Well, good evening everybody and welcome to the uh city hall at the city of Vana and it is uh city council meeting night uh the 1st and third Tuesdays generally and it is Tuesday June 17, 2025 and it is 7:03 p.m. And as Director Bender indicated to all of you, we're still doing these meetings as we were during CO on a hybrid sort of basis. folks can watch remotely and call in. Uh tonight they'll have two opportunities to call in uh and one is during the community comment portion of the agenda which is at the beginning and then uh later on we'll have three public hearings that uh folks can call in and testify at. And of course those of you in the audience uh can testify as well. And if you're going to address the council on a matter of concern to you uh in the public comment portion of the agenda, make sure that it's not otherwise on the agenda this evening or scheduled for a future public hearing. Otherwise, I'll have to ask you to refrain and uh from making comments, but other than those two uh exceptions, your your comments are more than welcome and and express your concerns if you have any. Um before we call the role and get the meeting started, um we we all have been uh I think over the past several days operating in this almost kind of a shroud of sadness in our state over what happened over the weekend. And um I happened to have been oh about 10 feet from Speaker Hortman on Friday night. It was nine o'clock at night and by 6 hours later she was dead, assassinated in her home. She and her husband Mark. And so I just wanted to take a moment here uh because this this will lift this will pass. This grief that all of us I think kind of experience will pass. But it's going to take a little bit of time. So for uh uh the Hortman family that lost uh a mom and a dad uh the state that lost a terrific public servant and the Hoffmans that were so uh that miraculously lived really after John Hoffman being shot nine times, his wife being shot eight times, 17 times they were shot and lived. Um, let's just take a moment of silence and and send uh all of our good thoughts their way and their families way and then we'll start the meeting. Thank you. I want you all to know that night that um those shootings took place in the middle of the night. Um that activated a lot of activity uh in the in the public safety community. And I I just want to commend our United Police Department. Uh I had Representative Green tell me this morning that by 3:30 in the morning there was somebody in front of her house. So we dispatched our police wisely dispatched um uh patrol officers to each representative's house, each senator's house. We even covered our former reps and former state senator with police protection until uh the suspect was caught a couple of days ago. And uh so for that they are all profoundly grateful and have sent wonderful messages to uh our police department and our city manager uh expressing their gratitude for the the rotating shifts of officers that that protected their families uh until they were sure that uh uh they were safe. So thank you for that great work on the part of our police department. We also assisted up in Brooklyn Park while they were on the manhunt and we sent officers up there to assist as well. So, uh really grateful for the work our our excellent police department did uh during this terrible tragedy. Um let's uh let's have our clerk now call the role council member Agne here. Council member Jackson here. Council member Pierce here. Council member Risser here. Mayor Hlin here. Uh, pledge of allegiance is next, folks. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We've got a form of meeting agenda that's been published to the public and to our fellow council members here. Uh, and is there anyone on staff or uh on the council that wishes to modify the meeting agenda? Anyway, manager Neil, I think we had one item we were going to probably pull from the agenda. Uh, yes, your honor. The Well, the suggestion I have is is Okay. Well, maybe we should take the matter up because there are several parts to it, right? Uh well, this is not you. Finish your thought. Sorry. This site, this suggestion came from council member Risser wondering if we if you would uh consent to moving item 9.4. This is the safer grant for the fire department up until it's the first or the second item under nine reports and recommendations. All right. And then what about the resolution accepting donations? We had an issue there. Well, that's a that'll take a couple of decisions, I think, when we get to that point. But why don't we take it on when we get there? Sure. I mean, I I or you or you could do that earlier as well. Um, but our suggestion is to split that to give staff the direction to meet with the parties that are interested in this issue and bring back a solution to your July 15th council meeting. Yeah. I think there's one other there's just one other item under the under that section tonight. Why don't we Why don't we do I don't think you know you you're sensitive usually if there are people here that want to speak to an item or involved and they want to hear something about an item. I don't think we need to worry about that tonight. So maybe we can just handle it in due course and then and then uh talk about tableabling it when we get there. Okay. um my computer to cooperate here. All right. Um we're going to amend the agenda to move the 9.4 up to the beginning of section 9. Uh otherwise the agenda remains undisturbed uh un amended. Uh I don't think we can we need to worry about we can move that internally. I think uh so is there a motion to approve the meeting agenda as published with the provisal that we're going to move 9.4 up ahead of 9.1 for discussion purposes. So move second. Member Risser moves the motion as stated member pier seconds. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the meeting agenda with the change indicated say I. I. I. Opposed? Carried. Uh we are now at the point where we're at community comment and uh we're going to get some phone numbers up on the screen here for folks that might want to call in. Uh and uh while that's up there, we're going to ask members of our public if they want to come forward and speak to the council on matters of concern to them. And um so we welcome anybody in the audience who wishes to come forward and address the council. Good evening, mayor, council members. My name is Ralph Sickert. I live at 4311 Cornelius Circle. During the community comment portion of the June 3rd city council meeting, I posed the following question to the council with reference to the potential tunnel under France. and I quote, "Members of the council, why does the 20 to30 million price tag, a cost to be paid from residents property taxes, continue to be something not worth mentioning on the city's website or in council chambers." End quote. The cost was not made transparent when the HA approved the TIFF district in 2024. It was not referenced in the 2025 quality of life survey. And as of today, there is still no cost estimate posted on better together. If a tunnel under France is such a great idea, why the continued silence on what a tunnel will cost? Even when directly asked, the council has chosen not to be forthright. Instead, during the June 3rd council meeting, manager Neil, the mayor, and member Jackson chose to quibble about my earlier use of the word authorized. So, quibble over authorized all you want, but every staff and council communication to date has lacked a transparent representation of the potential cost to residents for a tunnel. The fact is that both the HRA and the city council approved the tax increment financing district for the old Macy's site. And with that approval of that district came the authorized sequester of $81 million of future property taxes. Of that 81 million, 51 million was for developer subsidies and the remaining 30 million was to be used for so-called eligible city expenses. If you'll focus in on that, please. And as Mr. Neil posted to Adina's website, can you zoom in on that, please, so people can read it? As of today, Adina's residents face an upcoming 17% property tax increase and a $60 million backlog of unfunded city maintenance. Given all the items that will not be funded in the coming years, it would seem reasonable to expect more transparency around a 20 to30 million project on which over $200,000 has already been incurred. And if any resident think there will be lots of advanced notice before a final vote, look at the timeline for tonight's $13 million approval for a new pool pump. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Zickert. Anybody else? David Frankle, 4510 Lake View Drive, Edina. Uh, I agree with Ralph's comments about the tunnel. I use the crossing of Gallagher on the 9mile Creek weekly all year round. You know, I've never had an issue with that crossing. The actual dangerous part of that crossing is a parking lot that goes into pinstripe, which is completely uncontrolled and vehicles do not expect anybody to be using that Nine Mile Creek Trail. But on a tougher note, as the mayor alluded to, this weekend was tragic. And unfortunately, out of all tragedies comes change. And I think one of the things the police even alluded to is the identification of police officers and using unmarked vehicles, which came into play this weekend. Hip County Sheriff, Minneapolis Police Chief, all said, "If you're not comfortable with who's at your door, who's pulling you over, call 911." I can tell you from a firsthand experience and I was surprised when a former state senator on a TV news report said the police called her, which I assume was the police, and told her what was going on. I had a similar experience with federal law enforcement 10 years ago. They called me and left me a voicemail saying to contact them and they left the number, but if I wasn't comfortable to look on the web, their website, it's a federal law enforcement website. call the general number and then ask for the person who called me. That should be a policy of all police departments when you call somebody to have a do a call back. Get a general number off a website, City of Adina's website, ask for 911 and verify that's a police officer. This has nothing to do with policing. It has to do with all our privacy and security. The other thing is I was happy to hear later on that there were police dispatched to all our state representatives and former representatives. That information should have been disclosed to residents. That has nothing that has to do with anybody's privacy. We all should have been notified that we were comfortable and had a piece of mind that our representatives were protected. We need to have better communication in the community. The last thing, which is off that topic, is nobody seems to know what's going on with Wilson Road down the street here. One day there's markings, the next day there's not. That road is not wide enough for two buses or two delivery vehicles or delivery vehicle to turn into the Executive Office Building or to turn into the Adina Country Club with vehicles parked. And the last time I checked, we have winter and it snows here. And that road, like all roads in Minnesota, gets narrow after a heavy snowstorm. There is absolutely no room for parking on Wilson Road to make that a safe road. This is a quality of life issue. This is not a keep Amazon green happy issue. I drive that road almost every day as long as the rest of my family. It is not safe when there's parking on that road. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Frankle. Anyone else? Okay, let's check in to see if any we have any of our neighbors. I don't have any of your neighbors online right now. Okay, very good. Um we've had a couple of our residents speak here um in chambers and uh our practice now uh we don't have anybody else coming forward would be to go to our city manager uh to provide uh responses to the comments that were made a couple of weeks ago at the prior city council meeting. Uh if there are any to make and I think there were as I recall uh maybe one involved Mr. Zickert. I'm not quite sure on my recollection of that but manager Neil. Thank you your honor. We had three questions uh that we'll respond to tonight and we've previously have responded online. First question is were there irregularities in the approvals of the 7200 7250 France Avenue project and uh we'll talk about that a little bit more tonight when we get to the uh reports and recommendations section. But ordinances in Adina require two approvals uh two readings for approval. The ordinance that we're going to take up again tonight uh had the necessary uh number of votes to pass on its first reading. However, in the second reading, uh we only had three council members here that evening. The vote was 2 to1. Uh we erroneously advised the council that that was sufficient for an approval, but it was not after after additional uh consultation with our city attorney. So, we're bringing that back to the council tonight for one an action, a final action, either an approval or a dismissal or or a negative um action tonight. Um so, we'll get to that later. Uh second question is why isn't the France Avenue pedestrian crossing project easier to find on the city's website? Uh the platform that we use uh for um for our project tracking, our engagement project called uh edina better together.org or arranges topics in chronological order. Since this project was a concept that began in 2023, it's not on the top of our list. Lots of projects have kind of pushed it down the list. Uh we are going to replace that better together adina software this year, that platform, and we'll be taking that into account to make sure that we can uh have easier paths to follow to the information that people are looking for. Uh final question was uh around the uh uh signage signage and traffic calming and flashing lights around the Eden Avenue uh crossing uh to get from the Grand View Library over to Jerry's. Uh since that time uh city's traffic uh safety committee uh met uh approved a advising or excuse me advanced warning flashlight flashlighting flashing lights in this area and Mr. Milner can talk about time timeline on that. Uh, but they've also taken the uh taken additional signage up or put additional signage up on on the detour. Uh, that's been helpful. I had a chance to go back and talk to uh the SP the person that talked to you that night and she thought that was helpful in addition to some tree trimming, brush trimming that we did on the back side of the of the gas station that's right there as well. So, we'll continue to I I don't know when the flashing lights uh are scheduled to be installed, but that is something that's still yet to come. All right. Very good. That prompt any thoughts or comments or questions by council members that report out by our city manager? All right. Um parking on Wilson Road, we've been constantly sort of adjusting that over there. And I I noticed when I drove down there today that we've cleared even more space there for no parking. Uh that that doesn't where no parking would be allowed, I guess, is a better way to put it. This request came to the traffic safety committee. We reviewed it from state standards for lane widths, parking widths, the roadway widths. Um as any street in town, we have parking on most of our streets in town. The guidance by state guidance for lane width, this is wide enough to have a parking lane. The problem with it before is that that center line was down the center and it was felt weird when cars were parked there. So, what we did is sand blasted or water blasted those paint marks off. And we're going to define that center line over to the east a few feet and then put the parking lane in and then we'll have the lines and lane markings delineated better for the traveling public. And it looked like you'd eased that congestion or possibility for congestion around the roundabout around Maison Green by disallowing parking for a certain distance along the frontage there by Maison Green and a little ways to the south towards the office building as well. Yep. Parking will start south of their driveway down that way. Okay. All right. Good. Um, anything else that you wanted to address this evening? Okay. Very good. Um, the next matter on the agenda this evening is the consent agenda. We've got several items on the consent agenda. Was there anyone on the council that wishes to remove that wish to remove an item from the consent agenda? Okay. Hearing nothing. Is there a motion to adopt the items on the consent agenda in a single motion? So moved. Second. Member Jackson moves. Member Pierce the adoption of the items on the consent agenda in a single motion. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the items on the consent agenda in a single motion say I. I. I. Opposed. Carried. All of those items are adopted that are on the consent agenda uh by virtue of this motion and second and vote. All right. Um now we are on to special recognitions and presentations. Uh that portion of the agenda. We have our annual comprehensive financial report for the year ended December 31, 2024. and Pattow our financial director uh finance director is here and we've got a presenter with Bergen KDV uh our auditor uh as well and so uh director to I'll let you make the introductions and and provide the introductory comments. Good evening. So with me tonight is Bergen KDV from Bergen KDV Andy Grace our assurance shareholder on the audit who he will present the audit. A little bit about Bergen KDV. This is our first year, the first year of the five-year um contract that we have with them. Uh they are a licensed certified public accountant. They issued a unmodified or clean opinion on the city's financial statements for the year ended December 31st, 2024. Meaning in their judgment, the city's financial records and statements are fairly presented and in accordance to generally accepted accounting principles. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Andy to give you a more thorough presentation on the financials. All right, Mr. Grace, welcome and please introduce yourself again for the uh folks that are watching in. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of city council for having me here tonight. Andy Grace from Bergen KDV here to present the uh financial audit results for the year ended December 31st, 2024. Uh I wanted to first start out by highlighting our independent auditors report that's included in the annual comprehensive financial report. Uh that report talks about our role as your auditor uh and the responsibility that lies with management as it relates to the financial statements. Uh the city is annually required to uh to prepare the financial statements and it's our job as your auditor to provide that assurance through our audit opinion as to whether those financial statements prevent uh present fairly in all material respects and happy to report that we are issuing a clean or an unmodified opinion which is the best that we can give as your auditor. Uh we do have some other audit communications I wanted to highlight. uh one being our report on government auditing standards. This report talks about our consideration of internal control over financial reporting. Uh we do have to um as required by audit standards understand and review the policies and procedures around preparing the financial statements and report to you any deficiencies that come to our attention that rise to either a significant uh deficiency or a material weakness level. uh we had one finding to report this year at a material weakness level uh related to a material audit adjustment meaning that there was a an error that was identified in the in the uh financial statement presentation that was corrected. Uh the other report that we have is a report on uniform guidance. Uh this is triggered whenever the city expends more than six uh $750,000 or more in federal awards. And there was uh that um uh that did occur here for 2024. And we did select the major federal program uh being the American Rescue Plan. Uh and we had no compliance findings to report as it relates to that program and no internal control findings to report. Uh the last report that we have is our report on Minnesota legal compliance. The office of the state auditor requires that we report on uh OSA legal compliance guides that cover certain state statutes that relate to Minnesota cities. So it covers certain areas such as uh the city's deposits and investments uh contracts and bidding um uh other miscellaneous uh provisions, claims and dispersements. Uh we had one finding to report uh uh this year uh related to the prompt payment of government bills. And the last communication that we have is our communications letter. This includes all required communication in accordance with audit standards. Uh highlights some emerging issues, some future accounting standard changes and also includes a financial analysis as a courtesy that highlight some trend data uh that we'll cover uh here with you next. Uh so the communications letter starts out by taking a look at the general fund uh 5-year history here of revenues, expenditures, as well as the unrestricted portion of fund balance. If all city services were to remain the same, we would still expect that these would increase each year as it as it relates to inflation. And as as you can see here, it has increased uh uh each of the years presented. Uh we also wanted to highlight the unrestricted fund balance as uh compared to annual expenditures. This relates back to the city's fund balance policy that highlights uh those bal those reserve balances as well as OSA's recommendation that cities maintain unrestricted fund balance between 35 and 50% of annual expenditures. Uh that ratio has remained fairly consistent since 2001. Uh that ratio is in compliance with the city's fund balance policies as well as those OSA recommendations. Uh also same information just in in bar graph format there. Uh next wanted to highlight general fund revenues over the last 5 years. Uh here in 2024 we did see an increase in overall revenues of about 9%. Uh majority of that uh increase occurred in the property tax category. Uh that makes up the most significant component of general fund revenues at about 44 uh million. And again uh with the increase in levy, we did see an increase in that category. We also saw increases in charges for services. is there was uh some additional police contracts, right-of-way fees uh and other miscellaneous charges also contributing to that increase for 2024. On the expenditure side, uh we did see an increase uh of about 5 a.5% here for 2024 or about $3.1 million. Uh the most significant uh component of that increase occurred in public safety uh which is the most significant component of general fund expenditures repres representing about 50% of overall general fund expenditures. public safety increased um about 5% with increases uh in contracts. We also saw increases in park and recreation and general government as a as that relates to increases in salaries and benefits. We also wanted to highlight the budget to actual results here for 2024. Uh city council adopted a budget that called for uh $60.8 million in revenue, uh $62.9 million in expenditures, and anticipated a decline in fund balance of about $2.2 $.2 million for the year. Uh actual revenues came in over budget by about $2.5 million or about 4%. Uh majority of that occurred in charges for services and investment income. Those uh areas are budgeted conservatively uh and did come in higher than anticipated and that was offset by uh taxes uh as that was under budget due to delinquent uh delinquent bills. On the expenditure side, those came in about 6% less than anticipated or about $3.9 million. Uh part of that occurred in public works being under budget by $1.3 million, less supplies, uh plowing services here in 2024 than anticipated. Uh public safety, general government did have some vacant positions causing those areas to be under budget as well as some timing of projects and that ultimately uh led to uh um revenues and uh exceeding expenditures and net um transfers out by about $3.9 million. Uh the next chart that we have um starts to highlight the enterprise funds of the city. Uh these present a bit differently in that these are full acral funds. So you see terms like operating revenues and operating expenses as these uh do present a full acrruel basis of accounting to give you uh the information to evaluate whether operating revenues and the related user charges are sufficient to cover the operating expenses of providing that service. Uh the utilities operation did provide um a positive operating income for the year of about 9.4. 