e well good evening everybody and welcome to the May 7th 2024 meeting of the Adina city council uh we welcome all of you that are meeting with us here in person this evening and there are some online we've been doing these meetings in a hybrid fashion uh during covid and since Co to accommodate our residents and as director benro said people are watching on cable TV or on their computers at 9 am.gov live meetings or possibly on Facebook and what will come up fairly quickly is an opportunity to make Community comment about things that are of a concern to you uh also another opportunity for uh uh participation in the meeting tonight is a public hearing portion of the meeting and we'll get to those in a little while uh and the phone number I'm going to ask them to put the phone number up one more time for people to call in for Community comment especially because they may um they may want to be they want to be ready to go here because we'll get be getting to that fairly quickly so uh having provided that information let's call the meeting to order and let's ask our clerk Sharon Allison to call the role clerk Allison council member agnu here council member Jackson here council member Pierce here council member rer here mayor huin here uh next is the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of alleg Allegiance to the five of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thanks everybody and we have a form of meeting agenda in front of us this evening uh that's previously been published to the uh citizens of v as well and I'm wondering if anybody has any changes they want to make to the meeting agenda from a staff standpoint Council standpoint is there a motion to approve the meeting agenda as published so moved member Jackson moves member Pier second the adoption of the meeting agenda is published any further discussion all those in favor of adoption of the meeting agenda is published say I I I opposed carried um and now we are at Community Comet so uh let's get that number back up on the screen here momentarily and uh or for a moment I should say uh but I'm going to first go to folks in uh the audience that may wish to address the Council on a matter of concern to them and as director benat said uh please keep in mind you'll have 3 minutes we try to treat everybody the same here and you'll get a 30 second uh kind of warning with that yellow light and then you should be thinking about wrapping up your comments so please remember to give us your name and address and uh yes sir welcome mayor council members my name is Harry mclanahan and I live at 7200 York one of my takeaways from following City Council meetings is that none of you underestimates the importance of trust to your policymaking success I'd even go so far as to describe trust building as one of this body's core values consciously Focus focusing on removing ambiguity from your public discourse can make you even more effective because those least trusting Among Us tend to assume the worst interpretation of our motives when we don't State our intentions unequivocally one of the best ways to mitigate this kind of mistrust is to avoid ambiguous word choice especially when it comes to potentially divisive issues Equity is my favorite example no need to search the archive to figure out whether or not this body supports Equity right here's the problem though as I speak two contradictory definitions of equity are very much in play according to the Oxford American Dictionary the def definition of equity is fair and reasonable treating everyone in an equal way however according to the Minnesota Commissioner of education's website Equity is different from equality Equity is a principle that is based on justce and fairness while equality demands everyone be treated at the same level both sources are reliable and I'm not here to promote one over the other just to point out that Equity is ambiguous I'm faced with two crible credible sources one is telling me people must be treated equally the other is telling me they must not this plays out at the Supreme Court nearly every session often over College admissions policies what's important is that policies based on one of these definitions will be drastically different from policies based on the other because Equity is ambiguous it's not surprising that when Skeptics hear the term they assume the speaker is either equiv ating or coming from a worldview contrary to their own in other words as listeners they shut down you can minimize this communication challenge by telling them which definition you endorse and by using precise language when talking about Equity related issues you start every meeting you just did pledging liberty and justice for all Dr King pointed out that we will overcome because the Arc of the moral universe is LA long but it bends towards Justice no one would recommend replacing Justice with equity in either of those statements because Justice is exactly the right word and because Justice unlike Equity is unambiguous the phrase words matter has become so overused its borderline trite but the thing is they actually do once again it's all pretty simple except when it's not thanks for listening and good luck yeah thanks Mr mcclanan enjoyed your wisdom this week and uh this meeting and and the last meeting as well thanks for being here uh other members of our community wish to address the Council on matters of concern to them uh Andy Brown 5512 Parkplace in Adina um my concern is the number of density and quantity of density proposals coming towards the council local government Visa what we're doing regarding transportation and Transit and the cost of those um we don't have a passenger rail line we have very very limited Metro Transit bus service in fact we've lost a lot of those lines to begin with and there's no plan that I know of for a third lane on Highway 62 so I would really like the council as a whole to really look and think hard regarding density in our location part of the reason why people like to come to Adina and pay the rates that they do to live here is location and ease of ability to get to other places and uh it seems to me that that's going to get more and more impacted if we don't take that seriously and look at the costing and where it goes and have that question in our mind every time we get a proposal for increased density so thank you thank you Mr Ron good evening hi Dave Frankle 4510 lak View Drive um you've received emails from me on this topic several of them actually uh ironically a couple weeks ago I was at a Tech Conference in San Diego if you're familiar with San Diego it's the largest naval base in the United States it's home of the US Navy Seals the Navy's Top Gun program and right now there's three aircraft carriers in San Diego Harbor I don't have to tell you the US military values the US flag runs a Common Thread through all armed forces when the governor of Minnesota asks government buildings to lower their flags and honor this past weekend of the Fallen Firefighters Memorial no public building Idina bothered to lower their Flags I went around to other communities Richfield St Louis Park and their F flags were lowered as asked by Governor walls I don't know what the issue is here at Civ din but my proposal suggestion would be that there be a primary person who works for the city of Edina or a volunteer that is responsible for lowering the US Flags when Governor walls suggests that and I suggest there be a secondary person in case the primary is not available it's ridiculous we can't our flags when the governor asks us to do it it's not done because he wants to do it there's a solid reasoning behind it the other issue is not clear what's going on outside here on Eden and Wilson Road that whole development there m on green the traffic circles has been a major inconvenience for residents in ID when these developments transpire they should not interfere with the quality of life of V resident it's been two years of Road closers closures construction and now I'm not quite sure what's going on with temporary road signs on Wilson Road did somebody discover there's no no parking signs east of Highway 100 on Eden or Wilson Road yet there's virtually very little parking overflow for mean green and for the new Starling restaurant so they're parking on Wilson Road that's a major thoroughfare for din Public School Bus buses and there's no way two buses can get through that street when they Park on one side they can legally right now park on both sides which can make it very difficult for a bus to even get through there I I don't understand how they s green and this new restaurant were allowed to be developed with limited parking and they even showed parking on their website to include the city's parking lot right outside here which evidently was recently just changed does anybody have any oversight of what the styling restaurant is telling its customers where they can park the office building down the street is not happy they're using that as overflow they're also not happy they're parking right up to their driveway which not only is blind but makes it difficult for trucks to get in there this whole area I'm an avid viker this whole area is disastrous for biking it's all been redeveloped new traffic school circles new streets and it's dangerous you know again I sent you an article from American bicycles Association 's rated a bronze City to bike in Minneapolis is gold and St Louis Park is a silver we talk a lot about making biking accessible Ina but but talk doesn't get things done and that's exactly what's Happening Here Urban biking in general is dangerous the only way to make it safer is to make bike lanes that are protected and if you don't know what that means look it up and N has none of it we have off-road but we don't have onroad protected biking legally bikes can bicycle on any road except for freeways and Dina were saying bikers go on the sidewalks that doesn't work it doesn't work for adults Mr Frank I need to have you wrap up thank you thank you anyone else in the audience wish to address the Council on a matter of concern to them all right let's turn to director benat nobody all right uh our practice is to um you've heard folks come with concerns tonight and um uh we had people at our prior meeting if they had concerns that we wanted to address we usually have a followup on that uh following Friday after a council meeting we post things on the city website uh and I'm better together or just on the city website together City website in response to the questions that were raised or the concerns that were raised and then we use the usually have the city manager to do a follow-up uh to