. Uh, you would have told us, clerk Ellison, if you were something we needed to be mindful of. And then managers comments. Uh I don't have any comments, uh your honor, beyond the two items that I included in the packet tonight. One was some background on the city's participation in the ICWC uh program. Uh and the other was uh a response to I think some questions that uh council member Risser asked about the spark program and where the money came from and where it might go and what options uh might be available to the city if if the projects that we pledge that money to don't actually come to fruition. And that's all I've got. Okay. Uh member, anything for the good of the order? Not tonight. Thank you. Okay. Thanks, member Russer. Yeah, and this is um inspired by what happened tonight and with Mr. Brown and I am concerned about our residents who live next to commercial zones and I this is not the first time a project has come in and I one of my friends moved from Edina and she was living next to commercial land in Edina. her easement that allowed her to access her garage was completely um cut off from her for almost a year. And that meant and in the city there was nothing. She she couldn't get help. she tried and um when she came to city hall, I think she may have ended up talking to somebody who was not familiar with the project. But um after I met her and we went back and we reviewed um the meetings that covered the plan for the daycare next to where she where her house was, it was very clear that the planning commissioners were concerned about her easement um and her keeping access. Uh it was clear that the city council brought it up, but nothing was done to protect her and um she couldn't. I mean, she would have had to hire an attorney. And I I really feel for her. I feel for Mr. Brown. I feel for uh the resident who is south of Mr. Brown's property. And I don't know what the answer is, but we need to figure out a way. And part of, you know, part of what we just talked about with assessment and, you know, how we heard about a resident coming in and needing help and the resident got help. Um, we need to figure out a way so that we can help residents who end up, you know, in situations that they shouldn't be in, you know, because they're not being treated fairly. And, you know, how how are we going to be able to address that, I think, is a huge question. And I get that, you know, it's a legal matter between the resident and the builder, but I also get that um, you know, this this happens and it seems like we should be prepared so that, you know, maybe we can connect a resident with a firm that does proono or at least have some information about legal resources, legal aid. Uh but it it feels like we we need to do something. Thank you. Thank you. Um couple of things. I think uh all these years I've been on the city council, I don't know if we've ever operated with three people before. It was quite a novel experience, but it was it was a good one. Yeah. Thank you both my colleagues for uh helping me get through the evening here. uh with a lot of uh heavy agenda items, important agenda items to deal with our our colleagues, you know, uh people have full-time jobs that sometimes take them out of town like member Pierce and uh that was the reason he was gone. And for our colleague Carolyn Jackson, um I think her mother passed away about a month ago and uh now her dad's passed away down in De Moines and so that's where she is and she indicated that it was okay for us to reference at this meeting the reason why she wasn't able to attend this evening and that uh she's down there taking care of some estate matters with her with her dad who um couldn't live without her mom. So, um, I think we'll probably have a full slate on the 6th of May of council members. Hopefully. Yeah. Uh, knock on the thin piece of wood here. Um, and I thank everybody that came tonight. The It's great to celebrate the teams in Edina uh that win these state championships. So, the swimmers and divers, it was fun to have them here. and then uh Bob Thompson and and Jack as well uh with their new book and manager Neil. I don't know if you have a copy of this. I got a signed Oh, you got a signed copy because I've got one at home and I don't Do you have some Jennifer for uh our missing council members? And do you do you need one or should there be one at city hall? Because I've got We've got a couple actually. Do we? Yeah. Well, maybe I'll I can find somebody else to give it to. You know, there's an Adina Give and Go event coming up at the end of the month. Maybe I can stick this in the silent auction and they can raise a little money with that. Uh that's all I had. Um we had a long tab meeting today and uh more always something coming up to deal on deal with for the city. And uh Chad, we wish you the best and uh I'm sure we're going to get calls. So, uh, please market and have people available to help those first few days, especially, you know, I got caught in that mess on 94 going between Minneapolis and St. Paul one of the first few days. That was just unbelievable how bad that was. Um, and that continues to be bad. So, people need to find alternative routes. All right, that's it. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So, moved. Second. Member moves we adjourn. And member Risser endorses that idea. I do as well. Uh any further discussion? All those in favor of adjournment say I. I. I. Opposed. Uh we stand adjourned. Motion carried.