4 million. Uh we do present that figure also without depreciation. Depreciation is a non-cash operating expense and uh to give a bit better um indication of cash flow. Uh excluding depreciation did have a surplus of about $15.6 million. We also wanted to highlight the fin uh financial health of these enterprise funds. Uh similar to the general fund where we take a look at fund balance, we take a look at unrestricted net position in these funds. Um the utilities fund is a heavy uh capital asset or infrastructure fund. So uh even though there was a you know a significant surplus for the year there was about $1 million going towards acquisition of capital assets debt service uh with the remaining surplus falling to that unrestricted net position which increased from about 38.9 million uh to about 42 million uh 42.1 million uh dollars here for 2024. Uh next wanted to highlight the aquat aquatic center operations. Um this fund has experienced an operating deficit uh each of the years presented. uh that was at about a $317,000 deficit here for 2024. Uh excluding depreciation, uh still had a deficit there of about $115,000. Taking a look at uh unrestricted net position with the operating results, we did see a decrease in unrestricted net position going from about 1.1 million uh to $944,000 at the end of the year. Next, we have the golf course operations. Uh this one has consistently generated operating surpluses uh fairly consistent here over the last couple years at uh about $56,000 about 1.4 million surplus excluding depreciation. And as a result uh of those operations, we did see increases each of the years presented u at a high point here in uh 2024 with an unrestricted deposition of about $1.5 million. Uh next highlighting the arena operations. Uh this fund has experienced deficit operations for each of the years presented. Uh the deficit for 2024 was about $643,000. Uh again, even excluding depreciation, there was a deficit of about $117,000. And as a result, we continue to see a decline in the unrestricted net position in this fund. Uh declining to a negative uh $250,000 uh here at the end of the year. And uh that uh is is not as great as the deficit that you had seen in that previous chart. uh because there are transfers in from other funds that help to uh kind of resolve part of th those uh deficit operations. Next fund to highlight is the liquor operations. Uh this one um did experience a gross profit of about $4.2 million for the year. Um that's been on the decline since 2022. We have seen across other liquor operations that sales just have uh have decline just with less demand for liquor. Uh but again continuing to see gross profit. Uh we do uh show some comparative information uh in terms of gross profit percentage in terms of how the city's compared uh to those results uh uh comparing 20 2024 to 2023 as well as some comparable liquor operations and the city of Adina continues to have uh strong performance when it comes to that gross profit percentage. Uh this fund also is utilized for transfers out to other funds. Uh and as a result, even though we did see a gross profit, this fund continues to see a decline in the unrestricted net position uh which decreased from 1.3 million to about $700,000. It did provide about a million dollars in transfers uh to other funds here in 2024. So continue to to monitor those levels uh just in terms of what resources might be available in future years. also provided some per capita information uh just to compare the 2023 fiscal year and 2024 uh fiscal year which saw increases in both revenue and expenditures per capita with increases in revenues uh and expenditures. Uh also wanted to highlight the tax capacity certified levy and city tax rate. Uh the tax capacity is tied to market values within the city and the um uh city um um tax levy or certified tax levy um uh is shown there at the bottom and the tax capacity has increased at a greater rate uh uh than um um than the city's tax levy since uh back in 2022. But overall uh uh overall it has increased uh fairly proportionately uh as the city tax rate has remained fairly flat over the past five years. The last chart highlights the debt service uh to maturity. There is one bond with a about a $17,000 uh principal payment due in 2025. However, um fairly um level debt service requirements in those uh subsequent years. That's a high level look at our audit results as well as the financial analysis and actually just like to open it up for any questions. Yeah, Mr. Grace, thank you for that uh that thorough presentation albeit somewhat rapid. It was uh it was a lot of information to absorb in a relatively short period of time and I think all of us have been looking at this uh in preparation for the meeting as well. I'm going to turn to my colleagues to see see if anybody has any questions for you. Colleagues, anybody? Okay. And and the important point I think one of the important points you made early on was that we got a clean audit so to speak uh both with respect to the the federal funds that flowed into the city uh and then the other uh auditing that work that you do. uh you were satisfied with what you saw generally and and continue to uh believe that we're operating at a high level in terms of our financial responsibility. Correct. Yeah. Very limited findings for this year. Right. Director Tal um I just wanted to make also another comment that um this in at the end of 2024 the city ended with a unassigned fund balance like Andy mentioned of $25.4 $4 million. And with that, the um excess fund based off a city fund policy of 3.1 million above the goal range um as identified in the general fund fund policy. Um we will be bringing that to you um in a future council meeting as practice for you to consider as what we do with that. As uh in the policy, it reads usually this fund balance is transferred to the construction fund. So, I just wanted to reiterate that that was in your staff memo as well. Yeah, I noticed that you had about 3.1 million there that we could would typically go to the construction fund, but we might have some other things that you might be recommending from a staff standpoint uh or council has been considering uh things that were important to get done that uh were really kind of we were kind of hamstrung by the budget and and but couldn't do some things we wanted to do because we were trying to be careful with the tax increase. So, correct. Corct. It'll be interesting to have that conversation. Um, now I suppose the middle of July. Yes. Uh, yeah. Starting internally in middle of July, we'll bring it to you in August. Typic typically we we make that decision in the fall, but all of our budget processes are accelerated this year. So, we can we can and should make it a little earlier than that. Okay. And finally, I just want to give a big shout out to the finance department. It's we started this process in December um before the year even ended and so kudos to them for doing a great job. Well, we're perfectly okay with you patting yourself on the back. It's a team effort. We we'll reinforce that. Yeah, we do. You and your team, thank you for the continuing good work you do and and those standards of excellence that you that you require of your staff that get reflected in some of the uh recognition we get on a on a on a national basis. So, thank you for that. Okay, Mr. Grace. Thanks for being here. I think do we need a motion to accept that report or is it just coming in? We need a motion. All right. Do we have a motion to accept the annual comprehensive financial report for the calendar year ended December 31, 2024? So moved. I second. Member Jackson moves. Member Agnu seconds the adoption uh the acceptance of the annual comprehensive financial report for the year ended December 31, 2024. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the motion stated say I. I. I. Opposed. carried. Uh the I did not know we were voting on it because I thought this was information only, but um so I'm going to abstain. Okay. All right. We've got four eyes and one abstension uh for adoption of the annual comprehensive financial report. Let the record so reflect. Uh that's for the period ending December 31, 2024. Uh public hearings is up next. That ends our special presentations and recognitions portion of the agenda. As I mentioned earlier, we've got three public hearings this evening and uh Addison Lewis, our community development coordinator, has the first one and it involves a um request for a comprehensive plan amendment, potential reszoning preliminary plat and site plan for what's called 50 5516 Vernon Avenue. And um you're going to make a staff presentation. And I think you've got the applicants here to present for about 15 minutes. Good to see you again, gentlemen. And then we've got many people in the audience. I think that from the from the dialogue I saw online, there many neighbors that are interested in um in residents in that interested in commenting on the project one way or the other. And so I'll turn now to Mr. Lewis and ask you to proceed. All right. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um so this is a request from Abundance Properties. The request is for a comprehensive plan amendment reszoning site plan and subdivision at 5516 Vernon Avenue in order to replace a single family home with two twin homes for a total of four residential units. Um so the site is located along Vernon Avenue within the Highlands neighborhood uh just about a half mile to the west of the Grand View commercial area. Here is a kind of a zoomed in view of the property here. Um the site is about 38,000 square ft in area. To the east is another single family home um on a similarly sized parcel just over here. Uh to the west are four single family homes on Lane and to the north is Highlands Elementary. Uh here is a view of the property from the street. So here's the home on the subject property here um and the adjacent single family home to the east there. Uh so you may recall that this went through uh the sketch plan review process not too long ago. Uh the project is essentially the same although they have flipped the driveway from the east side just over to the west side and just said that that was uh just a recommendation of their engineer due to the existing grades on site. Um so here's a look at their uh proposed site plan. So as I mentioned the uh driveway flipped to the west side. Um since it is a uh county road, Henipin County Transportation did send us a few comments and just said that um the driveway location appears to be in a a favorable uh location. Um the homes would comply with all standards for the PRD2 zoning district, including setbacks and building coverage. Uh the structures would be set back about 45 ft from the uh the home to the east and almost 60 feet to the nearest home to the west. Um there are also a number of existing trees along the west property line and north property line that would uh remain with the project. Um the applicant has provided some renderings of what the proposed homes would look like. Um I think they have some updated renderings to show you in their presentation as well. Um with this project um the applicant is proposing a town home plat so that um each of the units could be sold individually. So likely these would be owner occupied uh town homes. Um when there is a subdivision, the city is able to collect park dedication fees with um so with this project, there would be about $15,000 contributed to the park dedication fund. Um so with the proposal, um there's a number of requests. Um so the first two are really kind of the key ones. So the first is a comprehensive plan amendment to reguide the site from lowdensity residential to lowdensity attached residential uh to allow for the two double dwelling units or town homes on the site. Um also a reszoning from R1 single dwelling unit district to PRD2 planned residential district 2. Um and site plan review and subdivision. Um so since a comprehensive plan amendment is involved, the city does have complete discretion to approve or deny the project. Um a case can be made both for approval and denial. Um so staff has provided findings for uh each of those uh for council to consider in your packet. So starting with the comprehensive plan amendment. Um as mentioned the request is to go from low density residential to lowdensity attached residential. Um the comprehensive plan describes the lowdensity attached designation as follows. Um so it says it applies to two family and attached dwellings of low densities and moderate heights. This category recognizes the historical role these housing types um of these housing types as transitional districts between single family residential areas and major thoroughares or commercial districts. uh may include single family detached dwellings. Um so as we look at the future land use map and just kind of back out a bit, here's the property uh located along Vernon Avenue. As we look up and down Vernon Avenue, we see um there are a number of different um high density and other medium density and low density attached residential um land uses along the corridor. So it's certainly not uncommon to see other high density or those missing middle housing types located along a corridor like Vernon Avenue. So, when we're looking to amend the comprehensive plan, we want to look at the other goals and policies within the plan. So, I think in your staff report, uh, Director Teague pulled out a number of those, as did, um, our affordable housing development manager, Stephanie Hawinson, in her memo. Um, so I'll just touch on a couple of those here. So, in the land use chapter of the comprehensive plan, we have a goal to create and maintain housing options that serve a diverse range of ages, household types, and economic situations. Uh building on current efforts, seek options that allow for residential redevelopment that is sensitive to the community character and context while expanding options uh for residents. Facilitate the development of new housing that accommodates the needs of people of diverse needs and from diverse backgrounds. Investigate opportunities to accommodate missing middle housing within the city defined as a range of multi-unit or clustered housing types compatible in scale with single family homes that help meet the growing demand for walkable urban living. Um and then additionally in the housing chapter we have a goal to support the development of a wide range of housing options to meet the diverse needs and preferences of the existing and future dining community to promote life cycle housing to support a range of housing options that meet people's preferences and circumstances in all stages of life and to retain and expand housing ownership options while also supporting a balance between ownership and rental households. Um one issue that um we kind of heard some concerns about with this project is traffic. Um, so wanted to point out just that um, traffic along Vernon Avenue, actually between um, Tracy Avenue and Interlockan has actually been steadily declining for about the past 20 years. It's down about 34% from its peak in 2005. Um, and and even with that, this project adding three additional housing units is likely to generate about 24 daily trips. So that's about a quarter of 1% of the total daily traffic on Vernon. So really not a significant amount of traffic on Vernon. Um, so staff is supportive of the request to amend the comprehensive plan for for the reasons shown here on the screen. This is also in the staff report, so I won't read all this. Um, but I'm happy to come back to it if there are any questions. Um, moving ahead to the request for the resoning to PRD2. Um, so the city code outlines the criteria for the city to consider uh when considering a resoning request. Um, so that includes but is not limited to this this criteria here. So is consistent with the comprehensive plan, will not be detrimental to property surrounding the tract, will not result in an overly intensive land use, will not result in undue traffic congestion or traffic hazards, conforms to the provisions of this section and other applicable provisions of this code, provides a proper relationship between the proposed improvements, existing structures, open space, and natural features. Um, Director T has provided some analysis in the staff report for that. Um, so again, happy to answer any questions on that. Um, looking at the zoning map, um, again, here is the subject property here. Um, and just kind of as we zoom out and look at Vernon as a whole, we see there are other, um, PRD districts and, um, R2 zone property. That's for our our duplex zoning, um, all along Vernon. So, not not unprecedented to see those types of zoning districts along this corridor. Um, here's our compliance table that shows how the proposed project compares to the standards of the PRD2 district. Um, so this project would um not require any any uh variances. If the resoning is approved, it would meet all setbacks, building coverage, height requirements. Um, want to note here that with the resoning to PRD2, there's actually a greater setback requirement from the single family homes on both the east and west. Currently, a home could be built um as close as 10 feet to those property lines. With the reszoning to PRD2, it's actually 20 feet. Um the amount of building coverage on the lot is is going to be the same. Um the lot area per dwelling unit with this project is about 9500. So that's actually greater than our minimum for um our single family uh minimum which is 9,000. Um and it's greater than a lot of single family neighborhoods in Indiana like Morningside and Presidents. Would you go back to the prior slide that one back one more? I had a question for you when I saw that. Um, I was looking uh north on Vernon, northeast on Vernon. Uh, the town houses that we approved and that were built uh behind Wells Fargo across from Jerry's. What's that zoning designation for them right in that single family neighborhood? We had to do a PUD for that one. We didn't have a conventional district that would have fit that. Okay. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Yep. Um, so again, staff is supportive of the request for reszoning again for the reasons on the screen. Um, and stated in the staff report. Be happy to come back to this if there's any questions. Um, but staff is is supportive of the project overall. Uh, tonight we're recommending a motion to close the public hearing at noon on Sunday, July 6th, 2025, and continue action to the July 15, 2025 city council meeting. Uh, so with that, be happy to take questions. Otherwise, the applicant team is Let me check with council members to see if they have any questions for you right now based on your presentation. Member Pierce has one for you, at least one. Thank Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Uh could you go back to the zoning map and then just so I kind of get confused between uh some of the designations here like you've got uh PRD2 um maybe a PR3 not sure looking at the blue and so if you could just go from this site you've already covered um the town homes behind Wells Fargo. But if you could follow along, Vernon um and just starting at Hawk Lake and just go through that and tell us what those how those properties are zoned. Um so kind of starting up here, let's You can start at the site and then Yeah, you can start there and go and go west. Yeah. Okay. So to the west. Um so this is the old Vernon town homes. This is um also zone PRD2. These are um detached town homes. So essentially like single family homes, but um they are believe within an H. So those are all PRD2. Yep. Y um and then going a bit further west here. Um so here's the key site. Yeah. Uh that you're familiar with. And then we have a number of multif family buildings there. Uh, I believe those are PRD3 as is uh some of these town homes just to the south here. Okay. Um, the the black is um R2. So that's just like our our duplex zoning district essentially. Okay. Um, so that's what a lot of this is here. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Anything follow on? Uh, no. Sorry. No, I just just trying to understand um what already exists on Vernon and it was a little difficult to tell the difference between PRD2 and PR3. Okay. But you covered it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I thank you for being on this slide because I was kind of digging into this um visual as well and trying to understand um I I don't think that there's any material difference, but I'm curious if you can speak to how we landed on PRD2 as opposed to something like dividing the site into two and having R2 for those two sites. Um, so just thinking about how you landed on uh, however that process works on this as the kind of recommendation or what we're reviewing tonight. Yep. So with the R2 district, it would have required lot um, like street frontage for each of the two buildings and it would have needed to meet the minimum lot width. So it wasn't wide enough. It's not wide enough to do that. So that's why they're kind of stacked with like one building in front and another one deeper within the lot. Um, yeah. So it it it conforms to the PRD PRD2 standards with the R2. It would have required, you know, variances for for lot width and street frontage. Okay. Thank you. No other questions. Other questions for Mr. Add Mr. Lewis just um Okay. All right. You've got the applicant here and I think you've let them know they got about 15 minutes to make a presentation. We'll be happy to hear from them. We've uh we've been through a sketch plan with them. They've been to the planning commission. What was the planning commission recommendation? Incidentally, oh yeah. Um I know there were two that voted against it, otherwise the rest in favor um I think it was 72. Um and you know, you can go back and listen to it. I don't want to speak for them necessarily, but the two that were against it, I think thought that this wasn't transformational enough of change that u that the comp plans um call for for greater change to meet our goals along this corridor and that this wasn't a big enough step. Okay. Member Pierce is reinforcing your your recollection on the vote 7 to two. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Let's bring the folks from Abundance Properties up and please reintroduce yourselves and then we'll look forward to your presentation and then we'll take public testimony. We can we can pass. Thank you. Good to see y'all again. Uh my name is Jordan Crockett. Uh I'm a founder and operations manager at uh Abundance Properties. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We're happy to be here, excited, eager to present for you guys again. I'm Rashad Kennedy, co-founder of Abundance Properties as well as owner of Kenny Property Development General Contracting Company. So, act as in-house for Abundance Properties and uh rounding out the abundance team. I'm Darian Fletcher, co-founder as well. We can go to our mission statement, but I'll explain it. It's to create abundance through the rehab and development of communities while empowering and educating others to do the same. And I see a lot of new faces. So, we actually have a video we did show before, but with the new faces, we want to show it again. It highlights a project that we worked on that really aligns with our mission statement and just what we how we able to impact the community as well with Abundance Properties. Y'all, it's cold out here. [Music] It's cold out here. When we first started this project, it was warm out. The sun was out. We had nice drone shots. None of that's happening now. It's cold, but we still got work to do. We've already done roofing, siding, plumbing, electrical, whatever you can think of, we've done it on this Reese project, and the last part of this is the windows, and that's what's happening right now. We're doing Chicago Avenue and Portland Avenue windows. And uh we getting it done. The crew has been amazing, and this has been a fun project um that we've been doing with PPL. So, what I'm most excited about with the Reed program is how it's allowing emerging developers to add to their portfolio, but not have to take on so much risk with grabbing properties that need a ton of work still. So, this is a great opportunity for people within a community to now be able to continue to invest back into their community and not take on as much risk. Our team here at Abundance Properties have been excited doing this project with PPL because it's bringing forth equitable transformation here in South Minneapolis. The time is now and legacy starts here. All right, that's our our other partner Chanty there. All right. So, well, everybody's here for 5516 Vernon Avenue. So, uh the the general question, why does it work? Um so biggest thing and what you kind of see on the screen is um a this U of M study that uh third party did a study on you know the city of Vidina and what they recommended um and what they did recommend uh as you can see the orange bubbles are areas where they recommend increasing density uh for those specific targeted areas because they're along corridors uh with the bigger purpose purpose of decreasing vehicle miles traveled uh within the community is very interesting. Uh there's actually more people that uh travel into Edina to work than residents that are able to work uh because there's not enough housing uh for residents to work the jobs. Uh and then location, uh it's perfect for the reasons I just mentioned. Um it's along a busy corridor. uh or slightly increasing the density. Uh so it's a perfect fit. Um and if you're looking at land use efficiency, the question, you know, for the city, if you have an acre of land, what would you choose to do with it? Would you choose to just plop a single family there and that's it, or would you say, let's get some more families in there? um especially in that area where there's a school, where there's other commercial spaces around um and similar zoning as well along that same corridor. Uh and then uh the last piece is we have a clear record of success in development uh specifically like we've done for town homes. Um Rashad has a lot of experience there. Uh and then also to mention too, I want to make sure I repeat it. uh we are invested in Edina like we we bought the property. We didn't, you know, wait to see if things would uh would would go this way or that way, but we are clearly here to bring you guys something that aligns with what you're looking for. So, the stars have really aligned here, which is which is awesome. All right, so a little bit about the plan, some specifics. 