[Music] Welcome to Agenda Edina, a program summarizing the actions taken at city hall that affect you most. I'm your host, Dorothia Marty. After months of collaboration and community input, Edina has a new vision for the Lincoln and Londereerry area. The city council has adopted a small area plan that lays the groundwork for thoughtful development. In 2023, a proposed development in the area faced neighborhood opposition due to the lack of an established plan. The city council turned down the proposal and directed the planning commission to develop a small area plan. A working group of planning commissioners and other residents met 10 times over the course of about nine months to work on it with consultant mend collaborative engaging with the neighborhood several times during the process. The plan includes 26 recommendations under six priorities. Promote a balanced approach to housing that reflects community needs and preferences. Encourage a diverse array of businesses that support the community's needs. Create vibrant spaces that encourage and foster community and inclusivity. Preserve and enhance the natural environment, prioritizing sustainability and outdoor activities. Ensure safe, accessible, and efficient movement for all. And foster a forwardthinking approach to development that involves the community. The recommendations of the plan really talk about imagining the future as being a real kind of eco district, an an area where whatever development is happening, whether it's commercial or residential, it's really focused on the environment and creating a really beautiful place to be that really takes advantage of these natural resources. Council members applauded the group's work on the plan, calling it a model for other small area plans. I really appreciate including the city policies and the value statements that we already have into the framework of this. Um it really echoes back what we hear over and over again that we like our green spaces in Nina. We like the environment and we want a place that we can walk and enjoy. Um so I I was really pleased with the structure of the report as well as the content. Because the small area plan is an amendment to the city's comprehensive plan. It must also be approved by the Metropolitan Council. That review is underway. The Opus Group has received the green light to move its headquarters from Minnetonka to Edina. Opus plans to tear down the fourstory office building at 5100 Eden Avenue and build a new 112,000 square foot fivetory office building that would include a restaurant or retail space on the first floor. Opus intends to occupy a portion of the building which would serve as its corporate headquarters. There's really a a shortage of highly functional class A and amenitized office space and um subm markets where the demand is there. And so as we kept kicking the tires on the site, we realized our lease was coming to an expiration and thought we'd be a great anchor tenant to kick off an office project here. Opus' plan replaces a previous proposal for an apartment building and retail space on the site. Energy and efficiency upgrades at city hall have just reached an electrifying milestone. A large grid of new solar panels installed on the roof this past winter are ready to be powered on. It's just one piece of a larger effort by the city to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% in five years. Edina TV shows us how the city is getting more than a little help from the sun to meet its climate action goals. The activity at city hall never really slows down. Carried. The proclamation is adopted. Everything from meetings, what is your address? To answering 911 calls uses energy. So, City Hall is one of our larger energy users and is also a building that is used 24/7. We have not only city staff that are here in our offices, but our police department is housed here. So, it's a building that has 247 service throughout the year. And so, we want to make sure that this is an efficient, comfortable building for our staff who are here uh 7 days a week. To achieve that efficiency, every light bulb has been upgraded to LEDs and room occupancy sensors replaced light switches. One of our goals in our climate action plan is to reduce our facility energy use. And then with the remaining energy use that we have, we wanted to carbonize. A plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050, bolstered by upgrades that sit above all that activity. Here at city hall, we have installed 168 solar panels, some on top of penthouse. A $400,000 investment now complete. sits on top of a new roof and improved insulation. It is a south facing open air rooftop. So, it really is a perfect candidate and especially at a city facility of city hall, it it makes total sense. The work to install all of those panels progressed from September through the winter months. The 170 kW system replaces an older and much smaller solar garden. That translates to a lot of energy captured from the sun powering city hall instead of buying it off the grid. We're hopeful with this size of a robust system, we're looking to hopefully have this investment back within 7 to 10 years to ensure it remains effective. The energy flowing in will be tracked down to the individual solar panel. They say it's that third panel over, fourth row, third over. we could pull that panel and put a new one in. With a bird's eye view, we see a city facility standing more energy efficient than it did last year. Focusing on our buildings, especially the ones that the city owns, allows us to really have a meaningful impact. We can control the energy use. We can control the investments that are made in our buildings and then also allows us to lead by example for other buildings in our community. I'm Dan Carpenter for Adina TV. The city is exploring incorporating solar panels onto more of its existing buildings, including Fire Station 1 and Braar Arena. Fire Station 2, currently under construction, will have a grid of solar panels covering its entire roof. Thank you for watching this episode of Agenda Edina. I'm your host, Dorothia Marty. [Music]