deal with those matters that were raised at the prior meeting as well so I'll turn now to manager Neil to see if he has any comments he wants to make thank you your honor we had uh two commenters at our previous most previous meeting one was Mr mclanahan who shared some wisdom about city government uh much as he did tonight uh and then a set of questions regarding trees one was regarding uh does the city's tree protection ordinance apply to commercial properties as we just learned from our work session our tree protection ordinance does not but there is separate code uh in our commercial tree or excuse me Commercial Landscaping Provisions that do uh regulate Trees and Landscaping in on commercial property second question was if an electric utility requires a Heritage tree to come down as the property owner required to replace it if a tree is removed due to utilities uh during the building process yes the ordinance does apply and and there is a placement um required finally what should you do if you suspect you have a disease or infested tree um you can contact the city we have an arborist here you can contact a private arborist uh Minnesota Department of Agriculture Department of Natural Resources or even henpen County any thoughts from other council members okay all right let's move on then to the consent agenda um I think um that in item under item six uh member restorant to remove items 6A and uh 6 o and then I wanted to remove item 6j for a little bit of discussion before we uh vote on that matter so I'm going to turn first to the item of 6A uh let's let's deal with this let's let's do it this way uh with the exception of item 6A uh J and O is there a motion to approve the balance of the items on the consent agenda so moved second member Jackson moves member Pierce seconds the notion and the motion that we adopt all the items on the consent agenda with the exception of items 6 a j and O uh any further discussion all those in favor of adoption of the motion of stateus say I I I opposed carried uh now let's go back then to item 6A which are the minutes and I think uh uh member Risser wanted to uh I think make a correction or a suggestion on a correction on some of the minutes um yes thank you and and um resident Janie Weston did come to council and um she if you watch the um her statement around 8 minutes in she says the tree ordinance is not limited to just Residential Properties it says that it includes subdivisions The Only Exception is Parkland and if you read the sub if you read the ordinance the tree protection ordinance that is what it says and um so it includes everything except Parkland okay and um we talked about this in the work session this is my reading of it I understand that when the ordinance was written the intent was not to say that but that is the language in the ordinance other cities who have tree protection ordinances require protection for commercial land um single family housing multif family housing and the way our ordinance is written we do too but we're not enforcing it that way and um there is another part of our code that deals with Landscaping I think making the connection between what that says for commercial and it focuses on commercial property but to draw an equivalence between that and the tree protection ordinance is confusing and ambiguous and I really appreciate what resident um M Mr mclanahan just said about ambiguity and all of that so I wanted to make that statement I understand there's been um a suggested change of language uh however I want it you know she was very clear The Only Exception is Parkland and I think that would be the best way to record it in the minutes but I think the minutes are recorded based on what she said but she didn't say except Park Parkland so she specifically said the tree ordinance is not limited to just Residential Properties it says that it includes subdivisions The Only Exception is Parkland okay I'm quoting her directly okay so you're uh making a motion to amend the minutes to reflect that language all right is there a second I'll second it so that we can have some more conversation on it all right let's do that and then we'll have conversation we'll have a discussion um so thank you um Mr Mayor uh I want to clarify um like the way that we tend to do these minutes um I'm not exactly sure about the second part um I agree with the because it included subdivision with Parkland is the only exception as an addition um but the additional additional component of she said she's heard in meetings that it does not include commercial properties but the language did not specify that commercial properties were excluded um it just feels out of character with how we typically do these minutes so you're you're thinking that the minutes accurately characterized what she what she said I would cross that second red line and um keep it as the subdivision with Parkland is the only exception because I think we're working from this is that accurate I I agree and I would also like to add that in the original minutes that came out that were published um she was credited with saying uh she was misquoted as saying the ordinance included subdivisions but not Parkland or commercial property so it completely set the opposite of what she came before Council to say and I think um we need to be really careful when residents take the time to come forward and bring concerns we need to get those concerns presented accurately and the worst thing you can do is present those concerns in the exact opposite way that they were intended um so I don't I don't know if you know and this is we did hear from another Resident I think a few maybe a month or two ago and I think it had to do with conquered Avenue in the sidewalks and and there was frustration there that he had been misquoted so anything we can do to make sure that when we're um capturing what residents say that we're doing it um accurately I think we need to be sure we do that because that's also about transparency so member egno walk me back through is that the sentence that starts she said she'd heard you're suggesting that be stricken yeah and me member richer are you're comfortable with that um it does provide context though because we are continuing to hear from staff that uh commercial is not included so I I I don't know maybe we could reach out to um resident Weston and see what she has to say about that maner Neil I again we we've talked about minutes a number of times here and remember they are really to reflect what was actually said not what we thought we heard or wished we would have said I think if we're going to consult uh an outside source for what the minute should say it should be the actual audio video tape of the last meeting yeah I think you have it in front of you member sir I I transcribed what was said on the video and I agree going back to the video is the best way to go so does does her testimony include the statement that she said she'd heard in meetings that it does not include commercial properties but the language did not specify that commercial properties were excluded or is that an editorialization uh I'm not sure but what makes me uncomfortable about that is that it presents the idea that it's only about commercial and it's about all zoned properties except Parkland and so I think you know that is lost when we start going down that and I didn't listen that far so I can't confirm that that's accurate Mr Mayor yes if I may clarify um yes she did say that at the meeting um and CC member is right that the minute was inaccurate the first time around and it does now reflect that parklon was as The Only Exception as stated by Miss Weston the um sentence that uh council member agnu would like to um strike from the um the minutes does reflect what Miss Weston did say at the meeting okay and that's I assume that you're comfortable with that I think we all arek that it reflects your testimony okay so uh we've got a set of me uh meeting minutes in front of us for April 16 2024 that have been amended to reflect the uh accurately the testimony of one of our residents Janie Weston is there a motion to adopt the minutes in their amended form for April 16 2024 member rer so move all right member seconds all right further discussion all in favor of adopting the minutes in their amended form say I I I opposed carried uh and then um I think I'm up next on item J so um this is a street lighting replacement for Barry Road and I think this is going to be for director Milner uh so I was in a in a virtual meeting with with climate Mayors recently and we were talking about in some cities where they're replacing their lighting and uh in Los Angeles in particular in in a few other cities including Madison uh when they're replacing uh lighting structures they're adding in the ability to in some appropriate places to do EV charging right on the on the light post so they've got new LED lighting they've got the new light post the new light standard and you have the ability and depending on where where it is what kind of a street it's on of being able to charge your EV right on that lamp post and I'm wondering if we've given that any consideration uh in this process that we are going about of replacing some of our LED lighting all over town yeah thanks mayor we have not considered that it's an interesting idea I think I can think of a many different things we got to think about and figure out first before we do that including rightaway ordinance and what it looks like but the most important piece is we're going to the model where Excel owns all of our light Poes all of our street lights so it really is a conversation with them on what they want to see moving forward so so great idea and we'll continue those disc in the situation where we're replacing the whole standard you know the whole light post I think it's worth thinking about it at least investigating so thanks mayor all right I'll move uh the adoption of item 6 uh J second at a motion in second to adopt the request to purchase Street lighting replacement for Barry Road uh any further discussion all those in favor of adoption of item 6 J say I I I opposed carried and then back to member rer for um the request for purchase that was part of the consent agenda on fire station number two for uh potentially some larger diameter trees and remember rer I'm glad you pulled this one because I was thinking about it and I think others probably have been as well um so go ahead again all of us received and this is um from Resident Dany Weston uh email that was very detailed about concerns regarding um the limited warranty of the this is only for a year for all of these trees um also specific concerns about