3,000 square ft per unit, uh five bedrooms, four baths. Quick high level of the floor plan. In the in the basement, we have a finished basement, one bedroom, one bathroom, family room, mechanical room. On the main level, we have a kitchen, dining, uh living room, another bathroom, open concept layout. And on the top level, we have laundry, four bedrooms, and a primary bedroom and primary bathroom as well as a guest uh bathroom as well, owner occupied and buyers. And then environmentally focused building materials and sustainable energy strategy. And we'll get into that on the next slide. Okay. So we got the energy efficient town homes and just kind of bullet pointed some of the um materials on there. LP smart side, aluminum softening fascia, windows and doors, energy efficient features to consider. LED exterior and interior lighting, smart thermostats, and then as far as the mechanicals, tankless, gas, high efficiency water heaters. Um, we equip the garages for electric vehicles. Uh, and then the next slide got there. Oh, okay. Never mind. Let me I got some key key points um just to highlight. Um the materials proposed align with the DINO's environmental initiatives uh sustainably sourced, energy efficient and durable. And then reduces energy consumption for homeowners leading to lower utility costs and a smaller carbon footprint. Again, kind of highlighting the um tankless high efficiency water heaters um the furnaces high efficiency um things of that nature. All right. And these are the updated renderings there. Um proud of these. I I think they look pretty. But um uh yeah, so you can kind of see the the breakdown of the homes where I think there was one misconception last uh in in the planning commission meeting uh was that people were thinking there was like no green, no yards, and it was like straight concrete or something. And as you can see, this is very much a single uh uh you know, a a single family type of feel uh where everybody gets a backyard. Um everybody has space. Um you know, there's additional trees and and um and everything. So, it's it's going to be a nice and and pleasant space uh for families. So in summary, um Edina's comprehensive plan, the climate action plan, uh everything is clearly leading to increasing density in specific targeted areas. Um the location, the size of land, everything is perfect. Uh you know, for getting more families uh into Edina. Uh and then as I mentioned, we are invested in Udana. We have bought the property. The stars have aligned for this. We're not coming in here saying we want to do, you know, 20 40 units and uh or we want to rent it out even or we want to Airbnb it. We're we're actually coming in to say, "Hey, we want to partner with you guys on something you're looking for and we want to get owner occupied individuals into the community." Um so, Thank you. All right. All right. Anybody have council questions for Mr. Crockett, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Fletcher? This time member, I believe the last time you were here, we were talking about slab architecture and now there's a basement. Okay. I actually I do like that because I worry about storms and I think I brought that up the last time. What does that do to your price point? So the the price Rashad might be able to speak to it a little bit more, but um our as far as like our goal, our goal is to try to keep it under a million is kind of our goal, but uh it has increased with uh with that and some other variables too uh market wise. Thank you. Other questions the gentlemen at this point in time? All right. So the the the renderings that you showed us, you know, when I looked at the uh the CAD drawings that you had before, it's always hard to get a idea of what what are the buildings really going to look like. So what you're showing us here is the the most recent renderings of the of the buildings. Yes. The upgraded elevations. Okay. All right. Very good. Uh member Jackson, uh yes, thank you. I thought of a question. Tell us about it looks like you're we're going to be losing some um heritage trees. Tell us what your plan is for the tree replacement. Good thought. I I do know there's a robust like system with the city of Edina just based on uh past projects I've done in Edina. Definitely got to take the next steps work with I think his name is Luther. Um and I think there's another team member we've done. Um, we haven't gone in super depth as far as like even getting that exact plan from them. Um, but we know about, you know, there's going to be some trees that are going, there's a lot of dead trees that are currently there as well. So, we'll get an arborist out there to basically grade all the trees and give us, okay, these are dying anyways and they do need to go. Um, and then kind of continue to take uh those steps to get the finalized plan from Luther and um, I guess that whole department. Okay. Thank you. On the tree issue, uh Mr. Lewis said uh that the trees that I think they're all conifers along the west side of the property that are but that neighborhood with that's on a culde-sac, those are all staying as I understand it. Is that right? Yeah, that is correct. On the on the rendering, um can't really tell it from the rendering. Yeah, I was going to say the arch actually didn't um add that tree line um because we were kind of running up on on time. Uh but that is like on our landscaping plan. Okay. Okay. Good to know. All right. Well, gentlemen, stand by. We may have some more questions for you. This is a public hearing matter and we're going to have people from the community testify here and so um there may be some questions that you can answer as we go through the testimony. So, go ahead and sit down now. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks. All right. As I mentioned, this is a public uh hearing matter. I'm going to open it up now for public testimony. Uh as Director Benerro indicated at the very beginning of the meeting. And just as a reminder, you'll have three minutes. Uh and if you don't have anything that you want to show the council, then use a side podium. I think the uh speaker quality is probably a little bit better without using the handheld. Give us your name and address. You'll see a yellow light come on when you've got 30 seconds left. And we encourage you to try to wrap up your comments right on time. So, we treat everybody uh pretty much the same here uh in terms of the time allocated for testimony. And then we've been um handling these matters in a way where we keep the record open uh for about a week or so afterwards. In this case, the staff is recommending that we close the public uh hearing part of it on Sunday, July 15th. So, uh, there'll be extra time for people to send in written comments as well, uh, or verbally leave messages at city hall, uh, before we take the matter up again, uh, at our, um, I think our July 15th meeting. So, I don't know what that prior Sunday is. I think I see two dates here that are the same. Um, okay. All right. So, uh, folks, come on up and, uh, let us know what your thoughts are. And, um, as I said, you'll have three minutes. Hello, my name is Sean Boland. I live at 5513 Goya Lane and I've been a resident of Dina for the last 27 plus years. I'm here to voice my objection to the amending of the Adina comprehensive plan to allow for the resoning of the property from 5516 Vernon Avenue from what I describe as single family to multifamily. Just a few facts uh that I'm aware of. Vernon Avenue is a Henipin County maintained road. The speed limit by that property is 40 miles per hour, but I'm going to tell you, everybody's going faster than that. There are over 300 single family homes that I'm aware of in the Highland neighborhood, and all of them, as I understand it, are zoned single family. Many of the properties in the Highland neighborhood, I believe, have similar or more acreage than 5516 Vernon Avenue. And as I understand it, this will be the first time the Highland neighborhood would have a spot reszoning of a property from single to multifamily. I live there. I hear what the gentleman from the city said that, you know, Vernon Avenue is decreasing in traffic. Well, my real lived experience and everybody I know that lives in that community that tries to access Vernon does not share that opinion. Now, I experience it every day. I strongly suspect uh he probably doesn't live on Vernon Avenue, which is fine. Um that becomes an issue for everybody living there and adding more homes will town homes will just increase that. I read the policy, the uh comprehensive uh plans policy. I went through it and to me I I understand what has been said. I don't really I'm not convinced this policy is uh or this plan is worth reszoning and and you guys approving it. Couple other things. Accessing Vernon Avenue right now is difficult. Accessing it and trying to go east on Verdon Avenue is more difficult. Adding 20 bedrooms and four more town homes is not going to make that any easier. It's going to affect the traffic flow, pedestrian movement, bike lanes. A lot of people use bike lanes and walk there to school for their kids and it increases safety concerns. Nothing's really been said about the or I think it had been mentioned the property values. Um I I disagree with that. If you're going to live next to a town home or to a duplex or whatever, however you want to describe it, that's going to affect your value. And no matter how that's said, it will. The reasoning proposal calls for the removal of 14 mature oak trees that I maybe one or two of them aren't fun or living or growing very well. That cannot be replaced. These are mature trees. You can put other trees in there, but taking down 14 oak trees doesn't make any sense to me. you're going to increase an awful lot of surface area, uh, which is going to be an issue for creating the foundations and then the driveway and then the parking. I don't see that as an environmentally good impact. I see that as a negative impact. That also concerns me. We have uh housing zoning in Adina and multi-ousing zoning in Adina. It was pointed out, but if you look at that, none of that is in the Highland neighborhood. There's only, as I understand, single family homes in Highland neighborhood. This will be the beginning of changing that. It'll change the nature and character of that neighborhood. Everyone I've talked to does not agree with that. Everyone I've talked to says it's already hard to access Vernon Avenue. This will not make it any easier. In fact, if approved, I don't believe the request for this spot resoning will uh will benefit the public. I think it'll negatively in fact impact the Highland neighborhood and it feels to most who live in that neighborhood very arbitrary and the beginning of altering the character and the nature of the Highland neighborhood. And boy, I need you to have you wrap up. You're over. Uh I humbly request that you do not approve this. Thank you. You know, folks, we don't do that here. We've got a lot of people in this room that have uh differing opinions. We want to respect everybody's opinion. So, no clapping, no demonstrations, no talking out loud or shouting. This is a respectful environment where we want to make sure that everybody's voice is heard and everybody's voice matters. So, none of this uh none of this affirmative sort of or or even booing. You know, if somebody has a differing opinion from you, let's respect each other. Let's respect each other and and create an environment here where it is polite and not demonstrative the way we just heard. And my apologies for not telling you that in advance because sometimes these can be emotional issues. But please, please, let's treat each other with civility. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Robin Johnson. I'm an attorney with the law firm of Malerson Gun Martin and I'm here on my ha behalf of my client uh Tony Gia Gian Cockus. He's the owner and resident of the home single family home located at 5504 Shantry Road in the city of Adina. We did submit via email to the council and to the mayor uh yesterday our written objections. uh you all should have copies of those and I would request that you review it because it's going to make my points here in a lot more detail. But um as we're aware through the prior discussion on this proposed comp plan amendment and resoning um the applicant seeks to change the comp plan C plan comprehensive plan to change the designation from low density residential to low density attached residential. A as the city's staff report notes and and it was highlighted actually in the city's presentation here tonight. the historical role of lowdensity attached residential as transitional housing between single family residential areas in major roads or commercial properties. You could see that when when um the city uh recommendation report showed you the zoning map, the areas that have previously been designated uh for town homes or multi-unit structures, excuse me, are on the major thoroughfare of Vernon Avenue or they are transitional with commercial properties uh to the east of the proposed site. uh as previously mentioned uh by the first resident who spoke uh what this plan amendment is and and the reasonzoning request um the proposed reasonzoning is prohibited spot zoning that's illegal under Minnesota law. It's been rejected by M Minnesota courts repeatedly. Uh courts have nullified plan amendments and variances for this spot zoning which creates an island of non-conforming use in the middle of single family residential use. It's incompatible um with the use and zoning of surrounding parals. Uh we would request that the plan not be amendment and that amendment of the plan for a single use and a single parcel is contrary to the purpose of a comprehensive plan and sets very problematic precedent for continued plan amendments. Um that's all I have. I would just reiterate my request that you review our uh written objections. Thank you. Thank you, Council Johnson. Yeah, sure. We got a lot of folks here. Feel free to come up. Good evening, council and mayor. My name is Susan Carlson and I live at 5508 Goya Lane. Edina Highlands neighborhood is comprised, as we know, of 300 plus single family residential zoned homes. They're nestled into beautiful hills with lakes and lowlands, abundant wildlife, green space, parks, playgrounds, winding roads, circles, culde-sacs, which promote a very peaceful, safe place with a feeling of community. Again, as another resident mentioned, I'm not aware of any multifamilyzoned homes in Edina Highlands. The proposed resoning would alter the very essence of Edina Highlands, and our community is made up of families who value privacy, open spaces, and the quiet atmosphere that comes with single family homes. The introduction of four fivebedroom town homes would lead to a denser, more crowded environment, which would result in a less peaceful, more urbanized setting, which contradicts the values and lifestyles that drew us to this neighborhood in the first place. As proposed, um, densely populating this.8 8 acre lot with four five- bedroomedroom 2 and a half story town homes, excessive concrete, demolition of 14 oak trees will change the character and existing beauty of this highly soughtafter neighborhood. Multi-family developments belong in Grand View, Blake Road, Bredesen, Southdale, uh west on Vernon extension to 169 in Londereerry. And when I say belong there, it's because that's where multifamily housing already exists and it's expected without zoning changes or the amendment to the comprehensive plan. In past meetings, I've heard commissioners speaking of with density comes uh usage of mass transit. We have no bus service on Vernon, Pass, Jerry's, or Speedway. Planning commissioners have also stated that this resoning feels random because of its spot zoning nature. So resoning to build four town homes sets a precedent that will negatively impact surrounding property owners, disrupting community character, strain infrastructure in our single family community. It undermines the effectiveness of a comprehensive plan and will create ad uh an advantage for one property owner at the expense of the entire Highlands community. The reasoning of this selective outlier requiring Nina's comprehensive plan to be amended has no public benefit. After speaking with many concerned residents, I respectfully request that the resoning for 5516 Vernon remain single family R1. We strongly believe that a change in zoning from R1 to PRD2 would have a negative impact on the character, safety, and quality of life in our community. And um we ask that the concerns be considered and respected um before proceeding with any spot reszoning. And uh M. Carlson, I need to have you wrap up. Okay. We are the ones that live there and um will bear the long-term effects on this. And so I hereby strongly oppose the resoning. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Um, my name is Carol Wahberg and I live um at 5512 Goya Lane. Um, and I haven't prepared anything. I'm just coming sort of just uh off the cuff. Um I my concerns I I I'm not actually violently opposed to um there being town houses there. Um I am very concerned with the town houses that are being proposed. Um, I don't think there are very few houses anywhere that have five bedrooms and four bathrooms in one small space. Um, and unless they are really monster homes. And so I think that and and when I see the plan for these town houses, um there are very few windows that I could see. It looked very um unappealing and very unattractive and um I don't see how that's a benefit to anyone actually um to the people who might potentially live there. Um because why it they look to me now I don't know this but they look to me like they're being rather cheaply built um and unattractive and aren't something for um the benefit of people in the long term that um they are going to after a few years look pretty poor and I don't think that that really benefits anyone. on not the people who live in them. The people who live in them. You want people to come who will take pride in the ownership of the place that they live in, who will keep it up, who will become part of the neighborhood, not be a blot on the neighborhood. And I and I I I just fear that because I have seen other places where that has happened. So, if we're going to have town homes there, let's have really, really thoughtful process go into what those town homes should look like and be like. Thank you, Miss Walter. Anyone else wish to come forward? Good evening, Mayor Havland and council members. My name is Steve Brown. I live at 5528 Halifax Lane. And I have two points this evening. First, I urge you to support this project. There's a housing crisis that most experts agree can only be solved by increasing supply. Adina needs more housing. Adina is not exempt from the housing crisis. It needs more types of housing. The people who live in these neighborhoods are going to get older and as they do, they will decide they want to downsize and they will look for other options within Edina. This project provides both more housing and more types of housing. There'll be three incremental homes in the form of two twin town homes in place of the single family uh home that's there today. Obviously, the key issue for this project is whether to get a comprehensive plan amendment. I think the planning commission held an excellent debate on this issue. If you haven't listened to it, I urge you to do that. I agree with their decision that a comprehensive plan amendment is appropriate. I agree with their conclusion that the requested change in density is reasonable and the question change in density amounts to a distinction without a difference as commissioner Alhire suggested. I agree with the many commissioners who noted that this arterial corridor already has many areas of higher density and has long been identified in multiple city studies as a corridor suitable for more density. I hope that similar projects will come forward for adding appropriate density in appropriate parts of the city and I hope you will continue to approve those as well. Second, there's the ongoing issue of how we're going to address this question of density on arterial roads throughout the city. I want to pick up on some comments made by Commissioner Teague in response to a question about the process that would be used to address this issue. Director Teague suggested that it's likely there'll be a small area plan developed for the proposed areas of change. I don't know if this is the process you will adopt. You've studied this issue many times. You may feel like we've studied this to death. But if you decide you're going to use the small area process, then I suggest that you need to start very soon. I served on the Lincoln London Dair small area plan working group. That process was initiated in September of 2023. Work began in May of 2024 after selection of the uh consultant and identification of who the working group was going to be. and it concluded about a year later. This is an 18month process. If you start that project now, it'll be completed in December of 2026. That is right in the middle of the next comprehensive plan process. That will begin in 2026 and it will conclude in August of 2028. So, Mr. Brown, I need to have you wrap up your comments. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank you for considering both those requests. Yeah. Thank you. Anyone else? Good. Good evening. Uh my name is Gina Lungren. I live at uh 5617 Johnson Drive. I do support the resoning of 5516. I like the previous speaker believe we need more housing in Edina. My personal preference is that it's smaller and less a few less bedrooms, so it's more affordable to allow people more options to get into the community. I feel that's our responsibility as residents as we live in community together. Um, I guess that's all I want to share with you. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Miss Lingren. Anyone else? Well, you're thinking about that. Do we have anybody online? I do not have anyone online at this time. All right, we've got a couple more folks coming up yet. Good evening. My name is Ralph Sickert. I live at 4311 Cornelia Circle. I'd just like to comment a couple things about tonight's project. Uh, I I don't live in the neighborhood, but when people talk about a million-doll price point, that's not affordable middle. When somebody talks about three stories, five bedrooms, that's not downsize. the residents who have been in the neighborhood talk appropriately about the precedence that the precedent that will be set by changing the zoning in this. And the question you need to ask yourselves and you you've handled it previously with respect to the train noise for other residents. Now, what you're looking at is changing the function of the property that sits next to them. And so, for those residents who said, "Oh, gee, I I didn't think I was going to be next to a train and now I've got to listen to noise." For all the residents who've been there for 20, 30 years and now are saying, "Well, wait a minute. I didn't think I was going to be living next to affordable housing and I didn't see that coming to my neighborhood." Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Zucker. You may be the last voice here. I'm not sure, but we'll see. Thank you. I've learned a lot at my first city council meeting, Chase Jonas, 5200 Airshshire Boulevard. Um, I am here to express my objection to the proposed resoning of 5516 Vernon Avenue. I grew up in Edina Highlands neighborhood and uh my wife and three children now reside in Edina Highlands. Um, and I just believe that the resoning would have an adverse impact to the neighborhood and the broader community. Um, although the renderings are nice, I think they're inconsistent with the look and feel of the neighborhood as it currently stands. And so I uh oppose this um this project. Thank you for your time, Mr. Mayor. Yeah. Thank you, Chase. Anyone else? All right. know the uh Oh, all right. Good evening. Good evening. Uh Wayne Collins, 5532 Vernon Avenue, corner Vernon Goya. I'd like to first take this opportunity to thank the uh men and women of the police department who saved my life two years ago when I had a MI, a heart attack. and um they had saved my life. So, I just want to take the opportunity to say u I'm truly grateful for that. Uh I did two uh campaigns for the United States Census Bureau. One was inner city. The other one was a suburb with the same population, the same affluence of Adina. And on my forms, I had single family dwellings and multiple family dwellings. And uh have after having canvased those neighborhoods and spoken to the people who lived in those communities, the general consensus was multifamily units combined with single family dwellings is a very slippery slope. They were not, generally speaking, they were not pleased to have the two combined and they wished it hadn't happened. And I had to make note and record that for the federal government for the Census Bureau's uh recordings. And um I just think this is a very heavy-handed way of telling the people of the Highland neighborhood that we know what's best for you. where the majority of the people having canvased the neighborhood to bring this to their attention do not feel this is the best for them. And I hope you will take their feelings and um strong feelings on uh opposing putting these in amongst the single family dwellings. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Collins. I think you've been here before and thank the PD. I think you're always good about thanking the PD and of our our emergency medical people. If I'm wrong on that, thanks for being here tonight and telling us that. Um, anyone else? Okay, I'm going to turn back to the council now. Um I think there may be some questions here but I think uh one of the things we should do is think about uh acting on the motion that's suggested by staff and that is to um what is that date again? I Sunday July 6th. Okay. Yeah. Um the motion would be to close the public hearing at noon on Sunday, July 6th and then continue the action to the July 15, 2025 city council meeting. We only meet once in July because of the 4th of July. So that's why it's um looks like there's a bit of time between the uh sessation of public input uh and the uh council acting on the matter. Uh nonetheless, staff has that recommendation. Is there anyone on the council that wishes to make that motion that parrots what the staff is recommending? So move. I second. All right. Member Pierce moves member Agnu seconds the uh notion that we close the public hearing. The motion that we close the public hearing at noon on Sunday, July 6, 2025 for further input and continue the action to the July 15, 2025 city council meeting. Uh any further discussion on that? Okay. All those in favor of the motion is opposed say I. I. I. opposed carried. The motion is approved and the matter will you can folks uh or anybody listening in they can provide information to us at the city council uh until noon on July 6, 2025 and then we'll take this up at the July 15, 2025 city council meeting. Um there probably were a couple of questions that came up. I think some legal related and I don't know if you member Jackson did you want to ask member attorney Kendall anything? Yeah, I actually have two questions, but I think that's a good question to start off with. Um, so, Attorney Kendall, um, is this spot illegal spot zoning if we were to approve this in your opinion? Uh, mayor, councel, in my opinion, this would not be legal spot zoning. There's a there's a case on point, Rochester Association of Neighbors versus City of Rochester. It's a very similar situation. The court, Supreme Court of Minnesota in that case held that it was not spot zoning. And the reason it was not is what it was similar in character. There's there's three criteria that that compromised spot zoning and I won't go into all of it now, but this does not meet all three criteria and it was a very similar situation. The court found that it did not. I'd be happy to follow up with a legal opinion to the council if you would care. That would be helpful. I think you know the case maybe even the case look at it. Terrific. And member Jackson go ahead. Yes. So, I this is a question for the abundance properties guys. Um, have you done town homes before? And if so, can we go drive around and look at them? Yes, ma'am. There, please come up to the microphone. Just come up to the side microphone. One of the sides. Yeah, that's great. Yes, ma'am. We have in Egan, Minnesota, and then uh Maplewood. Right now, we're doing 16. And then we also have a track record of doing single family houses in the D as well from $1.1 million price point homes to $1.8 8 million price point homes. So, as far as just like the comment of the exterior and whatnot, you know, this is very preliminary. You know, we have over half a million dollars invested. Um, we can only invest so much until we know that we're getting a go-ahad. So, you know, once, you know, God willing, things go according to plan, then at that point, we'll go ahead and um make it look prettier, I guess you could say. Yeah. Um would would you mind giving us the address in Egan where we could just go see the town homes if we wanted to? Yes. So I will say that those will uh be different when it comes to the aesthetic appeal that was um an existing association and you had um existing design standards that you had to adhere to. Those had a price point of I think the highest one was 384 sold for and the lowest one was 355. Okay. So quite a bit of difference. Yeah, quite a bit of difference. So I wouldn't say they're comparable. Okay. Um and then same in u maybe with the 16 that we're doing there. Those are price points 385. Okay. Yeah. Okay. But definitely I mean 4165 Old Tilly Memorial Highway and then other ones in Maplewood 1995 11th Avenue. That's one of the four unit buildings, but again I wouldn't I wouldn't say they're comparable other than just being town houses. Okay, great. Thank you. If I could just follow up on that. Um I would ask you to just submit a list of addresses to us. Um, and they don't necessarily have to be comparable to what you're building. Doesn't have to be town homes versus single family homes or what have you. I think one of the comments that was made is to just understand the look and feel. And so I think if you provide it um just take some time to think about what to to provide us and then just give us a list of those addresses would be great. Definitely. A follow on question for attorney Kendall too was um years I've been doing this now um folks some of the folks are concerned about and and rightly so I think does this would a potential reasonzoning along uh Vernon Avenue create a precedent that could cause things to change within a single family neighborhood uh that's that's full of single family homes I think is basically what they meant. mayor. Uh, in my opinion, it would not. So, the the council has discretion with respect to zoning matters. So, one particular reasoning application does not dictate the outcome of future resoning applications. There's the council has a lot of discretion when it comes to zoning and would not be required to reszone other parcels because it required it reszone this parcel. No, that's my experience over the years, too. It just wouldn't be precedent setting should the council entertain it. Um, member Agnu. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, thank you again for your presentation tonight. Uh, I was kind of flipping back and forth between this one and the one that we had received previously because I I have noticed some changes to the overall design. Um, beyond just flipping where the driveway is. Um, I noticed it looks like the overall square footage has remained the same, but I'm also hearing that there's a basement now as well as an additional bedroom. It looks like it went from a what were fourbedroom units to five bedroomedroom units. Um I didn't see in our materials an internal what do you call that plan of like the site to understand like what's the layout of the bedrooms. Floor plan. A floor plan. Thank you. Um do you have that? Is that something that you could provide to us? And can you speak generally to um how you're able to accommodate five bedrooms, four bathrooms within 3,000 square ft? Absolutely. Yes, we do have those plans, those four plans. And then just a high level, I'll start with the basement that has a family room that has a bedroom, and it has your mechanical room, utility room, and then on the main level, you have your kitchen, your dining, your living space, your powder bathroom, open concept, regularly walk-in, wide open. And on the top level, you have four bedrooms. You have a primary bedroom with a primary bathroom. You have your laundry. And then you also have a guest bathroom. Thank you. Did the overall um width and length of each unit decrease with the addition of the basement? Because when I think it was 3,000 foot before, 3,000 foot now, but an additional floor, I would expect each floor got smaller. Did this overall increase the amount of green space you were able to to accommodate on the lot or or how did that change um when you think about the site as a whole the overall look and feel? Great question. As far as the exact footprint, I know it did change. I don't know at the top of my head the exact dimensions of it. Um I do know when we created the basement, you know, going from slab on grade to finished basement, that's where we got most of our square footage. Um it was quite a bit less if I'm not mistaken before. or I think it was maybe closer to two. Um I don't remember off the top of my head, but I I think it was significantly less. Um I don't believe it was the same square footage. Okay. Um and again, we just kind of get some highle estimates in in our reports. Um because for me and and I overall, you know, I think in the sketch plan, I I'm excited about this. I think this is a cool opportunity. And at the same time, um, one of the things that was most exciting to me was kind of meeting that middle ground on the price point. Um, so I don't recall exactly. I think we were more in like the 700 uh,000 range when we spoke about this last time. I know you didn't yet have a price point, so it was kind of uh, vague at that point. But now to hear that we're in the milliondoll price range, um it does just kind of speak to what we sometimes refer to as missing middle. And I know that there are a couple of definitions of that. Um but looking at that price point of what we're trying to target for where we're increasing density across our our community is one of those things I have a concern about with the changes directly within this project. So, can you just provide a little bit of that narrative of the decisions that you made um that increased the price and why you think that is the right decision for this site within the community and why you think that there is a market for these kinds of units? Yeah, great question. I would say one the data. Um I'd start with that looking seeing what other town houses are available with seeing down the road seeing what they had. um probably less than half a mile, maybe half a mile. And then um other new construction town houses that are currently on the market that are selling and that are um being sold and as well as you know on the market. Um all had finished basements. Uh some even had elevators and just even feedback from realtors. Um the overall was finishing the basement. Um again looking at what people want, what's selling. Um I don't think we've seen anything slab on grade. So for that reason it was okay the people of Vina want finished basement because they're buying properties with finished basement. So okay let's not reinvent the wheel if there's nothing with slab on grades maybe we don't go with slab on grade. So yes that did um involve doing a basement you know which increases cost you know more excavation more concrete foundation walls footings all all that um all those things of that nature. And that's just starting with the beginning the excavation. So um the goal is to stay under a million. Um, that's what we're aiming for. Um, but as far as like the decision to go with the finished basement, basically just from the data and what seeing what people wanted and what's selling. Thank you, member Pierce. I think you just answered one of my questions. Um, so thank you for uh the presentation. Um, and I appreciate the answer to the question that you looked at the data. Um I normally um will uh just advise developers um that you have to take the feedback that you get and assess that information for the best project that you can put forward because we will add cost to a project based on the things that we want. Um and so I would definitely encourage that dialogue if you're hearing things. Um, and I was originally thinking that you switched to a basement from slab based on comments from the last presentation. Uh, but it is great that you looked at data. Um, the only other thing I'll say about that is we we did have a conversation with a realtor that suggested one of the products that's missing in Edina is Firstful Living. Um and so that is a project a product that we don't uh have a lot of in Edina. Um and so I would take that as feedback. And then the um one of the comments earlier um I actually like to think about it this way that any dina um rather than us trying to prescribe what type of housing we want to see this concept of we need um different options at different price points throughout Edina to serve the people who want to live, work and play here. Um and so focusing on the data to figure out what that sweet spot is is um definitely appreciated. Um and then the only other comment I will make um I live less than a thousand feet from this site. Um and so I I walk by there um quite often. Um I think it's a it's serving a need. I think it's a good uh project. Um, however, you're early in the in the process still even though you're at the public hearing. Um, you can make the product better. And one of the ways to do that is listening to uh some of the thoughts and concerns of uh the neighbors and I know you've you've you've done that. Uh, but continuing to try to engage in that way to see if there are other things that you can add um to to um make it a better product. an even better product for the community. Thank you, member Pierce. Member Jackson. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I thought of another question. This is actually for Mr. Lewis. Um, so our abundance homes team here looked at the study from the University of Minnesota about density along Vernon. Um, and I really appreciate that. So, thank you gentlemen for doing that. um going from a single family home to four homes, is that the type of density that would fit within that University of Minnesota study to bring back um transit along Vernon? Because I know I've had uh questions from people in the neighborhood who used to be able to ride the bus postco there's no bus. Is this the type of density that would enable us to bring to convince uh Metroransit to bring buses back to Western Edina? Yeah. So maybe I'll start off giving you some good news. Um Metro Transit is actually going to reintroduce service that does go all along Verden um sometime between now and and 2027 um when the new light rail um starts up and it'll connect to the Opus station. Um it'll be I think three um you know three times in the morning, three times in the PM. So it was just going to start as commuter service essentially. Um but they will be bringing that back. And and yeah, if if if Andrew Scipion was here, he could he could just explain this a little bit better than I can, but um Metro Transit essentially um you know puts all the Twin Cities into their their market areas and that determines kind of the level of of service that they provide in terms of you know frequency and um of routes and things like that. Um and they put areas into these different categories based on a formula. And the formula is essentially broken down by um population density, employment density, um the density of like the street network and then also the car ownership rates, but twothirds of that formula is based on population density. So, um, to bring back, um, you know, to encourage or incentivize Metro Transit to bring back, um, transit service along Vernon, probably the most effective thing that the city could do would be to increase density within a quarter mile of the corridor. Um, they do recommend a minimum of 10 dwelling units an acre for just local bus service. So, this is even falling below that. Um, but it is, you know, an improve, I guess, a a step towards that. Okay. Terrific. Thank you. That's very helpful. All right. Thank you. Um any other questions from council members? I don't think I have anything further. All right. Uh well, that concludes our uh oral testimony here. And so, folks, I just a reminder if you want to submit something supplementally, you've got until the 6th, noon on the 6th to get something into city hall. And we will move on now to the next public hearing matter that we have in front of us, which involves um uh some requests for consideration by the council of some borrowing to do some street reconstruction work. Our finance director is coming back up along with our public finance advisor Nick Anhut from Ellers. So, Director Tao and Nick Anhut from Ellers are here to talk about what we need to be doing from a consideration standpoint to continue our uh methodical reconstruction of streets in Edina and a few other things. So, director, welcome back. And Mr. Anut, nice to see you. Jennifer, is there a way for me to get my notes up in that split screen thing? I don't think it's okay. All right. Good evening again. Um, all right. So, just you've heard of this project before. Um, it's been brought to you many times by engineering director Chad Milner. So what it is tonight is um our purpose is uh conducting a public hearing on the proposed adoption of a street reconstruction under Minnesota state statute section 475.58 subdivision 3B and the proposed uh issuance of city general obligation bonds to fund this street reconstruction plan. Uh Nick will talk more about the bonding portion of it, but I just want to touch on in terms of the project. So, um this is a city project uh between the city, the county, and the state to replace the bridge over Highway 100 and Vernon Avenue as well as uh over the Canadian Pacific Kansas uh railroad. The over pro overall project will improve the intersection at interlock interlockan Boulevard, Gus Young Lane, Arcadia Avenue, and Highway 100 on and off ramps. Um these are some of the project goals that I have up on the slide. Ultimately, this project will improve safety and mobility for all users and eliminate redundant access ramps along with all of these other project goals. Uh the project had successful bid opening on March 13th of this year. Uh two bids were submitted from Ames Construction and CS McCraen as reported previously by our city engineer. Uh factoring in indirect costs such as engineering and finance, the table shows the current project estimate of about 28.2 million. The city of Edina is responsible for 15.4 million of the project cost. Um and I have here and of 11.2 of it is coming from either the city, county or state to fund this project. Um previously the next slide this is our the city staff recommendation in terms of uh the funding options. We don't need the exact numbers right now. Uh but in previous conversations uh we had conversations with council on utilization of tiff account balances to hopefully fund some of the budget needs for this project. Um, and so with that, staff is uh re reporting that there is a $ 1.5 million cash balance within Centennial Lakes TIFF that could be used to for the purpose of this project, which can ultimately lower the need of city bonding. But that discussion is still to be had. So with that being said, that is the cost side of the project, and I will turn it over to Nick to provide you the bonding side. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Nick Anut with Ellers and Associates, financial adviserss to the city. The city's ability to issue debt rests within Minnesota statutes and the powers that it grants uh the city council. Um it does grant the city council under certain circumstances to provide its general obligation pledge towards uh these forms of debt. That means the city's full faith and credit backing behind the bonds that you'll use basically every financial means necessary to to make sure you're paying back those debts. Uh the city currently enjoys a AAA credit rating from both standard andors and Moody's investor service that's based on a history of financial operations uh economic growth and a robust tax base that you all represent. That credit rating um is a observation from those entities about the creditworthiness of the city and its general obligation pledge. And that credit rating that indication of the market allows the city to help secure the lowest cost financing that's available in the uh debt marketplace when it comes to projects. Um we haven't relied on this type of a process before at the city for other types of projects uh because we haven't needed this type of an exception. This project does require an exception because there, you know, typically with your street reconstruction program, there are assessments that are assigned to those projects. And under the statute, as long as you go through those assessment proceedings, which do include public hearings and things of the like and using those revenues to pay back the bonds, um the council has the authority to issue debt for those projects without any additional proceedings. Um, same can be said for utility projects where the source of revenue to repay the debt is utility revenues. Well, in this case, uh, the 3 million that was mentioned on the previous slide would be intended to be repaid by a tax levy, uh, as the source of funds that potentially is available to repay that debt. Uh, there are no assessments associated with this project. So there are exceptions uh under the statute to be able to authorize debt using a tax levy as long as you go through certain processes. And one of those is the uh subdivision that uh PA quoted uh under chapter 475 and the issuance of street reconstruction plan bonds. So subject to a public hearing process which we're holding tonight, the council can seek authorization to issue an amount of debt supported by a tax levy to fund certain street projects. There's a whole laundry list of the types of projects that do qualify. This project uh this uh reconstruction would be one of those. In order to do that, the council needs to hold a public hearing, receive public testimony. It also needs to adopt what's called a street reconstruction plan specifically for bonding that identifies a five-year projection of the other types of projects it intends to fund using this bonding mechanism, this specific statutory authority. Um, if the council does choose to move forward after holding the public hearing and adopting that plan through a resolution, it also opens up a 30-day what's referred to as a reverse referendum period that allows the populace to come forward or voters within the city of Edina to file a valid petition as long as they represent at least 5% of the turnout of the last general election um to make the matter subject to a citywide referendum instead of having the council have the authority to approve the debt. So, we're initiating that process tonight. Um, as P mentioned, you're already underway on this project and considering some other types of sources that can be utilized for it. But, uh, the matter is to provide authority to issue uh approximately $3 million of debt to help fund or bridge the funding for this project. Um, this is the only project that is intended in the in the city's CIP as it currently stands right now. The city has forecasted other projects that you are considering in the future over the next 5 years. As I mentioned, that street reconstruction bonding plan needs to identify specifically other projects that you intend to need this bonding authority for. This is the only one that falls within that category. And so tonight, we are holding a public hearing to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds to provide funding for this project in the amount not to exceed $3.05 million. Why that additional 50,000? That's to cover financing costs. There is there is a plan that has been presented within the the packets uh for the council identifies again just just this one project is in terms of need for bonding. There's also forecast of what the anticipated repayment might cost in terms of the market. We do observe that uh we expect that these bonds would price in somewhere in the 3 to 4% uh range and there are estimates of the levy that impact that would be um if we were to price these bonds today. This is the a levy amount expected to repay these bonds. So again, in consideration of the city's policy, I'm going to continue this uh or suggest continuing uh this public hearing, allowing additional public testimony. And then in the future, potentially July 15th, the council will be asked to consider a resolution to adopt that 5-year plan and uh seek authorization for up to $3.05 million in general obligation bonds specifically to fund the trunk highway 100 interchange project. Uh if the council does move ahead at that point in time, it will initiate a 30-day reverse referendum process that would carry forward into August. Subsequent to that, we do anticipate the ability to issue bonds as early as September or perhaps later um as it comes forward. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Anhut. Questions for Mr. Anut this point in time? All right. Um so this is a public hearing matter. uh and uh I'm going to open it up for public testimony. So, this is on the issue of um whether the uh council should consider approving the or should approve the adoption of the city's 5-year street reconstruction plan and authorize the issuance of general obligation street reconstruction bonds in an amount of 3.05 million. Is that correct, Mr. An Hut? Correct, sir. Towel. All right. Very good. So, let's uh open this up for public testimony or potential public testimony and see if anyone in the audience wishes to testify regarding this matter. Just a reminder, you'll have three minutes and you'll get a yellow cautionary light uh when you've got 30 seconds to go on wrapping up your three minutes. Anyone wish to testify? Okay. No one coming forward. Do we have anybody online? I don't yet have anyone on the line, but because there is a brief delay in the broadcast, I would recommend we wait about a minute before moving forward. My clock shows that it's 8:58 p.m. I'll come back to you at 8:59 or when I have a caller, whichever is first. All right. All right. Then we will entertain a motion to close the public hearing on Saturday, July 5th, and continue the action of the July 15th, 2025 city council meeting. It is now 8:59 and I still don't have anyone online, so I think it's safe for you to move forward with the agenda. Very good. Thank you, Director Benerro. Uh, is there a motion to close the public hearing on Saturday, July 5th, 2025, and continue the action to the July 15, 202 2025 city council meeting uh regarding the potential approval and adoption of the city's 5-year street reconstruction plan and authorizing the issuance of general obligation street reconstruction bonds in the amount of $3.05 million. So moved. Second. Jackson moves second. The motion is stated. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the motion stated to say I. I. I. Opposed. Carried. We'll take this matter up again uh for decision on July 15th. And uh this is your night, Director Tao. You're uh you're hot tonight. You a lot of finance related things. And Mr. Anut is going to be with us on this one as well. And Mr. Utten, our facilities manager to talk a little bit about uh something that um needs to be addressed in our community. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and and council. Um, Ari Lens, assistant city manager, and I'm here tonight to introduce the tax abatement item for the aquatic center. Before I turn it over to Director Tao, finance advisor Nick Anhut and facilities manager Derek Otton, um, to talk a little bit more about the specifics of the item and process, we want to take a second to summarize for you what you are considering before you tonight and over the next month. Um staff has lost confidence in the infrastructure and our ability to make temporary repairs to the aquatic center to keep it operational should it experience another system failure. We experienced several of them in um August of 2024. Uh we have limited financial tools to be able to do recreational bonding. Unfortunately, we made no progress with state bonding um requests in both 2023 and 2025. And the only financing tool that allows us the urgency necessary to keep the aquatic center operational is tax abatement bonding. The alternative is that we pursue other financing options, taking a risk and likely to have a season or two without an aquatic center being operational. I know this is not going to be an easy decision for you or for the community and that you guys don't take this lightly. I'm going to turn it over to Director Tao to give her some more context about the proposal. Thank you, Assistant Manager Lens. Thank you, Assistant City Manager Lens. Now, to reiterate the purpose of this public hearing is to discuss two key steps to uh both which are both required to issue the tax abatement bond for this project if we should choose to in the future. uh Nick Anne Hud again from Ellers will go over that part later, but the uh let's talk about the purpose of this project. So, what I have in front of you here is the background or a timeline of all um I would say significant events uh in around the aquatic center. Um a little bit more about it, of course, it's located within Rosland Park. It offers opportunities for recreation in and around the water in a controlled environment. The facility also includes a eight-lane 50 meter pool zero depth entry pool, a shipwreck express zipline and a 207 ft body slide and a 300 ft tube slide and a flow rider, a surf stimul simulator in a oak wood forest playground area. Uh the aquatic center receives about 75,000 to 85,000 visitors annually over the 3 months that it's open, which is on average about 850 to a,000 people per day. Uh the center opened uh in 1958 and has gone through a variety of changes and renovations. Since then, there has been an evolution in building and pool cold requirements. Um like assistant city manager Lens mentioned, the aquatic center encountered a significant mechanical fail in 2021. There were temporary repairs that were done uh which we implemented temporarily to restore system functionality until a replacement plan could be devised. um facilities manager Derek an will probably go over the specs of it, but the temporary solution has allowed the center to remain operational to date, but not without significant ongoing challenges and risk. Service interruptions continue to but not without significant ongoing challenges and risk. Um there's electrical systems, variable frequency drives, motors and pump failures. Uh any new service interruption can cause significant delay or extend a shutdown. In 2022 23 as assistant city manager Lens referred to we started the design to replace the aging equipment and construct a new space for the house to house the filter in the pump to meet um required code. We have requested for bonding at the state but of course failed. Um then we put the project on hold until we could figure out funding for this. In 2024, we again experienced another electrical spike causing operational issues with the pumps and the frequency drive motors. Um, we've made temporary repairs again, but we've since lost confidence in our ability to maintain this operational system without a solution. Design work started again um with the plan that construction bond will be needed to repair uh make repairs due to the magnitude of work that will be involved. Earlier this year, we brought to uh the council about limited financing options since state bonding was pursued but wasn't successful. And then since then, we've hired a general contractor for preconstruction assistance to finalize the design and estimate for the project. Again, council could opt not to use this bonding form and explore other alternative financing options, but like city assistant manager Lens mentioned, this will be taking a risk of a season or two of temporary closing the facility due to non-operational systems. So, with that being said, I'll turn it over to Derek, our facilities manager, who can provide a more in-depth detail as far as what this project is about and as well as other issues that the aquatic center is facing. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Um, so as P went into, she kind of described some of the history of the project and where we've gotten to today. I'm going to provide you a little bit more of the why and the how uh as we go through this. Um, we mentioned before that this was built in 1958. It's been expanded a number of times in the last 60 odd years. Um, and really what's happening is we're reaching the end of life with most of the equipment. You know, some of these things that were installed even in the 1990s have reached the end of their use for life at 30 years. Um, as we went through this process and really started digging into the, you know, the defaults and the, uh, the issues with the aquatic center, um, we started engaging both state building codes as well as the Minnesota Department of Health, who regulates pools. And what we found is, um, that the balancing tanks for the pool are actually inadequate. What those tanks do is they, uh, an act of like they they accept the displacement of bodies going into the pools. Um so we we realized that we had to enlarge those balancing tanks uh with any project that we did. So we talked about you know could we possibly just reuse this existing room and replace equipment. We looked at can we just possibly expand the balancing tanks in some manner shape or form or is there something else we can do and all all I guess roads led to the fact that the actual um building itself was adequately sized to uh accept this type of pool. Um, so going through that, I'll show you a few slides of some of the uh existing conditions and significant issues there. Um, I'm not going to go through and read all of these, but um, I will say that a lot of this is just the product of the environment. Um, pools use chlorine and acid for the disinfectant process of of you know, the water itself and water treatment and that is a costic environment that those uh, pieces of equipment reside in. So over the last 60 years, you know, rust, decay, things like that are can be expected. And as I said before, most of this equipment is starting to reach the end of its useful life. Um, on this next slide here, you'll see some of the actual structure for the building. Um, director Pao mentioned this before, but in 2022 after we had that significant electrical failure, we went in with uh a structural engineer and started looking at the structure itself. So, one of these things that you're seeing here on the right, that base showing corrosion, uh, that was actually repaired. We we decided at the time that we needed to go in and make an emergency repair to make sure that the structure was adequate and safe for both staff to go into, but also would allow continued operation throughout the aquatic seasons. And then this next slide here kind of shows you what we're talking about for the new addition. So, in order to uh um you know, install those new balancing tanks that are adequately sized, it's going to require a much larger space and a much larger building. You'll see kind of off to the right of the screen there where it says new addition. Um that is about a 3,000 foot building that's going to be required to be built. And we looked at, you know, options of expanding existing building um you know, the locations for it in the build and the uh the site itself. And what we really determined was um in order to have the construction progress um not delay any openings or impact this season, it made more sense for us to construct a new building while the existing systems are still operational this year and into next possibly. And that would allow us to construct a building, install the new equipment, and then basically do a swap over. So as soon as we're ready to start the systems up, there will be no downtime hopefully for that aquatic center. Um this next slide kind of shows what the layout of this would be. So you'll see um in the the area on the right, the upper portion of it um that kind of looks like it has a a ceiling with a rectangular cutout on it. That would be the new balancing tanks that would be uh servicing the pools. Um the larger space next to it is actually part of the existing aquatic center filter room. We would use that as a pipe chase and that would allow us to, you know, continue construction while that's in operation still. And then most of the area uh where the blue filters and things uh blue cylinder cylinders you see are is the new space. U we have separate areas for um chemical storage there. U that's required by code but also best practice. And then we also have more uh uh availability and working clearances for the staff that have to maintain and operate that. That's one of the biggest issues there is it's a very tight space in the existing aquatic center uh filter room. Um the last point there is you know with building this new space we do have the opportunity uh to add some deck space up above which is you know near and dear to the hearts of the occupants and the users of the pool. Um so we would be you know utilizing this this new building to kind of expand the footprint a little bit to provide more space for uh people that are coming and visiting the pool itself. Uh quick timeline of the project. I think uh P went into this as well. 2021 that major electrical failure. Um that happened I believe 10 days before the aquatic season started for the year. We were able to go in and make a repair. Um we worked you know through 2021 into 2022 uh identifying what the issues were with the actual aquatic center. Um then in 2022 the winter of that year u we started looking at some conceptual designs what what made the most sense for us to do um these repairs and how how do we best attack it. uh through 2023, we uh expanded that design and worked through design development. And then in 2024, actually last summer, uh we found some additional electrical spikes coming from our energy provider, Excel, that caused multiple failures throughout. And at that point, that's when we really started to get nervous about the failures happening and you know, our inability to possibly operate the aquatic center if something like this continued to happen. Um so we we accelerated some of the design work into 2024 and that winter. And then uh earlier this year we talked about it at the city council work sessions uh to talk about the budget and some financing options um at that time. And then uh I will point out in March of this year we uh presented our plan to the planning and zoning commission. Uh they did approve it. uh we are going to have to encroach a little bit on a wetland setback, but we made some accommodations with both our design and then worked with Nine Mile Creek and other watershed districts to uh to accommodate to accomplish that. And as of today, we uh are just about done with the construction documents phase. Uh as director point to pointed out, we have hired a uh general contractor to manage this process for us. Um just through the pre-construction portion of it at this point in time. um we're looking to move forward with them uh on the bidding project here in the next month or so. And with that, I will turn it over to Nick. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rotten. It was well done. Uh this slide may look familiar. It was used in the last presentation. Um but essentially, we have a project here. Um the city would have bonding authority for this type of a project uh as a recreational facility if the facility could pay for itself. if the actual revenues generated from operating the facility were enough to repay the debt in whole. Um unfortunately given the the expected expense of the project, we don't anticipate that that's a feasible option. And so there will need to be some kind of supplemental revenue in order to repay the debt associated with this uh need. And so um we need to find an alternative bonding mechanism or a statutory authority under which to issue uh debt for this project. and one of those is uh housed within chapter 469 tax abatement bonds. So subject to a public hearing process at the city council and uh subsequent approval of a resolution adopting the abatement, a city council can authorize general obligation bonds to fund a specific public improvement in an amount equal to the sum of tax abatements adopted from designated properties. That sounds like a mouthful. I'll go over this in much more detail. Um, the council in making that determination needs to find that the expected benefits of the project, the funding at least equal the costs associated. And the council must find that in doing so, the project is in a is in a public interest because it will satisfy at least one of eight different specific purposes outlined within the abatement statute. Here are the eight purposes on the slide. I won't belabor them, but there are two in particular. It is intended to be used to be able to provide or help acquire or construct public facilities and it is intended to be used to be able to finance and provide public infrastructure both of which uh this project uh would satisfy. Now what is tax abatement? So tax abatement is a flexible financing tool that allows local governments to allocate a portion of designated properties taxes to provide funding for a public purpose. I want to say again, allocate existing taxes that already exist within the city. It is not a special taxing district. It's not something that is going to create a new tax burden on the properties that are created. It is the ability for the council to adopt a special tax levy called an abatement levy that will be combined with the city's other levies and it will be used specifically to repay the debt associated with this project. So in that in that fundamental sense, it is no different from any other debt service levy that the city adopts. The abatement property itself is is just a designation that you do have the existing capacity within the tax base of the city to repay that potential debt obligation. It is not a specific tax on those properties. The levy amount again is included within the annual truth and taxation prop uh process. You do need to identify the specific properties and the taxes associated with those properties, but otherwise you don't need to do anything to administer it uh going forward into the future other than consider the levy as a part of your budget process. It is a point in time finding. It is not something that you need to monitor on an annual basis to make sure that their taxes are continuing to substantiate the amount. you're just proving right now that you've got the ability to allocate existing tax base within the community to repay this new debt obligation. In that sense, it's purely an allocation of existing resources. It is not a refund or a reduction in taxes associated with any any one specific property or other in community. It does have some limitations imposed on it. It cannot be just assigned citywide. Um it is set that it can be adopted for up to a 20-year maximum term. That is the the statutory limit. Um the properties themselves that are designated also cannot simultaneously be in a tax increment financing district either. So whether that's an existing tax increment financing district or one in the future. So we need to be careful about the properties that are designated because they cannot mix and match. Um, and the city's total amount that it adopts in an abatement levy cannot exceed 10% of the city's total net tax capacity. Now, what is net tax capacity? It's a measure of the value of your tax base. Right now, the city does not have any abatements adopted previously for any projects or any outstanding debt. Um, so you have the full 10% limitation that is available if the council so chooses to utilize it. uh that equates to approximately $21 million worth of annual capacity in order to fund projects that you want to use this mechanism for. Again, that's an annual number. Purpose tonight is to provide funding for this project. Initial estimates right now, again, estimates. Uh we expect that we're going to be able to fine-tune these costs uh through the bidding process that's coming forward, but the estimates are an $ 8.9 million project in order to construct uh what was just described. It also is a facility that is both used by the public as well as designated qualified 501c3 organization swim clubs uh do utilize this facility. The proposed abatement area for this project is the uh neighboring residential area just to the south of the specific property uh where the aquatic center resides. It does consist of 328 parcels that were all listed in the public hearing. Uh there is no special consideration that you need to give or notifications to them. Again, this is an allocation of existing resources that you're uh dedicating to this abatement. Um, this area does not overlap with current or in discussions with your economic development staff, future potential tiff districts. And I I want to reiterate that we want to make sure that we're not going to interfere with a tool that you might want to use to help spur redevelopment or commercial development in the future. And so that specifically is why this residential area was selected. We do not anticipate, nor do we anticipate that the city wants to utilize tax increment financing within that vicinity. that area. Those 328 parcels were selected specifically because they provide enough tax capacity to be able to justify the annual levy associated with the repayment of these bonds. Altogether, they represent right now in 2025 uh over $900,000 in annual city property taxes as a collective whole. And so they do meet the requirement uh for the amount of area or designated properties that you would need to uh designate for this abatement for the the specific amount that we're repaying in these bonds. Again, the estimated amount over a course of 15 years needs to at least meet or exceed the uh bonding that is necessary for the project, which we do estimate at $ 8.985 million. And so this area would satisfy that requirement. So again, in uh continuation of the city's policy, um an allowance for testimony and a public hearing this evening and continuing that public hearing into the future, uh the council will be asked after that uh proceeding to consider a resolution to approve adopting a property tax abatement for up to 15 years in order to provide funding for the aquatic center project and bonds in the not to exceed amount of $8,985,000. it. That resolution will also adopt the required findings as it pertains to designating that this is a public facility and public infrastructure within the community. If that were to move ahead at that point in time, we do anticipate subject to the the bidding process and and fine-tuning the construction amount that the bonds could be issued in conjunction with the Vernon Avenue and trunk or trunk highway 100 interchange project um possibly in September or soon thereafter. Thank you. Yeah, I'm sure there's some questions here. Um sure, I'll start. Thank you. Um, so I first want to talk a little bit about the the evolution of what happened. Um, because I think it was a year ago that we were on our capital improvement plan tour and we toured this site in particular, right? Um, we knew that this was coming. We knew that we needed to invest into the aquatic center. I think at that point though, correct me if I'm wrong on this, I think it was at a $4 million investment that we were predicting. And so if you could just provide again a little bit more of this context of from what we knew when we approved our capital improvement plan and what we have kind of in our 2025 to 2030 plan um which was the $4 million from a CIP bonds line item. What did we learn or what has changed that has made this so much more dire and 5 million approximately more than what we were looking at before? Yeah, that's a great question. Um, so at the time we did the tour in 2024, um, the design was not yet as fleshed out as it could be. Um, so as we move forward with it, we realized that uh, two major things had happened. One is that the um, the drains in the pools needed to be addressed. Um, that was a state and public health department uh, code requirement. So we had to include that in the project. And then I think the other big thing that we hadn't fully realized yet is the impact of tariffs. So, as we move forward with this project, we start talking about, you know, we have some contingency built into this $8.9 million to address tariffs. We're not certain what's going to happen to this. We've heard from contractors and experts in the field that anything from uh 25 to 30% increases are coming across the board on many of the materials specific to types of projects like these. So, we're trying to account for that. Um, the other thing I would point out is when we talked about the $4 million, we were really talking about construction costs. Um, there's also costs for the design team that's going to be built into this. Um, our owner's representation for it. Um, some of the, uh, inspections and other, you know, kind of soft costs that come into a project like this, too. So, we've really baked all of those things into this 8.9 million. So, it's more fleshed out now than it was before. Okay. Thank you. Um, the next couple of questions I have are are probably more like strictly financially focused. Um, so I understand I think that this is the first time I'm looking at this kind of abatement um, p practice here, but as I understand what you're saying is that we're not increasing the taxes within those parcels. We're taking the existing taxes that they're already paying and just applying it to this specific use case. Is that accurate? If I may restate, please. The requirement is that we designate that the city has existing capacity in order to repay the financial obligation to fund this project. And so the the taxes essentially you're saying in by adopting this abatement is that there is a specific area within the community that falls within the limitations that I mentioned. You can't exceed certain amounts but that will be substanti substantially enough to repay the bonds. um you will need to adopt a new levy to repay this debt obligation. That levy does not get spread over these properties by themselves. It's part of your general levies that get adopted over the entirety of the tax base. But from within that, you're proving right now that you've got the existing capacity to repay this debt obligation. That's that's the tool in a nutshell. So, we're a public hearing. We're designating these properties. We're we're saying that we're not going to use tiff for these properties in the future and that it falls within the the 10% limitation that I mentioned. Okay. So, is it almost like we're using these the tax on these properties as like collateral? Well, we're saying we have it within our capacity, but we're not explicitly using it. We will still be covering it through a levy increase. Correct. you you're you are saying that um essentially to the statute. You know, we're not we're not pledging it to the bond holder per se. They won't have any kind of special interest in these properties in particular. But in satisfying the statutory finding, you are saying that yes, we do have the capacity within this community designated properties to be able to fund the repayment of this obligation and the adoption of this levy. Now the levy itself again is not a specific levy on a special taxing district. It gets spread over the entirety of the tax base of the city gets included in everything but you are saying that within your existing tax base you do have the capacity to be able to service this obligation. Thank you. So then um kind of going to look to to manager Neil when I think about then this 8.9 million um this is now something that we also need to be accounting for in all of our budgeting process and will be a part of the discussions. So, help me understand kind of the timing of this and what making this decision in a couple of weeks locks us into compared to like does this just give us the ability to do it and we'll still be providing the final approval as we go through our budgeting discussions or is this locking the funding in and we have to figure out a way to cover it one way or another. it will ultimately uh lock you in or lock the council into uh whatever that levy needs to be to pay the debt service back for the money we're going to borrow for this project. So, and it's uh 800,000 something something like that, right? 800 800 a year. So it's a it's about a a point and a half or a point and and threequarters in terms of the levy impact that it would have on our general fund levy in terms of an increase. Okay. So going through this process would be saying yes we are moving forward with this project. We're taking out the the bonds to cover it and then as we go through the budget that's when we would figure out where in the budget it actually fits. Right. That's mean and at that time it it will fit into the into the debt service levy kind of group of of levies that we have. Um but yeah, then we'll point at it and say remember we made this decision back in August or whatever. It's important to uh to move it forward now. Uh it I know it seems like it must be early in the process to find a contractor, but uh timing for a project like this for for an outdoor swimming pool in Minnesota is very important. you have to just like school projects, you have a very limited window in which to get it done. Uh and so we're we're kind of reverse engineered back from that. How much time do we need to have this project? Uh how how much time do we need to construct it? How much time do we need to find a partner to do it? Uh the timing of the of weather, etc. All of that is taken into account. So we want to act on it in this summer so that the pool is ready to go with less with a lesser degree of risk in 2026. Thank you. I have one last question. Um I want to also understand what other mechanisms we would have at our disposal. I think manager Neil, you covered a little bit of about why timing is so important, but I also saw in one of the slides something about a referendum. Um, so can you walk me through what are some of the other options that we considered as a city in how to fund this and how we honed in on this particular option being the one we're discussing tonight? So there are two main alternatives that a city a city could consider. So you could consider uh getting this approval this statutory approval for debt uh supported by a levy through a referendum. So going through a process to establish that referendum, have the voters decide and then and then sub subject to that approval the ability to issue debt for the project and repay it in the amount that's put on the ballot. That is one alternative. Um, another alternative that the city of Edina has specifically is you do have special legislative authority to issue debt for recreational facility projects as long as you are pledging that you're going to charge enough to repay those debt obligations from the revenue of those enterprises. And as I mentioned at the onset, perhaps skipped over your question, we don't envision that the aquatic center by itself would be able to afford this amount to repay the the bonds in a timely or feasible manner. Um, just given the cost of the project, the expected repayment, the facility itself would not be expected to be able to repay that on its own without some kind of support. So looking for an alternative revenue support like a levy or something else, you really are kind of pigeonhold on your options. Um there is another form of public project revenue bonds that the HA could participate in to repay them. It would have the exact same levy support behind it. It does not need a referendum. the HA would need to be involved and you would have to actually pledge the real estate of the project to the potential repayment of the bonds and using a lease purchase mechanism. So that would be another alternative, but that does become problematic on a site like this. We don't necessarily want to use it as collateral to a bond holder that they have a property interest in this property or try to subdivide the property in order to accommodate that. And again, It would be repaid from the same exact source and it actually is technically a more costly form of financing. It doesn't carry the general obligation pledge of the city. It would carry a very good bond rating but not the AAA credit rating that your other debt does enjoy. Thank you. And so replaying what I heard, the two maybe most feasible options from a cost perspective would be what we have presented here tonight or there's this referendum option. But the referendum option wouldn't be on the ballot until this November, no, November 26th. 2026, which would mean that we possibly would be without an aquatic center for 2026 and maybe 2027. Like, is that maybe still up in the air, but it would it would at at the very least push things out quite a bit. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, member. Thank you, member Russer. First, I want to thank member Agnu for all of her questions that were really very good in terms of setting the context for this. I too had sticker shock because I was not thinking it was going to be 8.985 million. And looking at the slides, you do see different numbers. Sometimes it's just 8.9, sometimes it's 8.95, which really makes you think this is getting up there close to 10 million. And when I look at the slides, the abatement bond authorization slide with the map, there's a bullet that says estimated bonding amount requires 15-year total of at least 8.985 million. So at least we might be talking more than that. Uh no, council member Risser. uh the the pledge that you're making in adopting the abatement is that the property and the taxes associated them can at least meet the amount to repay the debt. Okay. Thank you for explaining that. Okay. So, as we move forward with this, I feel it's important to underscore that residents are concerned and I have heard from a lot of people and looking at this, this is a a big chunk of money. Okay. At the same time, this is really the only area place where kids can come into contact safely with water. We don't have swimmable lakes. Um the creek is primarily in people's private backyards. It's not like there's other places people can go. We do not have waiting pools. Um so that's a significant thing. But as I look at this and I think about it in terms of the context of the overall budget where you have $93,676 um that is not going to be flowing into the general fund for other things. It's going to be dedicated to this. Correct. Uh no actually we're not you're authorizing a new levy equivalent to that amount. Right. potentially the amount necessary to repay the debt, which I I just I'm sorry to interrupt, but I I also wanted to specify you're setting a net for what's available for this project. It's our every intent that we'll be able to shrink it down after the bidding of the project and after the actual bonds are issued to only the amount necessary to repay the bonds. You are setting a not to exceed threshold through this public hearing, however. So, I just I want to be clear, it won't go up. Hopefully, it will come down, but it is a a chunk of money that is not going to be flowing for other uses to the general fund. We are specifying it's going for this purpose, just like any other new levy that you're adopting at the moment. I understand that, but because the funds are going to the pump. Okay. Um, this is an additional expense. Okay. Do we agree that this is an additional expense or do we not? We will be adopting a new levy to repay these bonds, but right now it's not tied to this these properties in particular. It's not taking away from that existing authority. You're going to be increasing your levy, right? All you're doing right now is you're sat you're saying that you're satisfying the statute by proving that you have the capacity within these designated properties under the abatement statute. This is not moving money around or we are adding these taxes to the levy to repay this debt obligation. You're not taking away from anything. Okay. So when we look at the budget for next year or the budget that we're working on, um it's frustrating for me to see this amount and to know there are other things and um you know you can't it's sort of an opportunity cost issue. Mhm. And um as I look at this and I keep thinking about what member Pierce has said, uh you know, if you're going to use something for this, then you got to figure out what you're going to reduce costs. And I'm getting a lot of feedback from people who are frustrated with the dialogue that we're having about the budget and reducing costs and, you know, hearing things. I don't want to go down rabbit holes about different topics, but um there's general frustration that we're not actually thinking about how to reduce costs that we're shifting things around and so this is sort of on top of that and I do want people to be aware of that frustration and yeah but I think member we've asked the staff to think about reducing costs remember we have and that's what they've been working on and we haven't seen anything from them yet on that. So, a stay tuned issue. It's a stay tuned, right? But we've al um come up with a figure of 4 million, but I think maybe we should come up with a higher figure for reducing if, you know, we're adding this into the mix. So, I I do want to get that out there. Um I do feel like we're being painted into a corner. You know, there's the idea about the referendum. It's too late to do the referendum. um you know we we thought it was going to be one amount we get this information it's twice that amount maybe um and I I do think you know the idea it it shouldn't be the case that member Agnu has to or any of us have to ask how did it go from this cost to this cost that should be in our packet we should be able to have that information thank you thank you uh member Jackson next member Pierce. Great. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, I kind of want to go. Mr. Utton, can Director Autton, can you come up? I want to talk a little bit about what this project is. So, there's been kind of this conversation going on. Well, this is a surprise and why didn't we plan for this? So, I want to kind of dig drill down on that a little bit. Um, so the code changed for what's required for balancing tanks from when this was built. Correct. That's correct. Okay. And approximately when that when did that happen? I don't know the exact date of the code change, but when we realized it, it was uh in 2023 and 2024. We started engaging architects and designers a little bit fuller in more, you know, design details. That's when they brought that to our attention. Okay. And then the same with the drains. Correct. Correct. That was something we realized in late 2024. Okay. So 2023 2024 is approximately when we found out we were not up to code with our um this particular part of the pool. Correct. Correct. Okay. Um so I'm going to go to director Tao with that in a minute, but I want to talk a little bit about this costic environment. So, if we get a bigger space, will that help circulate air and and increase the life of the equipment in there or is it always going to just be a really dangerous place? I wouldn't say it's dangerous, right? But I would say it is hard on the equipment that's in the space. Yes. So, there's there's no danger to, you know, the public or humans that operate that those pieces of equipment in there. Um, no, actually, we're making uh accommodations for that. So, we're improving the air circulation and ventilation in there. Um, and I also mentioned that we've got uh designated spaces for chemical storage in there. In the past, that hasn't happened um just because there wasn't room in the existing uh equipment room. So, um we're hoping that you know the isolation of those things. And then also just changing some of the uh the actual chemicals they use. They used to use a liquid uh process with the chlorine. They moved to tablets and that's has a much lower um costic byproduct that comes when you're mixing it with the the water for the uh the chemistry on it. Um so those I think those accommodations that we're making are going to help extend the lifespan of this. If you really go back and look at it like you know aquatic equipment um you know it it has a lifespan that's much lower than a traditional building equipment does just because of the nature of it. So um we've really been kind of living off borrowed time with this equipment for the last three to five years actually. Okay. But so three to five years we've had a warning that that this is need going to need some help. Um, and what we're doing will in the future reduce costs because it will extend the life of the equipment by making these changes. That's correct. Yes. Okay, great. So, Director Tao, we got a 3 to five year time period. How much approximately do we spend every year in our construction fund? Oh, I don't have that number in front of me. Um, I'm sorry. It's about $2 million, isn't it? Approximately. If if we just talk about levy, construction levy, I would say we have about two million for the construction levy and about under two million for the equipment replacement levy. Okay. And that covers everything for the city. It covers trucks. It covers park equipment. It covers all of our capital. It can be applied. It doesn't every year, but it it isn't just for the pool. It isn't just for the parks department. It's it's the construction levy for the entire city. Correct. Correct. based off of prioritization, right? In the CIP um process, based off of um project proposals that departments submit based off of um different prioritizations, um a project may rise to the top or may not get funded, right? And so, um with this magnitude of a project, um I believe we brought it to you in the 2024 when we were developing the 2025 2030 CIP. At that time, you were right. We were buying time on this project knowing that the magnitude of the project will be at that time we brought up a $4 million cost that would ultimately eat up all of the construction levy if not more. Right? And so um at the time we said let's do design and see where we where the costs ultimately land and this is where we are today. So it isn't like we've had eight years to plan for 8 million and then it's 2025. In 2024, there was no talk of tariffs. Is that correct? Not really. That's kind of a kind of a new development since the election. Yes. And so that's, you know, 25 to 50% cost on top of these materials that may come from overseas. Correct. So going from four million to 8.9 million isn't just it isn't a planning thing. It's the world has changed. Correct. Yes. Okay. So I just wanted to set that out. um sort of make sure that we're going to spend the money on something that's going to work and that it has been a very shortterm um discovery that this needs to be done and it needs to be done pretty big um and that we didn't have the funding or the time to build up a fund to do this. Okay, great. Thank you, Member Pierce. Thanks, Member Jackson. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Um, so all of the questions I had have been asked and answered. Um, and so I'm just going to make a couple of comments. Well, maybe I do have one one question in there. Um, this this is something that we need to do, but the fact that we need to do it right, these two things can be true. We still have to figure out how to pay for it and we still need to honor the budget principles that we set months back, which we haven't seen yet. And so we've talked about that. But both of those things have to be true. Um, and so I appreciate the conciseness and the deliberate way Mr. and hut answers these questions because we are if we approve this we are adding to the levy right to cover it but I would still ask the question and I'd say we still need to hit our budget targets and so then the question like what you really want to be able to do is say all right are we're we're we're restricted in terms of the funds that we have. How do we fund this? And so it's not like it's it's a balloon, right? And so the question I would have and maybe it's it's more of a direction or a question, this is a regional asset. Are there ways that we can get regional funds into this pool? Because what we're doing is taking from the pink area those neighborhoods, right? We're going to abate those property taxes, be ding a property taxes to go renovate a regional asset is what we're doing. Um, and so I don't know how to do that, but we looked at numbers uh before and you may not have into the top of your head in terms of how um many nonquina residents use the um aquatic center, right? It's it's not just 100% Edina asset. And so I think that would be my ask is are we leaning into trying to figure out if there's a way we can add revenue into the pool um no pun intended to do this because it's a regional asset and at the end of the day I I think we do need to do it. I mean it is a huge asset for the community. Uh, but we have to figure out how to pay for it. And so I don't want I I want to be really clear when I if I say, "Yep, we want to do this." I'm actually not saying I'm okay adding $9 million to the levy. I'm answering that question specifically on this is an asset our community needs. I would want us to figure out some other creative ways um to do this and perhaps you've looked at those. But that would be um the comment I would or your alternative is what you stated right off the bat is that even if we have to do it this way that we meet those budget targets we've talked about. Yes. You know this adding to the problem of meeting the targets but still say that again. this adding to the challenge of meeting the targets we set but nonetheless keep the targets in mind. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we've been having a sidebar about this and we were thinking about this is a possibility. There's a local option sales tax extension. But we've got we've got to go to the legislature for that. But in the meantime, if we if we went this route of solving this problem over at the pool, um there's no reason we couldn't go for a local option of sales tax extension and and uh try to come at it from, you know, later on and and maybe pay it off earlier. You know, I don't know how we do that exactly. Mr. Ranhut, you got any creative ideas on that? If we if we got an extension on local option sales tax that involved this regional asset that allowed us to recapture over time uh the money needed to pay the bond or could we use those local option sales tax funds to pay off the bond and reduce the levy without having seen it? I think there's a way to frame the ballot because it is something that would need to be approved through the ballot. Yeah. But if you specified the question in a way that you wanted to be able to refund the debt that we're talking about tonight using the extension of the sales tax. I think that would be a way possibly to do it. It's not going to solve your problem today, but it might give you the opportunity to offset that levy in the future. Member Pierce's point, we're just trying to think of ways to be creative. But, uh, yeah, so it would be great to use recreational bonds like we did at the golf course, but we determined that the golf course could repay the debt for that six or eight million bucks worth of work we did out there. And it's and it's been great. I mean, if our our estimates were correct and uh you know, we netted a million four out there this year after expenses and paying off that annual bond payment. So, I have a Yeah, I just want to clarify with you, Member Pierce. Um when you when we're talking about what we have to reduce in the in the um uh budget, I my the estimated um cost of these would be 800,000 a year. I I think you said 9 million. I just want to because we'll come back to that in the future. I want to make sure that I've got that um figure up correct in my mind. Yeah. So I I think that's that's fair. I was talking about the overall project target. That's what I was referring to. But when we look at the annual Yeah. When we when we look at the budget process later in the year, we will be adding $800,000 to what we have to levy for for that year for each year. Yeah. And so that's the amount that we'll be considering when we look at other budgetary things. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I was clear in that. Great. Thank you. Mhm. So for um 60 years of roughly we've had a pool there the people in our community and the broader community and um yeah who who likes the idea of spending 9 million bucks fixing up the pool? Who I mean who who would think that was a hey yeah let's get behind that idea. That's a great idea. But it's a I think it is something we really need to think about and I think member Pierce said it well and simply it's and everybody else did too in their own way. It we got to do it. I you know we don't make on every enterprise in our town. We don't make money but these are assets that our residents think are important to have in our community like the hockey the arena at Braar Ice Arena is a great example. I mean, I just saw that uh report and we lost $250,000 out there if my memory serves me right. What does it mean that we're going to say, well, forget about those 700 kids that are in youth hockey out there and the high school team and everybody else. Uh when you start thinking about allocating that loss amongst the households of Adina, people are telling us this is a worthy investment for all of us to have. Same thing with the historically the golf course. I mean, not everybody can belong to a country club, but people in our town said, "We'd like golf as an amenity and we're willing to pay for it." So, to the extent it costs me a little bit of money every year to to help have a golf course in our town and some of these amenities that we might not otherwise be able to afford individually, but we can afford collectively, it's a good thing. So, that's kind of the way I have to look at the pool. You know, I don't other than us going over to the pool, I don't think I've ever used the pool, but I but I see it as a really important community asset. I've used it good a lot. So, I mean, it's kind of swallow hard and figure out how to get it done. And you've done a creative job of trying to get us one step on the journey here. And and but I'm I'm with member Pierce. I mean I this we knew this was coming a little you know a few year a couple the last couple years. So I'm still thinking that we got to be really kind of budget hawks uh and be careful about what we're doing here despite the fact that this came up now as an additional expense manager Neil. Uh thank you your honor. Just a couple of things. Um first about the price tag. We're providing that to you based on our uh best estimates of what's happening in the market. We don't want, it's not a goal to spend $8.9 million. If we can get this done for $80, we'll we'll do it. But that's just just what we think is happening in the marketplace. Second, there there aren't any easy or or regional funds that we can access. Um there aren't just aren't those there just aren't those kind of funding vehicles. uh absent uh the state bonding bill, which we we did try to get into and were not successful. Uh when we talk about uh local options sales tax here, we we haven't talked about it in terms of an extension. we've talked about in terms of of being able to access all the money that's being created because under the current law uh the 19 years that we have for for sales tax, we're not uh we're only really accessing about half of what we expect that to generate. So when we go back to the legislature and and when we've asked for additional uh spending authority, that's what we're doing. We're not saying increase that rate or increase that duration. We're asking, can we just spend the money that we're going to collect anyway? Thanks for that clarification. I should have been a little bit more artful in the way I said it. I I was thinking of it in the sense that we'd extend our spending authority. Yeah, extend our spending authority. The maximum time that we've been authorized to to use, which was 19 years. And and we have been speaking in favor of of a kind of a generalized change to sales local sales tax uh that was uh being considered by the legislature for a while. and that is to allow you to spend it on regional assets. So, uh if that really if that would have gone all the way to the end and and gotten in the tax bill, we we could have something to talk about here. But as it as it sits, uh we would have to go back to the legislature, get their approval under the current rules, get their approval to have a referendum in 26 or Yeah, 26 would be the uh earliest, but it's probably 28. Yeah. So, there's a few years there that we'd be at risk of uh of not having a pool. Perhaps we're not we're not avoiding the reality check. We're just thinking downstream a little bit. Maybe there's some creative way to to to deal with it. But, but one of you you mentioned a creative way of dealing with it and that is what happens if uh sales tax law changes and we can access this money because this would be our regional asset. we would have sufficient money to to fund the debt service that we're talking about here tonight without uh without making it a property tax levy. Well, this is a public hearing. Let's not forget that this is a public hearing matter. Um and let's go to that public hearing. Let's open up the public hearing uh on this proposal to um consider adopting a property tax abatement and the issuance of general obligation tax abatement bonds in the amount of roughly $9 million to uh fund a project at the um at the Adina Aquatic Center. So, um, opening it now for public testimony. And one of our residents is is here, uh, who is a neighbor of the pool and in and in the abatement district. And you give us your name and address again, too, please. I will. Can you focus in on this and get close enough so it can be read, please? get any closer. Good evening, mayor, council members. My name is Ralph Sickert. I live at 4311 Cornelius Circle. Uh, I'd like to make a couple points. In the summer of 2011, or I'm sorry, 2021, there was Adina, we have a problem. Since that point, there was an opportunity for a referendum in 2022 and 2024, which we chose not to. Gee, it wasn't that big of a problem. But in August of 2024, we said we had a $4 million problem. Just months later, in the January 21st city council work session, suddenly now was a $5 million problem with $1.5 million worth of interest. presentation that was shared here tonight said it was an $8.9 million problem. That's just the bond. There's another $3.3 million worth of interest. There's another 6 $600,000 worth of other items that Mr. Neil has added for maybe that's that deck and everything else just to kind of cover ourselves. But nowhere nowhere has anybody shared with council or residents what comprises that $ 8.9 million. People have asked great questions. Oh well, what about tariffs? We don't know how much was added for tariffs. How much for this? How much for that? How much? There's no there's no detail with respect to that. Great questions have been asked about how it got from five to nine when you've known about the problem for four years. Questions been asked about usage. I believe material included in your packages said that 75% of the pool usage is by non-residents. Mr. Ann Hut has shared that yes indeed there's a 5013 seat actually two 5013 seats that use the pool. I'm not positive but in the past one of those was the Eden Prairie swim team. The mayor has said that well we're working on the budget. You've also said that gee to learn about all this not until August when Mr. Neil is now committed to seems kind of late as has Mr. Pierce which is exactly correct. It is pretty late. This is a decision that's being made in isolation from all the decisions that you're going to have to make in order to make that that budget target. It it's it's member Jackson has said, "Oh, well, there's only a $2 million capital plan, right? But we've known about this for five years. We've also known about the $60 million of unfunded maintenance of which this falls falls into. And that falls on Mr. Neil and you, Mr. Mayor, most importantly because you're the longest serving members on this. It's an issue that's been pushed off and pushed off. And in my opinion, the pain of not having the pool is certainly appropriate given where we are today. My name is Jim Gros, 5513 Park Place. I'm here to speak against this tax abatement district. This tax abatement scheme is just a way to raise our taxes using the backdoor because this will be levied across all taxpayers. This is a failure of our city council and city manager to adequately fund a depreciation reserve with pool profits from past years when there were profits. I am here to suggest an alternative to pay for this problem. Please consider the transfer of Edinburgh Park to Three Rivers Park District if they will accept it. The funds saved from the funding of hundreds of thousands in deficits at Edinburgh could be used to pay for the pool upgrades instead of using this tax abatement. Perhaps Three Rivers could better manage Edinburgh. If Three Rivers Park District will not accept this transfer, please wind down Edinburgh. The council and city staff are not making datadriven decisions. The taxpayers are not an endless source of money. The losses at Edinburgh are not sustainable going forward. The tens of millions of dollars of deferred Edinburgh maintenance shown in the capital improvement plan is not affordable. these funds could be used for the pool. My last point, I was very disappointed to learn when we heard from uh the presenter from the city about these uh spikes in electricity that was precipitating this problem. This is a widely known problem. I've had to deal with it in my business for 30 years. just a short walk from here. There's a company down in s down in Shakipi that is happens to be one of the absolute largest in the world that solves this problem. And you install it. It's called an automatic voltage regulator. We don't have to redo this. If that's the if that's a precipitating problem, let's go get let's go get this fixed. Very common. Because I have to have it for my business because electricity in this part of town is dirty. That's what we call it. So, I wanted to call that to your attention. And I'm very disappointed to see we have to put up a concrete building that we have to have pay somebody a design fee on. I mean, when is it going to end? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. G. David Franklin, 4510 Lake View Drive, Edina. Uh with a little background, I have extensive experience in facilities management with some of the biggest corporations in Minnesota, plus with the federal government. And hearing this conversation, it seems like Edina does not have a facilities management plan for all these enterprises. They just let things break. That isn't how you run any organization. And I can tell you I was at one facility a uh chemical facility for one of the largest agricultural companies in the world, Swiss company, and I commented to a plant manager how clean the facility was. His response was, "We're proud of our facility. We maintain it. We clean it." When I saw the pictures of the pool, I'm wondering, "What the hell is going on over there? It looks like they just let the place go to hell." Pardon my language here, but the city needs a facilities management system that has to be included in this $9 million. You talk about, yeah, this is good for three to five years. Where's the data and evidence? You guys belong to the National League of Cities. There's a web page says use data and evidence in decision-making. Where's the data for this money for a facility that's used two to three months a year? We don't even know the numbers of how many Dino residents use it. If we spend this nine million, how much are we subsidizing every time somebody goes swimming there? Does somebody pay $ five dollar upfront and we subsidize them $20 to go swimming? Where are the numbers? I don't see any data on this. And like I said, there's nothing about a facilities management plan which are not cheap. I've seen this from lengthy experience at Brain. Mention the losses at Bramer Ice Arena. There's no facilities management plan. They just let things break. And in one case, they just let filters burn because they didn't replace them. You got to have a facilities management plan. You shouldn't be saying, "We didn't know how far back this damage occurred." You should know that information. Should all be in a computer system. In the case of Braar, a lot of times they do just let things break and and brakes go down. Compressors break because they don't know the last time somebody maintained it. When you see a refrigeration guy coming in on a Sunday, that's triple time. It costs a heck of a lot of money. And that's what drives debt into these facilities. But we got to have data. Do we even know how much replacement cost would be for that swimming pool? Are we dumping $9 million when a complete replacement might be 20? Is it worth spending that much money to fix something? And I can tell you, you put in new systems and you patch them into old systems, something else is going to break. And these are cement pools which are notorious for cracking. So you may dump a lot of money into the facility and you might get damage that all of a sudden you got another five million. And when's it going to end? You have an old facility and you're trying to fix it to make it look like new. It doesn't work that way. What happens? And this is for the bonds people. What happens for whatever reason that pool has to be closed and you got bonds sitting on it. What happens if lightning hits and you got to close it for a year because of all the electrical systems got to be replaced? I don't even know if that pool has a lightning rod. But besides that, you you're staking yourself without having the data. You're making decisions. We got to have it. That is not data and evidence. Nobody's saying we got to have it. Mr. Frankle, not a wish. They're going to answer me on what you wish. I should respond. You're done responding. Lori Gro, 5513 Park Place. I hadn't really intended on speaking, but I think I will say a couple of things. Um, most of the council knows that I follow what goes on in the city in operations. and we bought our house 46 years ago. And since the current I've seen four city managers, several mayors, lots of city councils with this city manager. I've seen uh couple of franchise fees that keep increasing. Uh we've got a sales tax. Jeez, now I forgot what else it is. I could think of it when I was sitting there. Oh. Um, when some of our levies come due, like for city hall, that was a $950,000 a month or year levy. The bank, the levy got retired to the bank. Didn't get retired to the taxpayers. Manager Neil kept that levy. I was at the work session when he said he had come up with a creative way to increase money for the CIP. He says when debt gets paid off, we'll just continue the levy and the taxpayers won't know the difference or feel it. So that 950,000 from city hall when it was paid off that went into the CIP, how much is the debt going to be the annual debt payment for this 800,000? Hey, what happened to the 950? What happened to the 400 from Weber Woods? It seems to me every time I turn around, it's another tax. It's another fee. giant increases in levies, spending is out of control. But one thing I never thought that I would see is the city doing a tax abatement for maintenance on the swimming pool and it's going to be $12 million over 15 years. No. You know, so what if the pools closed down for a couple years? The golf course was closed down for a couple of years. That didn't hurt anything. Pool was closed down for a year during CO. We can't afford it. Not whether you want it or not. We can't afford it. I thank member Rizzer and I also thank Mayor Hlin. Both of them have said we need to look at staffing levels. And I've been pushing for a few years. You've got to cut the number of staff. You've got to cut it and you've got to stop the tiff. Edina is not rich. I think a lot of the taxpayers are. The city isn't rich. You've got to control your spending. The swimming pool isn't sacred. If it has to go, it has to go. Thank you. Thank you, M. Goats. Anyone else? Do we have anybody online? No, sir. All right. Um, yeah. Thanks for all that testimony and those thoughts. The uh suggestion here is uh from U staff that we continue our usual practice of keeping this open for subsequent written submission. So we close the public hearing on Saturday, July 5th, 2025 and continue the action to the July 15, 2025 city council meeting. Uh is there a motion to that effect? So moved. I second. Member Jackson moves Ragnu seconds the motion as stated to uh close the public hearing in this matter on July 5th, 2025 uh end of business. Uh and continue the action to the July 15, 2025 city council meeting. Uh any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the motion as stated say I. I. I. Opposed. Carried. the matter will be uh continued and we'll deal with this on July 15, 2025. Um any any questions that came up for council members that they want to raise with staff that want you want to have them look at in the gap period here relative to this matter? Um Jackson. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I remember seeing we had a breakdown of the fees um for uh the uh residents versus non-residents. I but I'm not seeing it in tonight's packet. When did we see that? Do you remember? It seems to me I Yeah, we've seen that. Yeah. Yeah. Data. We've got that data. Yeah, it was recently. I I'm like, it's on manual basis. Yep. Okay, great. Thank you. So, uh Mr. Rotten, I'm glad you stopped on the way out the door. Why don't you come back up here? Because one of our residents uh thought we needed a facilities management system and uh you're the facilities manager and I I think all of us know that you do have a system and you do have a a methodology that you follow and you might want to describe that a little bit uh in terms of uh uh how you operate from a datadriven standpoint. Yeah, thank you very much. Uh yeah, we do have a system. It's called uh VFA. Um it's a nationally known process that takes um age of buildings and their components, right? Everything from the roofs down to the concrete slabs, mechanical, electrical equipment um and then uh really takes a deep dive into um what their use is, what their age is, um what their expected useful life is based on the age and condition and use and then uh projects it out for, you know, what the maintenance cost is annually. But then also, you know, looking at 5, 10, 15, 20 year long capital plans for uh each piece of equipment. Um that's what we use to um you know, produce most of our capital improvement plan requests for building maintenance throughout the year. Um I can tell you in 2025 as part of our CIP, um we were looking to switch to a new system that does some of the things that uh the resident u Mr. Frankle requested was preventative maintenance. That's what he was really pushing on. So the system that we have right now does not uh generate automated work orders. Um we are looking at a system uh in late 2025 and it was approved as part of the capital improvement plan to purchase such a system. Um because that's really what a lot of those enterprises are requesting. Actually this maintenance staff in the field are saying we need something that can identify what needs to be done to each piece of equipment that's out there. Um my department I think as we mentioned before is we're you know kind of operate under a hybrid method where we maintain and uh you know take care of a lot of the the core facilities throughout the city and some of those enterprises are kind of on their own with the maintenance that happens out there where we get called in for our expertise and and consulting and then assistance on projects. Okay, good. That prompt any questions for Mr. Rotten from council members? Yeah, member Jackson. So, what happened in 2021 that Mr. Zickert said, "Edina, we have a problem." I I I didn't understand what that was. Do you know what happened in 2021 with the pool? Uh, that I believe that's when we had our major electrical failure was in 2021. That was the summer of 2021 when that happened. Okay. And is that did that precipitate the problem that we have now? Uh, yes. That was the driving cause of this problem. when we realized there was a major um electrical failure, we started digging into other aspects of that equipment that had failed and what the needs were in the aquatic center. So, it pre it caused it or it precipitated it. Uh I think it was a combination of both. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh, Mr. Rotten, well, I guess Mr. Frankle's going to leave here. He left some things. I was going to have him talk to you about the facilities management system we have in place, but he's not sticking around to hear about it. So, um, All right. So this pool issue, yeah, it's uh manager Neil and I talked about at noon. Yeah, one option would be close the pool. Yeah, you know, that's part of the discussion I suppose on the 15th is uh and we'll have that data I think that you've asked for uh so that we know what the numbers are and it's it's it is going to be a subsidy, you know, significant subsidy. So do we think that's important? I think we said it was. for our residents and others that uh that we serve. So, okay. All right. Let's move on. Uh we got reports and recommendations portion of the agenda coming up next. Uh we've got this resolution 2025-50 that accepts donations. Usually that's pretty pro-forma for us. But we had an issue on on this uh resolution 2025-50 that caused some conversation to occur uh with um staff, council members, residents, and that was the proposed uh donation of six spruce trees at Pamela Park. And I think what we're going to do is uh entertain a motion to table that prospective uh donation discussion to the meeting on July 15, 2025 and then we'll deal with the other matter that's on that resolution independent from the uh six blue spruce trees at Pamela Park. Is there a motion to that effect? So moved. Second. I'll get a motion by member Jackson, second by member Pierce to table uh the discussion on a potential donation to the city vina of six blue spruce trees at Pamela Park uh to the July 15, 2025 meeting. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the motion as stated say I. I. I. Opposed, carried. We'll take up that portion of the matter uh involving that potential donation on the 15th of July. And then uh that reduces resolution 2025-50 to a um potential gift to the city by Carla and Andy Vanel of $350 for one tree for York Park. Uh is there a motion to adopt resolution 2025-50 relative to the ver vanel uh proposed donation? Some moved. Jackson moves. Member Pier seconds uh the recept the receipt of the gift from the vanels's of one tree for York Park at a value of $350. Any further discussion? Yes, member. Just with the other donation, I had no idea it was so complex because I didn't have contextual information when we're talking about this $350 donation. Has it been spent on the tree and has the tree already been planted? I mean, are there any things that we don't know that we should know? What is the with that one? Yeah, Pamela Park issue or No, it's just with that donation. I had no idea there were some problems and issues with that. And so we have another um tree that's being donated and I know nothing about the um information around that. You know, is so I I guess my point is we get these donations that we're supposed to um vote for, but we really don't know what we're voting for. And the Pamela Park Tree situation brought that, you know, to the surface, but we know nothing about this donation. either really you typically I think it's been somebody that's it's it's within this the schedule of potential gifts I think that can be given through the park and rec department and that's what I'm assuming most of that most of these have been and I think this falls in the the spruce trees probably fall in that same category uh and that uh Luther Overhaul would have approved that which he may have in the other one too. Maybe that's member Russer's point. I have no idea. You know, I maybe I'll just abstain from this one because I don't really know what I'm voting for. Okay. All right. Uh we've got a motion in a second. We've had some discussion. All those in favor of accepting the donation of Carl Andy Vanell Vanel for 350 for one tree for York Park say I. I. I. Opposed. Abstension. Abstain. Uh motion is adopted. 