Oaks and you know the size are they going to be able to make it uh that was a concern and uh you know when you're transporting those trees tap rout everything like that and so spending 71,000 just wanting to make sure that this is um you know and if we could get a longer warranty I think to make sure that the trees actually do survive that would be a good thing so thank you uh member rer uh City Forester wasn't able to attend but he he did give me some notes we can run through the industry standard really has been one year on the trees if we ask for a longer warranty they'll charge more money because there is a risk with every time we plant a tree that a tree can die he's been experiencing 10% or less on the larger spaded trees so the city Forester has confidence that these trees in general mostly were would survive if we plant smaller trees the success rate actually goes down a little so we'd expect to lose more trees when we do the larger ones we we're losing less trees but it it kind of averages out okay and this is a company based in Houston are the trees local trees are they coming from here or they're Minnesota trees uh something unique uh that Luther's been using is extremely large tree Spades so uh the vendors he's going with are using a 90in tree spade to sever the roots every 3 years while the trees are being grown in the nursery and that way when the 100 in tree spade comes to move them uh the success rate goes way up because the roots have been root pruned every 3 years so you're not damaging a bunch of roots right when you remove it to plant it it's kind of like growing a tree in a pot a very obviously large pot but highly skilled labor highly skilled uh equipment to achieve this process thank you so for me this was a question about how big a tree do we want how big did are the trees are that we want to buy because it struck me that we didn't have the capacity to do this ourselves so we had to have a specialized company do it with specialized equipment and and I don't see that in the report as to the the diameter the circumference of the proposed trees that we would put in there and uh in the scheme of things doesn't make sense or should we be going with smaller trees even though they have a higher failure rate yeah so the uh the large trees well we don't Idina doesn't own it tree spade we we're not really in that line of work so we don't have the opportunity to use our own equipment to do smaller so we'd still be hiring a vendor but the larger trees really make an impact right away to a commercial site we've heard from residents on various projects that things happen and all that comes in are very very small trees that take years and years to mature this this process really steps things up so it feels like a mature wooded lot not wooded but obviously more mature trees going in immediately so it it visually looks up healing right away and we want to lead by example so sounds like from your explanation that they've got a higher chance at survival that's been his experience based on the certainly methodology okay certainly there's always tree loss anytime you're moving trees there can be tree loss all right and I understand the one- year warranty issue I think that's what I've normally heard is getting over the years so uh and that prompt any questions from anybody else else is somebody care to move the matter then the item 60 the request for purchase of larger diameter trees for fire station number two move second REM moves member agu seconds the uh adoption of item 60 which is a request for purchase of larger diameter trees for fire station number two any further discussion those in favor of adoption of the motion stated say I I I opposed carried uh that takes care of the items on the consent portion of the agenda and we're now going to move to the special recognitions and presentations if you can hear me ladies come on in I can yeah we have a we have a coach with us too is Katie offet here come on in just stand in the in the center here we don't have a Proclamation but I I want to tell everybody about our our Monday Adventure at the state legislature so uh our legislative delegation uh led by Heather Edon uh before the house started its work uh all the Adina teams that have won state championships whether they were sports teams or debate teams or robotics teams occupied the whole house Chambers and we had some photo opportunities and these young women from d a soccer uh team that won the state championship we all there and so I thought all of us what we're trying to do folks in the audiences that every meeting we're going to try to have one of our state championship teams here to recognize them so that Beyond getting recognized in their own homes and and their neighborhoods and at school themselves they they get to be on local access television and and people at home get to see all of you and uh and kind of applaud applaud you as well so we're going to give you a little here for winning the state tournament and and I don't know uh if any coach I take it coach offet is not here sitting in the back anywhere and uh did she assign any of you to speak on behalf of the team or is it we have captains here oh yeah I see and if you want to get in front of a microphone that would be the best thing to do to just if you have anything you want to tell us about your experience and and then I'd like to have you all give your names too please well first of all thank you for having us um we're really proud of our team this year and uh we wouldn't be able to do it without the great yina soccer association that we have at yina and cage Co coach Katie offet and my fellow captains Ashley Turk and then daa Roy and Izzy Angel who can't be here but thank you again for having us yeah thank you for having us um this team is obviously something special we were under defeated this year took a lot of hard work and so we're just really thankful for how it turned out and everything so all right well we're going to take a photo too and I think going to get the whole Council up there with you because it's such a great opportunity here so want to say their names first yeah and uh I was going to have them do that when they turned around I think when we so you can tell the audience who you are when we Face them I think that'll be that'll be better even though we won't have a microphone Ashley tur hold on ladies back here we're going to take a picture back here and then but then we'll have you yeah we sorry hi I'm elenie Maguire I'm Mia Crosby I'm Ellie dokot I'm Grace Bal I'm lilan Saxton I'm Ashley Turk I'm anley Graves all right now let's get really [Music] [Applause] skinny couple more [Music] these are really now you want to play with they are again they're car coasters car coasters the city local thank you so much for having us we got a few proclamations we're going to do in this portion of the agenda as well and the uh um first Proclamation we're going to we're going to read is dealing with transportation and it's a transportation commission's 20th anniversary hard to believe and uh Andrew sepion is here and is Andy Lewis here too yeah there he is back there who serves with me on the tab or the Met Council and the proclamation reads as follows whereas on April 16 2002 the city of UD established the local traffic task force to provide criteria for analyzing traffic on local roadways and Institute a toolbox to creatively mitigate traffic issues such as speed and volume as they pertain to local streets and whereas on July 15 2003 the city of Edan established Edan Transportation Commission to advise City Council on matters related to the operation of the local Street system with respect to traffic volumes congestion and functional classification and whereas in the past 20 years the aded Transportation Commission has achieved the following participated in the the development of the city's comprehensive bicycle Transportation plan the active routes to school plan the living streets plan The Pedestrian and bicycle master plan and the transportation chapter of the 2018 comprehensive plan supported efforts to improve the city's network of non-motorized Transportation facilities to ensure that the needs of all users and all modes are accommodated and provided Community perspective and recommendations on traffic safety requests commented on projects funded by The Pedestrian cyclist safety fund LED educational campaign supported the Clover ride Circulator bus service participated in community events such as open streets and Bike To Work Day now therefore the city council the city of viina does hereby recognize the achievement of the commission's many members in 20 years of work to promote safety and Mobility for all modes of transportation in the city of Vina we reaffirmed the city's commitment to providing and maintaining Transportation facilities that meet Mobility needs in an efficient effective and safe manner is there a motion to adopt the proclamation as read so moved M Jackson moves second member U seconds the adoption of the uh Proclamation celebrating ad Transportation commission's 20th anniversary all those in favor of adoption the proclamation say I I I opposed carried uh Andrew cion is here and our chair uh Transportation chair Andy Lewis you want to come up as well join Mr cipion you may have some remarks you want to make I'm going to walk down and hand us to the two of you and then we're eager to your observations thank you members of council um it's difficult to boil 20 years of work down to one quick brief Proclamation um so I just I'll keep my remarks brief uh I just wanted to add that um there are many more routine things that the Transportation Commission does uh such as review Traffic Safety requests they provide input on our roadway reconstruction projects they provide feedback on proposed redevelopments um and they really provide a lot of uh helpful insight into the city's practices policies and operations related to transportation um it's been a privilege to serve as their uh staff liaison for The Last 5 Years um in the etc's 20y year history there have been 50 members uh 50 regular members and a couple dozen student members we invited as many regular members as we could to attend tonight uh at this time I would ask uh any current or previous members of the Transportation Commission to please stand and be recognized and with that I'd like to pass it to our chair Andy Lewis all right very good thanks Mr cion welcome Cher Lewis thank you thank you mayor thank you members and uh first of all I'd like to thank uh sta leaz on skion um he keeps us in line helps guide us um and thanks to him and staff here um we truly have them to thank for the work uh that we have done as a current commission uh and the work of the commission over the past 20 years a few other thank yous that I wanted to recognize is certainly uh the chairs that have preceded me um Kirk Johnson for one laori richond um learned a ton from them and have really helped guide us over the course of my time on the commission uh we heard from a couple of community members tonight with points of view input perspective on transportation and one of the things that I've taken away in my three years on the commission is the importance of community members speaking to us directly speaking to Council that input making its way to us and how important that is to the community input process and the work that we do so uh we thank all the community members who have come before us uh up to this point and certainly welcome them in the future as well and to all the fellow Commissioners um this is time spent out of their day and their busy lives and I value that tremendously uh I'm sure Council does as well and uh thank them for all of the time that they've spent and all of the work that they've done and uh in the interest of the things that we've done up to this this point I think there's a lot more ahead of us uh and we appreciate your support now and in the future thank you very much very good I think we're going to do a photo here don't be shy in the back thanks for coming [Music] Julie let's let's have you come up front your yep yep and maybe you can come up front too sorry let's let's not be offended we're in the front row all right and let's wrap around a little bit so we get a little skinnier here yes thank you thank you uh Caroline you can come forward too you guys scooch in let's make a window you pop out a little bit there we go all right okay that's it all right big smiles couple more couple more I want to get one with my phone too all right okay thanks so much all right our next Proclamation is um National Police Week uh designating uh that week the week of May 12th through the 18th 2024 as National Police Week this was something we've done for probably close to a decade now and it's really uh an important Proclamation and um the flag raising ceremony that we do is uh really I think an important part of uh what we do every year in ID I think in terms of not only recognizing the First Responders that service um but also having a chance of visit with them a little bit and make sure they get celebrated and also for our residents I think I think it's it's so good for them to know that um all of our our police and fire are so well appreciated and so the proclamation for National Police Week reads as follows uh whereas the week of May 12th to the 18th 2024 is National Police Week in the United States and whereas there are more than 800,000 Law Enforcement Officers serving in communities across the United States including the dedicated members of the IND police department and where is nearly 44,000 assaults against law enforcement officers were reported in 2021 resulting in approximately 15369 injuries and whereas since the first recorded death in 1791 over 23,000 law enforcement officers in the United States have made the ultimate sacrifice have been killed in the line of duty and whereas the names of those dedicated public servants are engraved on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington DC and where is 282 new names of fallen heroes are being added to the national law enforcement memorial yet this spring and whereas the service and sacrifice of all officers killed on the line of duty will be honored during the national law enforcement officer memorials fund 36th annual Candlelight vigil to be held on May 13 2024 and whereas the candlelight vigil is part of the National Police Week which takes place this year on May 12th through the 18th and whereas May 15th is designated as Peace Officers Memorial Day in honor of all Fallen officers and their families and US flag should be flown at half staff on that day and now therefore the city council of the city of viina Minnesota does hereby Proclaim May 12th through the 18th 2024's National Police Week in the city of Edina and calls upon the people of Edina to observe this week in honor of the men and women whose diligence and professionalism keep our residents in our city safe is there a motion to adopt the proclamation as read so moved second member Jackson moves and member Pierce second the adop adoption of proclamation uh naming May 18th through the 12th through the 18th 2024 is National Police Week any further discussion those in favor of adoption of the Proclamation is read say I I I opposed carried all right and we've got with us one of our one of our own um Sergeant Sergeant Xin thank you for being with us this evening and Anna Xin is here to accept the proclamation I'm going to bring it down to her in a minute but I think she's some remarks to make as well so really pleased to have you here thanks for being with us this evening thank you mayor hin council members city manager Neil for the proclamation I am Anna Xin I'm one of the sergeants for our Edina Police Department during police week we take time to honor the men and women in law enforcement who put their lives on the line every day to keep our community safe as well as to remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in 2024 there have been 56 line of duty deaths including two that occurred in Minnesota it is important that we remember that these officers are Someone's Child brother sister mother or father this has been a difficult time for law enforcement and there will be other new and difficult challenges that we will and continue to encounter the D police department will greet those challenges with courage compassion resilience and care for our community we are very fortunate to work for the city of Edina and with the community and we will continue to um and and we work with them well to support our officers and their efforts thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight and we appreciate the recognition thank you Sergeant we're going to come down and take a photo I'm going to ask the whole Council to come down okay and then officers that are here and then manager Neil would like to come down as well I don't okay let's step forward a little bit so I can get my taller officers in the back Sergeant Xin and mayor H let's come forward come forward come forward keep coming keep coming Dar we're buddying up thank you um all right and we're as skinny as we can get or skinny skinny okay here we go yes looking good keep smiling you're talking you're not smiling here we go okay couple more with my [Laughter] phone like shush him there we go thank you so much [Applause] got a few more items left on this portion of the agenda one more Proclamation um we're also coming up on National Public Works week and we're going to read a proclamation involving uh Public Works and I think we've got Dave Gorgon with us this evening our Public Works assistant director to accept the proclamation the proclamation reads as follows National Public Works week May 19 to the 25th 2024 whereas Public Works Services provided in our community are an integral part of our citizens everyday lives and whereas the support of an understanding and informed citizenry is vital to the efficient operation of Public Works systems and programs such as water sewers and streets and whereas the health safety and comfort of this community greatly depends on these facilities and services and whereas the quality and effectiveness of these facilities as well as their planning design and construction is vitally dependent upon the efforts and skill of Public Works officials and whereas the efficiency of the qualified and dedicated Personnel whose staff Public Works Department is materially influenced by The People's attitude and understanding of the importance of the work they perform now therefore we the city council of the city of ID do hereby proclaim the week of May 19th through the 25th 2024 as National Public Works week in the city of Edina and we call upon all citizens and Civic organizations to acquaint themselves with the issues involved in providing our Public Works and to recognize the contributions which Public Works officials make every day to our health safety comfort and quality of life is there a motion to adopt the proclamation as R so moved second member Jackson moves member U seconds the adoption of the Proclamation designating May 19 to the 25th 2024 National Public Works week all those in favor of adop adoption of the Proclamation is read say I I I opposed carried and Mr Gorgon welcome thank you thank you Mr Mayor members of the city council thank you for reading and approving the proclamation the American public works Association is proud to announce advancing quality of life for all as this year's theme for national public Public Works week this year's poster illustrates how Public Works professionals contribute to and enhance the quality of life in all the communities they proudly serve we value this community and the role the public works and Engineering professionals play in keeping it safe and functioning smoothly for the last 64 years National Public Works week is designed to increase public awareness by enlightening the public about the duties practices and goals of your Public Works professionals thank you thank you for approving the proclamation declaring May 19th through 25th as National Public Works week and thank you for supporting our team's efforts Thursday May 23rd we are celebrating this this recognition by hosting our biannual open house from 400 to 7: p.m. we hope that you and the rest of the community can join us at the public works and park maintenance facility to see some of the equipment and people that help Advance the quality of life for all in Dina thank you good all right let's uh I'm going to bring this Proclamation down then we're okay this is good looking group couple more and one with the phone thank you well this is the first time we've had uh Marissa with us uh in a presentation capacity and um we've had some work done by the University of Minnesota and some of the students over there and uh our sustainability manager MCA beer is going to um lead us off in this discussion and tell us a little bit about the work that these young people have been have been doing for the city of Edina so miss bear welcome he thank you Mr mayor council members again Marissa bear sustainability manager part of my role here at the city is to support the implementation of the climate action plan part of this is going to include a midpoint evaluation next year to understand if we are on track to meeting the