2025-50 and its abbreviated form is approved with respect to the vanel donation. Uh now we're going to move on to um a conversation that uh we had at the beginning of this meeting. Manager Neil discussed in his comments the uh uh the vote that took place at uh amending we changed the agenda around to put the safer grant. Oh yeah. Thank you for that. Thank you. taking care of that donation is an easy thing. Yeah, let's do that. Let's bring the chief up here. Thanks, Member Jackson for that reminder. Good evening, mayor and members of the council. Uh, this topic probably doesn't need a big introduction because we had a work session kind of dedicated around staffing and discussion around this. So, I'm going to talk about the safer grant and the opportunity the city of Vina has to improve adequate adequate staffing for fire and emergency response. Uh, just a little background on the safer grant. This is administered by FEMA. There was a lot of confusion this year and uh about the safer grant when it was going to open up just based on some federal challenges that existed and I'm sure you are well aware of. Uh it really is dedicated to enhance the emergency response that exists in a community, improve the capabilities by providing resources for additional personnel, easing that burden on a on a community, a local community with federal support. And the dedication for the this grant is specific to frontline staffing increases. Um the a main goal and we talked about improving firefighter safety. A wellestablished and well-resourced crew has the proper equipment and number of resources to respond in firefighting operations and reduce risk for not only the firefighters but the residents as well in emergencies. Uh this aims to enhance community protection by strengthening the measures against fire hazards. Uh having an effective response force to ensure residents are well protected and ensure that we have resource allocation for the fire department. The eligibility criteria is really local local fire departments uh trainingmies and organizations looking for support with from the federal assistance that exists. It's uh financial help to ensure the staffing and operational efficiency and improvement of the current firefighting operations. The availability of funding this year there's $324 million allocated by the federal uh government for the hiring of firefighters. uh it's specifically allocated for this hiring ensuring that fire departments can maintain adequate staffing levels. Uh we talked earlier for for uh the work session about the importance of staffing and making sure that we have the number of people to be efficient in all the emergency responses and the risk that that the firefighters face. A reference to NFPA 1710 was made earlier. That's a this is a standard the National Fire Protection Association and the reference for standard of organization and deployment of fire suppression operations, emergency medical operations and special operations to the public by career fire departments. Although Minnesota and the federal government doesn't have any requirements of the fire department, NFPA is the best practice and a guide for how we staff and make decisions around the fire department. When applying for the safer grant, you have to you have to select what what part of the NFPA requirement you are trying to achieve and NFPA 1710 outlines those standards for minimum staffing response times and training and it aims to enhance the safety and effectiveness in a fire response. So just a quick slide, it's busy and uh I just wanted to point out some of the discussions we had of where these numbers come from. How many people do you need in a single family dwelling? The best practice says we need 16 members, 17 if we have an aerial, which we do, uh to assemble for a full assignment in a 2,000 square foot home with no basement. Um so right now we only have today in this moment there's 10 firefighters that are staffing in the city of Edina right now. If they're assigned to another call, they're not available. And we do provide service for both ambulance and fire department response. uh it's been referenced here about the different proposed developments and developments that exist which increase the risk to residents and staff based on the living arrangements in the event of an emergency. So you can see for different apartments, strip malls and high-rise the the numbers of firefighters needed to assemble to effectively respond really increases rapidly. While we do depend on mutual aid, there's no requirement. We don't have control over those resources. We call and hope for their response. The safer grant helps support organizations in increasing the adequate response within the organization. The application that we've uh have written and are ready to apply given the permission of council is for 12 paramedic firefighters. Uh the the the three-year grant is uh as laid out here. Year one is 75% of the employees salary and matched 25% by the city. uh same for year two and then it reduces in year three uh with the total bill pickup on year four. So it allows the city to uh add this adequate staffing with federal funds and build and and prepare a response to the budget impact. In total about $4 million of federal money would be applied to the city of Vina if awarded. The application highlights we we have applied for the safer grant every year since we've been selected. Um, we have not, we were selected in 2020 for a safer grant where we where six paramedic firefighters were hired. We have not been selected since, although we continue to apply. We hired a consultant this year, a grant writer consultant that has been successful around many local fire departments in the safer grant application process. And they helped draft the recommendation for this, which is really pushing us to meet that NFPA 1710 standard from 0% as it exists today uh to almost 100% if we were awarded this. It'd be a transformative transformative change for the organization. shift staffing would increase from 12 FTEES to 18 FTEES per shift. Uh that is with the six FTEEs that are currently, you know, proposed in the 26 budget or that were deferred as part of that 25 budget process for a total impact of 18 firefighters. We talked earlier about this slide about just the arrangement of the that staff and and maybe that makes a little bit more sense with 10 members on duty. You can see we have three ambulances staffed fully and two engines minimally staffed with only two members on each one of them. Um with uh with 16 members on duty, you can see we can staff our engines with uh the correct resources. We add tower staffing to have the ability for a ladder rescue or elevated master stream in some of our midlevel mid-rise buildings, many of which are apartments. uh where rescue is required to be performed due to the construction style. Uh case studies and success stories there has been we have been a part of a successful safer grant. You uh likely were aware of the safer grant in 2020 of six firefighters. Uh recent ones involved nearby us. Bloomington fire department was selected for 18 staff in 23 18 additional staff in 2025. Lakeville for 15 and 25 and South Metro for eight and 25. As mentioned previously, their impact is just fire department response. We do have both services, the paramedic and fire department response. That's why the positions would be paramedic firefighters with the ability to function in both of those roles. Um th this impact is apparent here in Edina and our surrounding communities. The federal funds help enhance those response capabilities, improve community safety and responder safety throughout. Uh what I'm asking for tonight is to to mitigate the risk and responding to emergencies in the city of Edina is a critical public safety responsibility. Federal support with an application to the safer competitive grant is fiscally responsible to ensure adequate staffing. I say it's a competitive grant because there is no guarantee. Uh the city of Burnsville which is a pure city and sister city to our operations is have has a very same application with 12 FDs. Um all these will be considered in a competitive process if selected. Um I'm asking tonight to approve the resolution to apply and implement the safer grant if awarded and I'll stand for any questions. Thank you chief. Questions for the chief. We had a good conversation for uh almost an hour and a half upstairs on this. So may but there may still be questions that have surfaced. Member Jackson. Uh yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So it's how much is our matching amount that we have to pay? 1 point something. Yeah. 1 point something. 1 point something. So it's all dependent on the application. Uh 1.65. As as the application is written today, it's for 12 staff. It would be about 1.65 million over that three-year period. Oh, okay. Over a three-year period. So, correct. Um, so, so split up. So, yeah, 2565. So, the third year would be larger. So, it's correct. Okay. So, it's not 1.6 million per year. No. And I have the breakdown if we need to know exact, but it's total over the grant period. We'll just say very roughly $500,000. Okay. So, all right. That helps. That's a lot of money to have to raise taxes for. So, okay. Thank you. Other questions, chief? Yeah, that is I mean it's 5.6 million total roughly and when you think about that three years from now. So, that's take a third of that. That's Yeah, that's probably four points on the on the general levy. Yes, we got to think about it. Is that about right, manager Neil? So, it's for three years we get a break and then we're on our own. What this would do would be to authorize you to file the grant request. We still have to accept the grant, right? The the resolution is drafted that would allow us to accept it. that conversation would come back to council if awarded. Just from a timing standpoint, the application is due by July 3rd. Um, and they are very strict deadlines. So, we have to make sure that we submit on time. Uh, the award it's it states that all applicants will be notified if they're selected before September of this year. Uh, and then there's a very quick process of having to onboard these staff. I would anticipate having to onboard them within six months of award date. Jackson and member RER, do you think you can find 12 paramedic firefighters in that short of amount of time? That certainly, Council Member Jackson, that will certainly be a challenge. Um, the hiring pool is not the same as it used to. I am confident that we uh will will work to fill these positions and have other alternative plans that we're including in the application for an alternative hiring process should we need it. Okay. Thank you. We'd have one point in the levy for the next three years. Really? um given just the basic import of ensuring safety, fire protection, um EMT response and what we heard during the work session. I for me this really feels like um something that we need to do and pursuing a grant. I I do want to say thank you for you know getting a grant writer and teeing this up. Um, I think it's an important thing for us to support. It seems to me like last time we did this and we were successful, then you had a chance to evaluate whether it was important to continue those six people and and you gave us a good good reason, good basis for that, a good data driven basis for that. I expect you'd go through that same sort of analysis if we were successful here over that next three-year period. Yes, Mayor Havlin, that that would be a process um that as part of the application, they do seek, you know, uh they do seek information as if you're going to support these. I think it would be the intention of the city of Edina to support these, but it would be necessary for us to come show the impact, show what uh show what the staffing and adequate staffing has done and will continue to do for the city. Okay. So the resolution proposed is authorized and thanks for that chief that it would authorize acceptance as well. The resolution 2025-48 would authorize applying for staffing for adequate fire and emergency response uh to the safer program and authorizing acceptance of any grant that we might receive as a result of that application. Uh is there a motion to that effect? So move. I second. Got a motion by member Russer, second by member Agnu to approve resolution 2025-48 which would authorize the application for staffing for adequate fire and emergency response through the safer program with the federal government and authorizing acceptance of that grant. Uh any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of the motion 2025-48 say I. I opposed carried. Resolution 2025-48 is passed and approved. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. And thanks for that good work session. That was really helpful in backgrounding us. Now, we're going to go back to um matter we're going to turn over to uh our attorney Dave Kendall uh to talk about an action we took uh on second reading of an ordinance. And um there was a little hiccup there and manager Neil described it in his uh manager's comments at the beginning of the meeting this evening, but I think attorney Kendall, you might uh talk about um how we solved the problem or what the problem is and how we solve it potentially. Yes. Thanks, Mayor. So, this is the PUD zoning ordinance for the 7200 7250 France site. There was the first reading of the ordinance on November 6th of 2024, and it passed with the required votes at that time. There was a second reading held on April 16th, 2025. At that time, we only had three council members present. Uh, under Robert's rules, normally the voting requirements is if you have a quorum, it's a majority of the quorum. Uh, but there's a statutory exception in Minnesota for ordinances, and I failed to advise the council of that that night. Uh, so there was a vote in favor of approving the second reading of the ordinance by a vote of 2 to one. uh I mistakenly informed the council or at least failed to point out that that was not an adequate vote to pass the ordinance at that time. So where you are now is basically the ordinance is still awaiting approval. It had approval on the first reading. It did not it was there was a vote in favor of approval at the second reading, but it did not have adequate votes according to the statute. So it's on again tonight for I guess what you'd call a third reading. Um, the other issue I needed to highlight uh was more of a director Teague's issue, but I'm uh just covering that as well. There was some uh confusion or discussion about the number of parking stalls in the second reading on April 16th. That director Teague informed me that was just a typo in the materials for that evening. So, the number of parking stalls for the project has always been 468. It was 468 at the first reading which was approved. Uh it's 468 tonight and so the only issue on for approval tonight is the highlighted material which the change was to insert the resolution numbers and the change back to correct the typo has been to indicate that it's a 468 parking stalls for that uh project and that's not changed throughout the the course of the project. So, the last comment I just wanted to make was um this was not the fault of any council members who were present voting that night. It's not the fault of any council members who had to be absent. Uh it's my fault, but it's a u straightforward remedy. Uh just have to have another reading of the ordinance tonight and take a vote with all members present and and that will solve the problem. So, with that, I'd be happy to stand for any questions. Yeah. So there were several actions taken as I recall including the ordinance we had a couple other at least one other action that was related to the project that we approved. Yes. So also on the agenda that night and kind of more was more focused on was the development contracts for that project and those could have been and were approved by a majority of the quorum present that night. So, uh, this is the only remaining item that needs additional action based on the statutory requirement. Okay. Questions for attorney Kendall? All right. Uh, with respect to um, ordinance number 2025 202405 amending PUD 16 for 7200 7250 France. Is there a motion to grant third reading of that ordinance uh, for for approval? So moved. Member Jackson moves. I second. Member Agnes seconds. Uh, any further discussion? All those in favor of granting third reading of ordinance number 2024-05 say I. I. I. Opposed. Nay. Uh, the ordinance is approved on a 4-1 vote. The third reading of ordinance number 2024-05 is approved. And then we have to fix the minutes, I guess. So, you want Mr. Kendall, you want to handle that one? that one as well. Yes. Thanks, mayor. So, that's exactly right. This is a related issue to fix the minutes to just reflect what I just summarized for you there. I mistakenly advised the council that this passed on April 16th. It did not pass on that date. So, the amended minutes reflect that and they'll have to be, you know, publication of the ordinance as it passed tonight as well. So this is just to correct and have the minutes accurately reflect what happened on the 16th which was there was a 2 to1 vote in favor but it did not pass at that time due to the statutory requirement. All right. Is there a motion to uh adopt uh the amended minutes of the regular meeting of the city council uh of April 16, 2025 to reflect uh the reflect the um what was it? reflect the action of the council this evening. Yeah. Well, it would reflect the what happened on the 16th. So, actually what actually happened on the 16th? Yeah. Right. So, the the correction didn't go down far enough, mayor, is uh it's the minutes currently say that it carried and the correction would be to change it to say that it failed or did not carry. All right. Okay. Thanks for that. I see I didn't scroll down far enough and it was uh highlighted down there. I should have kept scrolling. All right. Is people understand the motion to approve the amended April 16, 2020 25 regular minutes of the United City Council to reflect the actual vote and the motion as having failed. So moved. Second. Ragnum moves. repair seconds uh the amendment of those April 16, 2025 regular minutes as stated. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adoption of those of that amendment to the April 16, 2020 25 minutes uh regular minutes of the Adina City Council say I I I opposed carried the amended minutes of the April 16, 2025 meeting are approved. Okay. Now we are the end of the night. Where are we relative to the uh chief time guesser? We're a little beyond her. Yeah, we're two minutes behind. Yeah, we'll keep manager Neil's update short. Oh jeez. Okay. Uh thank you, your honor. Just a couple of things. Um, first I I really would like to emphasize u another look perhaps when you have time at at that audit report that we got tonight. We really had an exceptional uh year in 2024 in terms of our fiscal performance. Um, and it wasn't luck. Uh, we we worked hard to make sure that our our general fund revenues came in at 4 and a half four 4% more than budget. our expenses were 6.3% lower than budget. Uh together that makes a pretty significant change in our general fund. Uh and it's a good change and it's a change that will help us as we grapple with challenges for 26 and 27. Um, as Director Tao noted, um, we do plan to to give some additional consideration to, uh, the fund balance question and bring back a recommendation to the council to consider on July 15th. Uh, there have been some questions about, uh, the status of the uh, tree ordinance uh, amendments. Um we have been working with both legal and industry folks to put together a set of recommendations and of course we got input from the council as we were uh leading up to that as well. Right now the the the uh schedule is to come to bring that uh proposed ordinance to the EEC for their input on July 10th uh and then come back to them and get their recommendation on August 14th and come to the council on September 2nd. So that is the that's the timeline of of that uh of that ordinance. Uh we talked a little bit uh this morning about or excuse me earlier earlier this evening about uh fire staffing and I think the question I think council member Jackson just asked the question about if you got 12 positions could you hire 12 firefighters? Uh that's that is a challenge. Um, but we are going to be continuing to talk about that in the interim period here and we may be able to update you on some ideas for that at the July meeting as well. Um, we also looked at the borrowing proposal for uh the Vernon Avenue Bridge project. One of the components in that we've had some discussion on is bringing in some some TIFF uh uh funding that we have in our Centennial Lakes TIF district. uh and that we could bring in uh I think Bill Newandorf and and Nick Anhut identified 1.5 million that we could use not not giving back to the county but use directly uh into that project and so I intend to make that recommendation to you. Right now I think we have 250,000 from that source allocated. Uh I do want to increase that up to that full 1.5 million. I've talked to to Director Milner about that as well. So, we intend to bring that back to council for an action at one at some point as well. Uh, finally, just apologies for the uh for the April 16th action. Uh, we'll we will endeavor to, you know, I think it had some impacts on people that um are paying attention to that project and on Mr. Carlson and of course the council and staff. So, uh we feel badly about that and we will endeavor to uh do better. That's all I've got. Thank you. Thanks. On on the fiscal side of things, uh you mentioned in the audit report and I don't know if you alluded to alluded to this earlier or not, but looks like we're going to have what about 3.1 million in monies that we could allocate to the construction fund. I think member Jackson mentioned it too, but um you've got a couple of ideas that may involve recommendations on a standalone basis and and that's pretty customary when we've when we've taken that action. uh we put the bulk of it into the construction fund and there may be some side expenditures that we get your explicit approval on. I I can tell you from from my experience uh I started here in 2010. This was the best uh fund performance in that regard that we've had since I've been here. So it's it's pretty significant and uh and also it allows us to to fund our general fund uh uh assigned and unassigned fund balance as well. So remember they told us that that target for that number should be between 35 and 50% of our annual expenses. We're at 46.8%. So we're right we're right there. So it's pretty solid, too. Well, in our budget discussions, there were some things that we parked that were important to council members and residents and be interesting to see if those are on your list. Right. Um member anything for us tonight. So, me and the family are planning to go to the aquatic center on Sunday. It's supposed to be, I don't know if anyone's looked, 95 and sunny on Sunday. Um, so, mayor, maybe I'll see you there. This weekend is your opportunity um to try it out, but but otherwise, nothing else for me tonight. Okay. Thank you, member Pierce. Uh, nothing from me tonight. Thank you, Jackson. Well, you'll have to call me and see if you can get him to surf. I think I would like to see that. Um, I actually have a question for you, uh, Manager Neil. When the legislative sess session was over, you had a conversation with Representative Green about some other pots of money that might be available for the bridge. Um, do you remember that conversation? And are there I know she might have just had it with the two of us. Maybe it was just with the two of us. When I mentioned it to manager Neil, he didn't Okay. He didn't know that. All right. Well, so go ahead. Then I will give you a direction. Please follow up with her. I don't know if it's the local bridge fund or what. That was Mindot was one of the potential. Mindot was one of the sources. Yeah. So, um, so I if there's any ghost of a chance, we should pursue it. We're happy to ask. Yeah. Um, and you know, I just thank you for the moment of silence about Representative Fortman. Um, I did work with her, not closely, but everything that people have said about her, um, is true. She was just extraordinary leader and one of the things that's most important is that she made a real effort to reach out to the other side. And I think in this time of divided political anger and everything that that's a a lesson that we should all take home and um I was talking to someone who was very upset and I said well you know make peace with somebody in your life um just make a little bit more peace in in the world and I think that will um help us get through this. So thank you. Thank you for that member. Well, I was wandering around the Grand View area today waiting for my car to be repaired and um this was a day of walking and I walked along that brick sidewalk and you know that's something that we have been concerned about. But then I also was going down 58th Street and just really appreciated on um the wider sidewalk and just how wonderful that was. And then um this weekend I was looking at the Wooddale sidewalk that is just south of Valley View because this is another form of use. Um there were two kids in a little tiny kid car that was electrified going down the sidewalk sort of occupying the entire thing. So um as we put in more infrastructure, it's really very fascinating to experience it and appreciate it. And I just wanted to give a shout out for that um development in our infrastructure because I do think it's so basic and so important and it's really wonderful. Thank you. Um just a quick uh note that uh every Tuesday night, the rest of June and the 1st of July is Grooves and Food down at Centennial Lakes. Uh we missed it tonight because uh and they had the the Peterson family was there doing classic rock. Uh but I would encourage all of you to go down there uh on a Tuesday night here through the 1st of July and and have that experience. It was really enjoyable. I think people would really have a wonderful time. Um and then as we just uh close down the meeting uh just to a reminder as member Jackson said to keep the Hortman family and the Hoffman family in your in your thoughts and prayers. So is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. A second. Member Jackson moves. member seconds a motion to adjourn the meeting of the United City Council this 17th day of June 2025. Any further discussion? All those in favor of German say I. I. I. Opposed. Carried. We stand adjourned.