goals uh that we've set in that climate action plan specifically are we on track to achieving a 45% emissions reduction by 2030 to set this evaluation up for Success the former sustainability manager Grace Hancock and the current sustainability specialist Matthew gab successfully applied applied for a University of Minnesota resilient communities project team to complete a study to see if the D climate action plan Transportation emission reduction goals and strategies are achievable the intention of this study is really to see what are the options what might be possible as we think about current and future scenarios the resilient communities project the Humphrey School of public affairs and the University of Minnesota provided really great unique access to researchers statisticians policy and planning experts to tackle this issue for a fraction of the cost of what a traditional consulting firm might charge resilient communities project typically cost $6,000 but with the support from the Metropolitan Council who plans to use the work that was completed for Adina as a model across the metro area the city B only played $3,000 for this work working with the resilient communities project team really is building on City V's robust history of engaging students in in city government as we think about um involvement and collaboration and and creating those academic opportunities for students the presentation you'll hear tonight and the work completed by the the team here that we have uh is a really great example of of that tradition and how we're continuing to engage our community and engage the resources we have here in the state as we think about um students and and the really great knowledge that they bring I'm really excited for all of you to hear about the incredible work that they've done so I will hand over to the resilient communities project team uh we have Holly Kenton Johnny Greg and Jem and you ping here tonight as well as the adviser uh as part of this project in the audience to hear the presentation so I will hand over them to do their presentation and and help answer questions very good thanks M bear well welcome everyone again I say welcome good evening Mr mayor council members my name is Holly Leaf and we're a group of Master students from the humpry school of public affairs we're here tonight to present the results of our study this study was developed as M said as a partnership between the University of Minnesota and the City of Edina through the University's resilient communities project the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the city of edina's current population density goals as outlined in the city's climate action plan will be sufficient to meet the transportation targets also set forth in that plan we were concerned with the first three goals in the transportation and land use section of the climate action plan the first goal sets a target for city-wide reduction in vehicle miles traveled or VMT of 7% by 2030 the second goal sets a Target to double public transit commuter ridership from 3.3% to 6.6% and the third goal is to increase average population per developed acre in the City by 4% so why does this matter we investigated this topic because the city has committed in the climate action plan to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 2019 numbers by 45% by 2030 since Transportation accounted for just over 40% of those emissions it becomes clear that a uh they reducing the amount the people drive and shifting toward a greater usage of sustainable Transportation options like Public Transit bicycle and walking are crucial for Idina to meet its climate goals three research questions were defined for this study first we had to ask ourselves about the underlying Assumption of this project is density the right approach which is to say can the city of Edina expect to see less driving and a shift to sustainable Transportation options just through an increase in population density second we asked which approaches to density are most effective in Idina to answer this we explored a variety of zoning scenarios to determine what density strategies would be most impactful finally we asked what policy actions are needed to support our recommended zoning strategies and maximize the sustainability benefits of any added density a few key conclusions emerged first while we found the density does matter it became apparent that the existing density Target of 4% would not be sufficient to meet the VMT reduction Target nor the transit ridership Target additionally we consistently saw that targeted density strategies around specific nodes and corridors perform better than blanket Citywide density increases we also concluded that there are a number of policy actions that the city can take to maximize the benefits of added density finally we learned that density is about more than just Transportation an increase in density has other benefits such as Energy Efficiency that further reduce greenhouse gas emissions with these in mind I will have it hand it over to groupmates Kenton and Johnny to discuss our recommendations for zoning strategies as well as policy interventions thank you thank you Holly my name is kenson and I'll be explaining our zoning scenario analysis our zoning scenario analysis aims to answer the research question which approaches to density are the most effective using Urban footprint a software also used by the Metropolitan Council we were able to assess the potential effects of Denso zoning down to the parcel level Urban F provided data on four key metrics for our analysis population density and dwelling units per acre vehicle miles traveled per capita greenhouse gas emissions per capita and public transit mode share we explore both Citywide and targeted density strategies measuring their impact on VMT ghg emissions and Transit usage for every percentage increase in density using an impact score formula we developed five main approaches to zoning scenarios were explored the base scenario reflects zoning and land use under existing conditions serving as a baseline for comparison the city-wide density scenarios involved increasing allowable density across all Parcels in the city but were found to be the least effective strategy we also investigated three targeted approaches to increase in density including in and near areas of change has outlined an a 240 comprehensive plan around sustainable Transportation including Public Transit routes and pedestrian bicycle facilities and near Central destinations like schools employment hubs health care facilities and Parks subsequently using the impact score formula we identified the most effective of these strategies and developed three recommended scenarios the basic scenario represents the minimum needed to advance a d climate action plan goals this targeted strategy allows for more intensive development within designated areas of change and along the upcoming Metro Eline Transit quarter in this table you can see the estimated changes in density VMT GSG emissions and Transit uses SP on the scenario however it's worth noting that these numbers assume a full buildout to maximum allowable density a process that will take decades if not generations and depends on decision made by developers Property Owners A din Planning Commission and A din city council the enhanced scenario built upon the basic scenario by incorporating two additional zoning strategies firstly it allows for increased density not only within the areas of change but also in the areas of surrounding them within 500 ft secondly it introduces a second Transit quarter envisioned as a reimagined Metro Transit Route 46 spanning East to West along 50th Street Vernon Avenue and Lincoln Drive connect connecting a din to the Future opice Green Line Station in Minnetonka notably this scenario is the first to meet the state of Minnesota's goal of reducing VMT per capita by 20% by 2050 the perverted scenario is our final and most recommended scenario it builds upon the enhanced scenario by increasing density along the regional bicycle Transportation Network and targeting developing development around major healthc care facilities which serve as significant employeers in AA this scenario achieved the most significant reductions in VMT per capita and ghg per capita making it the most effective approach for achieving dast climate action plan goals it's worth noting that even with this comprehensive scenario we do not propose any changes to zoning designations for well over half of the city or the majority of the residential Parcels now I'll pass the floor to Johnny to delve into some of our policy recommendations aim at helping Adina to achieve its climate action plan goals thank you Kenton we have developed a ser Ser of recommendations for the city to consider as it engages in future planning efforts these are broken down into amendments to the climate action plan itself as well as policy recommendations concerned with land use built form and transportation our full report outlines 18 total policy recommendations so in the interest of time I will only be mentioning one or two from each of the categories first the climate action plan itself our fundamental recommendation here is that the city bring its density and population goals in into alignment both edina's comprehensive plan and other Regional plans project approximately 15% population growth from current levels achieving a population of 60,000 by 2030 yet the climate action plan projects a residential density increase of just 4% a goal that is incompatible both with these other planning efforts and with the results of our analysis we recommend increasing this density Target to align with the city's Transportation goals we also recommend that youa consider setting and addressing a goal for active Transportation modes such as walking and biking since there is currently no such goal in the cap next we make several recommendations for ad's land use policy it's well established that carbon emissions are inextricably tied to land use and through reforming the way in which land can be developed Adina can meaningfully make progress on its climate goals one recommendation that we believe AD should consider is to designate density minimums in the city's highest priority develop corridors and nodes which have the highest access to Transit service these density floors would complement existing density ceilings helping to ensure that the areas that udina has already chosen to focus on developing can deliver their maximum benefit toward the city's climate and transportation goals this is also aligned with our finding that the most effective strategies to achieve lower VMT and greater Transit ridership involve targeted density increases around key nodes and corridors next we have our built form recommendations there are many restrictions on built form that currently hold back adina's ability to reach its climate goals we recommend changes to these guidelines that enhance flexibility for new development bringing about a greater variety of housing options in the community one specific recommendation is that new multi-unit construction should only be required to abide by the existing regulations on impervious surface coverage rather than the more restrictive requirements on building coverage impervious surfaces are those that are built upon and do not allow water to percolate into the soil this change would allow for more development capacity and flexibility while ensuring there is no loss to Green Space or adverse effects on storm water runoff finally we have our transportation policy recommendations ad's climate goals are not achievable with land use and built form changes alone updates to city transportation policy are necessary as well to that end one of our recommendations is that udina update its travel demand management policy with data- driven points-based standards clear standards starting at the beginning of the development process would ensure a greater chance at meaningful mode shift and reduce the need for subjectivity in staff approval these are just a handful of the policy recommendations that can be found in our full report Each of which is aligned with specific transportation and land use goals in the climate action plan at this time we want to thank each of you for your attention and our entire team is available to answer any questions you may have have thank you for that um let me turn now to our my colleagues here to see if anybody has any questions or comments relative to the work May you member orer go ahead um we will be getting the full report right okay and the other question I had is you were nodding so I take that as a yes okay yes the the full report's just going into a design document so once that design is completed it'll be shared with Council as well as posted online for anyone to read okay and um with the transportation components when you were doing your analysis did you take into account there are different school districts in Ed and there are some kids who are going to Richfield and the um actually a lot of students and the need to get Transportation networks in so that they can go safely from Idina to Richfield sure um our analysis with regard to potential zoning strategies that involved up zoning around schools assumed that um many CH that it would be more beneficial um to locate more homes in proximity to schools to reduce the overall amount of Transportation needed um to be provided for those students we did not account for the fact that students May travel out of the city thank I also just want to say that for that school scenario that was um not a very effective scenario um when we ran the numbers um so that is why it's not included in any of our three recommended uh final scenarios for uh in terms of uh reducing VMT greenhouse gases and uh increasing readership rejection yes thank you so I know you put a lot of work into this and I just want to say I'm really disappointed that we didn't get the report before your presentation I think your presentation um raised a lot of issues that were interesting and I would have liked to have had that so I have more informed questions for you it was really difficult based on the handout you sent to have any idea what was actually in the report um so I I'm very frustrated um one of the paradoxes of looking at um reducing green uh vehicle miles traveled is that when we bring in more people we'll have more vehicle miles Trav did you guys I mean our climate action plan actually talks about just reducing vehicle miles traveled you guys looked at per capita can you tell me a little bit about how you um decided to I mean it makes more sense to do it per capita but tell me a little bit about your analysis on that please yeah that was a decision we made very early in the process along with the sustainability specialist Matthew gab from the city of Edina and to your point um yeah we found that if we wanted to analyze any potential benefit of density in terms of VMT it's counterproductive to look at Citywide VMT and what we're really talking about is how much each person Ina is driving so that was the more important metric and I believe in our recommendations we recommend amending the cap to reflect that okay and another question I have oh did you want to follow up on that uh I it's important to realize that if there people don't live in a dino that they'll live elsewhere within the region so there're still doing the VMT uh throughout the region um and additionally the state of Minnesota with their 20% reduction goal it is per capita so that would that change would make a din's climate action plan align with the state of Minnesota's climate action framework okay thank you um I'm glad in your presentation you talked about the time frame that was one of the things like it is going to take generations to uh to develop when we're dependent on the on the private sector um so tell me a little bit about how you look at that because we've got goals for 2030 and a lot of what the analysis that that was in the thing was about stuff that's going to take decades to do tell me a little bit about how you how do we look at that how do we what kind of tools did you use to look at it and what kind of tools can we use to to consider um you know how do how do we do this the planet's warming rapidly this is Decades of work to do how do we reconcile that and and what kind of tools can we do to think about use to think about that um thank you that's a that's a great question and um you know we also had to make decisions about the scope of our analysis and that kind of Market uh uh uptake rate uh is something that would have been a little bit too intensive to evaluate for every single one of the scenarios that we looked at um but it is absolutely a great question and the question remains how do we increase this in the short term um one of the things so Metro Transit has density um guidelines by which they choose to implement new Transit service and um if you'll recall in one of our scenarios we had an extended uh Route 46 which currently terminates uh basically right outside of City Hall um but if uh the city were to densify uh that corridor long Vernon and 50th and uh all the way to the the city limit toward Opus station where the green line uh extension is going to have a station then um that would I think be a really uh you know making those zoning changes and and showing Metro Transit in the metropolitan Council that that's something that the city is committed to um I think would be really instrumental in getting that service reinstated and um in general it it's pretty intuitive but uh our analysis really confirmed in a big way that um the level of Transit service that's provided within the city has a huge impact on vehicle miles traveled um and on Transit ridership so encouraging that service as well as um encouraging frequent service along the e-line once that opens next year those are things that Edina can do in the short term so this proposed line 46 I I've never traveled on the 46 when it was here does it would it connect Opus with the orange line or or the Eline um so okay go ahead and come up to the microphone in so people as the person who took the Route 46 here um it can uh so Route 46 currently exists uh going from 46 Street Station um which is on the blue line which is one stop away from the mini haa Falls um it goes through 46th Street and um connects with um at the station it connects with the a line and then as it goes through Minneapolis it connects with the c and the D line and then at 46 and 35 it connects with the orange line which is also what I I took the orange line down and then I went on the 46 to get here um and so the 46 continues going down a bit Southward to 50th and it currently terminates just uh a couple more stops down there in the Grand View neighborhood um uh it's important to note that this used to extend all the way through througha um down Vernon Avenue and Lincoln Drive uh like we have assets to show exactly where even the bus stops were exactly in 2019 um so we know it used to run and it was most likely a covid related uh cut um but then it could also connect to the Greenland so this route could potentially connect to the green the blue the orange and a bunch of the fast um ABT uh lines and does your report talk about um sort of what your expectation when you when you talked with Metro Transit what would trigger them to reopen the 46 so we didn't specifically talk with Metro Transit uh that was kind of a little bit out of sideway scope we recommend that the city of Adina work with Partners such as maybe minetonka and the City of Minneapolis to do that um but one way to do that is increasing density along the I yep I got it uh along uh in the area so I'm just going to give you the metrics that metrotransit uses so um it the density is based off of what type of classification you are whether you're urban center Urban Suburban or Suburban Edge um A din is currently classified as an urban um and so if you wanted to increase density wanted to increase service to try and get some type of uh local bus routes on a The High Frequency Network so um this going to be like the current three or the four um you'll need around uh 10 dwelling units per acre within a quarter mile uh along the Route if you wanted to get something like the e-line which is Artio brt you want to aim for right around 15 dwelling units and in our scenario that we included we ended up averaging within ad 19 dwelling units per acre within a quar mile of those routes so that would meet both of those targets okay thank you and then my final question is you've got 16 recommendations on your form when we get the report will each of those have an analysis that comes with it because I was like tell me more and um I don't understand what this sentence means yes there's a complete analysis of each of the policy recommendations along with the transportation and land use actions within the goals that it aligns itself with okay terrific thank you so much member of Pierce thanks Mr Mayor um so nice job uh thanks for the thoroughness in um your analysis um I definitely appreciate the way you've laid this out um I think there is I think there's information here that we should be able to use to inform um maybe our approach as we look at our comprehensive plan coming up um in a few years and so there are two questions I had um one the density models that you showed um the way our comprehensive planning you talked about this um one of the tenants of it was that density uh could be absorbed best in the Southeast quadrant so that's where the majority of the density is and then you had your basic enhanced and your optimal and your op optimal has density in Westy um and so the and so this my questions are related to that but if you could um talk about in either the enhanced or the optimal when you're that's Vernon Avenue where you've drawn the circles and your statement of within 500 ft of a bicycle path can you just describe what that might look like um as your traversing um down Vernon so yeah just hypothetically if I'm riding my bike or driving down the new Vernon that has density what does that look like so we go over a complete methodology in the full report and again apologies for not having that it was it was a rush uh Rush at the end of the semester um so in terms of along the regional bicycle Transportation Network all we did in terms of increasing density is within the 500 feet um changing single family housing into duplexes so this is not Apartments this is not even triplexes and so I mean if you think about it if one parcel decided to have let's say some Town Homes um that would be a nice U entryway for home ownership uh a lot of other Parcels would stay exactly the same could stay single family so um that's for the regional bicycle Transportation Network which goes into the Western Adina and then to your point about Vernon Avenue um within the stops within 500 ft we try to do um mixed use kind of like a creting so let's say on the corner uh there's going to be uh first level retail on each side so you'll have a coffee shop maybe maybe Barber maybe like a one of those small targets so you know you could people in the neighborhood could walk and get their Essentials and then on top there's going to be residential apartments and besides that little commercial right around that stop it's only duplexes up zoning and of course so we didn't we try to go with something uh knowing um the existing land use of the Dina not trying to go too far out but something that would make a meaningful impact uh and that ad could run with yeah good no thank you um and so related to that as you went through your recommended policy actions um I think you did a a nice job of kind of summarizing the land use in the built form um because I because we struggle with some of those um um dichotomies today U and so my question on as we think about increasing density does your do you have any findings on how you might address privacy issues because what you're essentially doing is putting more people that at least on the west side are probably living R1 uh single family and now we're going to increase the density um we actually have something on the agenda tonight that um is also in that in that vein um so do you have anything in there any recommendations or how cities should think about uh privacy as you increase density especially in places that are um single family are one's own today um though privacy is not directly addressed one of the complete recommendations is that when conducting corridor-based zoning perhaps say along just Vernon or along France that the corridor that be analyzed not just be the street Frontage that faces um that faces France or Vernon but also Encompass the ab buding lot on the back side of the street so that way any change in density would be accommodated um within that sort of ab buding property and you have a much greater right of way to um balance privacy concerns when you're not just considering rear setbacks but you have the width of the street plus the front setbacks on the parallel roads um to absorb and sort of graduate that height as it comes down so you're not going to see large multif family buildings that back right up to single family homes right thank youu thank you Mr Mayor thank you so much for the amazing presentation and for all the work that went into this I know that it's it's a lot and especially balancing that with everything that you have going on as um students I commend you on the efforts and and coming together here tonight um so thank you again for the presentation um okay so one of the roles that we have right as City Council Members is on one side thinking about the policy and the the Tactical imp implications of these things so I really like how you've broken it down into those recommendations but I'm also thinking through the other part of change that needs to happen across the city and so part of that is getting Buy in and some of those cultural changes that need to happen um so one of the questions is very specifically around do you have any ideas or did you think about how do we change the culture around you know riding buses um and I was specifically working on the kill District plan which I see in in your area is you know in the optimal kind of that lower the industrial area is primarily where that is and we had some conversations because that was an area that bus service had drastically reduced in and the feedback we got will increase demand and then we'll add back the bus stops and you get into one of those like chicken and an egg kind of situations and so how do you um short of having the the 15 or the 19 units within the the radius of the bus stop what are some of the other ways that we can encourage people to adopt bus ridership across the city um do you have something to say okay uh one of the recommendations that concerns an update to the travel demand management policy is that um it be made more um it it be made a an eligible mitigation strategy that um that unlimited use Metro Transit passes be provided to residents of new multif family construction um or likewise that an employer who participates in the Reg metr Pass Program also be given credit for participating in that program so just reducing the friction by which you um pay or even have access to a Transit card in the first place great question and uh one thing that didn't make it into our presentation but that is included in the report we developed a transportation decision-making framework kind of at the level of the individual so trying to move away from the eye and the sky policy and look at how do individuals make Transportation related trips or Transportation related decisions and within that section we do acknowledge that a lot of that kind of softer side of things in terms of changing people's attitudes towards certain Realms of Transportation be it cycling be it public transportation that really does require different interventions than say what would be included in a comprehensive plan or climate action plan what we really focus on in that particular portion is that the first question that comes to mind when determining the feasibility of a mode is can I get from my origin to my destination in a reasonable amount of time and so we feel at least in our recommendations that that needs to be addressed first that without that part of the equation satisfied then it doesn't really matter what the general Zeitgeist is around different modes of transportation once that is satisfied though once you increase access via different modes so that those modes are feasible I think that gets into a another completely different thing I think Transportation demand management is a big part of that get incentives on the employer side incentives from the city I know Adina has an ebike rebate program I think that's a big step towards just getting more people on bikes but again I think we've really separated what we would consider those more policy oriented interventions from the softer interventions which we felt were a bit outside of the scope but that being said I think it is incredibly important to consider but only once those modes are feasible because I think without being able to complete a trip feasibly using these sustainable modes that it's almost putting the cart before the horse to try to change the public's opinion about a transportation mode if they don't even have the opportunity to utilize it effectively thank you and that kind of even like Segways into the next question that I had um which was around it felt like some of the initial conversation was bus um but did you look at or consider any alternative modes of transportation um thinking even like um you know hyper local rail within Edina was that a part of your analysis um no that was not part of our analysis but um you know like I mentioned before um we see a really really strong relationship between the level of Transit service that's available within a community and VMT and Transit ridership and the amount that people choose to use those Services um so I do think that you know bus is kind of the name of the game right now given that you know the uh green line extension is bypassing Edina um however I do think there's a lot of reason to be very optimistic about the Metro Eline and uh bus rapid transit in general um so on the dline which opened couple years ago going from Brooklyn Center through Minneapolis down into uh Richfield Bloomington Mall of America um so that in the year 2023 eclipsed the 2019 writers ship on the route that uh preceded it the route five um which is really hard to believe I mean considering how many fewer people are making commute trips in general much less via transit but because that service ran frequently all day and went to destinations that people wanted to go to um and it became that viable alternative to driving for many people who might not have considered it so um to Gem's point I think that changing the culture starts with making it a viable option and the Eline um is going to follow that same model of frequent all day service um running between downtown Minneapolis the University of Minnesota and Edina in the Southdale mall um so there will be reasons for people to take the Eline that are that go far beyond just commuting to work and um I do think that the fact that Edina has that coming to this community um in just a year's time or so is really exciting for that uh for that Prospect wonderful thank you one last question and just in the you know keeping ious of time maybe two of you answer it but if you were city council members in Idina uh and you had to select one of these recommendations to enact first which would you choose I would say the Eline quarter because it's coming we know it's coming uh and I think Transit that's GNA promote the most Transit shift uh two best service important limitation that we didn't have time to talk about is um the software we're using we can't add Transit line we can't increase service so the transit services is with existing service that is inaccessible for many people um so we expect probably once the Eline actually opens that the writers ship would like Transit people taking Transit is going to increase a lot in the Dina um from my perspective one of the most meaningful changes that could be made uh given the reality of development and uh in Adina would be to adopt minimum height and density standards just within the areas of change to complement the existing maximum density and height standards if the city is going to focus all of its efforts on future development just within previously identified areas of change we need to make sure we take the absolute that we make the most out of that very valuable limited land and encouraging increased vitality and density within those areas of change most of which are served by transit would be meaningful thank you yeah well I join my colleagues in thanking you for uh doing this work on our behalf it's going to be interesting um to um probably assigned us to uh the energy and environment Commission take a look at it to see what what we might what we might do with it with this information that you've gathered and these um conclusions that you've reached and these recommendations that you've made it seemed to me that so many of the assumptions on how to have achieved decarbonization goals were built around Transit viability and a Transit strategy so you get into that well what comes first the density or the transit and uh the chicken egg thing and and while I recognize that uh the brt lines that have been built to date uh are probably the most viable part of the transit system uh you know from a bus standpoint um it strikes me that the dline uh going from Brooklyn Park to the Mall of America has a distinct destination involved with the Mall of America unlike unlike the U Southdale mall which isn't no slouch in the terms of retail but uh probably not the same and so while the dline writers ship increased from prepandemic levels to 2023 I'm wondering if you were able to correlate any of that increased writers ship with any increased level of density that occurred on the line um I don't know that the uh reasons behind the uh dlin increase in ridership are fully understood um so uh my day job while I work on this project is I I work um as a transportation planning intern at Metro Transit and this is just a number that um I have seen presented in a very like wow everybody's I mean everybody even within the agency is amazed at it but um I don't uh I don't know that it's been correlated with specifically an increase in density um or or anything like that uh what is certainly true is that it is running more frequently more reliably and faster than the route five did before it and and do you know if the Met council's done any analysis of the projected increase and Transit ridership based upon having brt available on the Eline um I think it's sort of unknown especially because uh of the reality that these lines were in most cases planed initially before Co and uh one of the key drivers of demand has completely been uh decimated uh frankly uh in terms of commute Riders ships to downtown um so I think we will just have to wait and see assuming before the dline that if you wanted to go from Brooklyn Park to the Mall of America you had to go downtown on the Spug and hub and spoke system and then go on down on another bus prob probably now you can go direct um but one of the things that kind of lingers for me in all of this and and I think we've historically thought about the idea that you're not going to have sufficient Transit unless you got sufficient density so what comes first uh is the consideration to give you know that's that needs to be given I think that what transit's going to look like in a post-pandemic world we I don't really think we know the answer to that yet I mean we know that some of the writers ship is up on places that have more of a destination sort of appeal to them like the M of America but with with with more people just working remote more people just working from home some people work in hybrid where they were going to the office before and the data that I've seen shows that now it's like 65% of the people go to the office and so 35% are working some other way hybrid or just not going to the office at all and and that was a big part of Transit ridership and so it it just there It just strikes me that's a a lot to think about here because people stop taking Transit here because Post in post George Floyd World they worried about their personal security they worried about public health issues I think the public health issues are gone now but they still worry about personal security and then I think during the pandemic when people weren't taking the bus they may have bought a used car you know because they could then go in isolation to their their work if they were going to work and and so how this is all going to shake out and how it's all going to look uh I think as the stories yet to be told as we try to shape this transit system of ours in the metropolitan area for the future so I'm really appreciative of the work that you did to help us look at it a little bit but there's there's still some there's a lot to think about yet and I'm sure that you've thought about that as you've been working on this as well so we'll look forward to seeing your full report and thanks for being here and thanks for doing again this work all right thanks thank you thank you all we' got one more item in this portion of the agenda and this is uh something that feeds right into the work that the University of Minnesota students did from the Humphrey school and that is um what we call Active transportation and that is moving around in a non-motorized way Andrew seon's got a annual update for us on uh The Pedestrian and cyclist safety fund uh activities over the past year welcome back thank you m members of council hopefully you're not sick about talking about Transportation just yet um always a pleasure to be here to keep you updated on where we're at as far as encouraging active transportation in Idina um tonight I'm going to go over how the Pax fund was utilized in 2023 um talk about the projects that were constructed uh and then give you a preview of work that we're planning for this year as well as 2025 uh as a reminder the pedestrian en cyclist safety fund was approved by Council in 2012 uh it's generated from revenue from utility franchise fees right now it generates about $1.3 million a year and that money is exclusively dedicated to improvements to our non-motorized transportation Network so that includes sidewalks bikeways shared use paths um Transit amenities and Associated signage and pavement markings last year we had just under $2.3 million available in the Pax fund that included a significant ific amount of rollover from the previous year uh as well as money from a Federal grant that we uh received last year um of that little over $2 million was spent on Pax items the bulk of that on new pedestrian and bicycle facilities as you can see here uh 1.6 uh 1.6 million was spent on new pet and bike facilities spent about $52,000 on to maintain existing pedestrian bicycle facilities um and then that combined with final payments for previous projects brings a total construction cost to $1.7 million on the administrative side uh Professional Services accounted for $160,000 this includes preliminary design for future projects as well as Transportation studies which I'll talk about a little further uh in the presentation um some miscellaneous costs maintenance supplies also come out of the Pax fund about $99,000 last year uh and then my salary as well as the uh our new sidewalk inspector also come out of the Pax fund so you can see they're the total just over $2 million just to highlight the projects that were built in 2023 through the Pax Fund in the Morningside sea neighborhood project we built a number of new sidewalks on 40th Street Monteray Avenue Lin Avenue Kipling Avenue Grimes Avenue Inglewood Avenue um as part of the roadway reconstruction we also did uh put in a new bike bouevard along Grimes Avenue on the Blake Road Project we put in a number of new sidewalks bike lanes and chair shared use paths from the city limits to scriver Road uh with our new sidewalk inspection program we did a number of uh pavement or sorry not pavement sidewalk rehabs near the conquered school so you can see some pictures here of sidewalk panel replacement as well as replacing some pedestrian curb ramps to bring them up to the current Ada standards um we also this year did a a number of uh grinding for of trip hazards uh which we found is a cost-effective strategy rather than panel replacement in certain cases we also constructed another segment of sidewalk on France Avenue between 58th and 60th um the Pax fund was used to pay for a study on Valley View Road um near Valley View in Wooddale to look at um the bicycle facilities um as a result of that study as part of a scheduled overlay we upgraded the existing shared bike facilities um to buffer bike Lanes between Wooddale and Brookville Avenues the Pax fund also is contributing to the 30% design of the new rosin Park pedestrian bridge over on the West Side uh the Pax fund was used to build another segment of McCully Trail shared use path from Timber Trail to Post Lane we built some new ped ramps and a crosswalk on Valley View Road near Cheyenne Trail in Mark Terrace this was related to an approved Traffic Safety request and then in the cornelian neighborhood we built a sidewalk on Claremore drive and curb extensions on 72nd Street um this work was largely funded by a safe routes to school infrastructure Grant looking ahead to this year within the uh conquered neighborhood reconstruction project we're putting in sidewalks and shered Ed paths on conquered Avenue Wooddale Avenue and 64th Street in the Southdale be reconstruction project we're putting in sidewalks on Heritage Barry and 65th Street we're working on another segment of the France Avenue sidewalk between Fuller Street and 57th we're also going to be replacing the existing uh pedestrian flasher at on 70th Street in Wooddale with a more current uh rectangular rapid flashing Beacon um within that Cornelia project there's one piece of that project that we didn't complete last year and that's a shared use path that connects um oaklan to the school so we're going to be completing that this year um the Pax fund is also going to be used to uh start a preliminary design for a shared use path on interlock and Boulevard between Blake Road uh and mirror Lakes Drive um this is not only a critical Gap in our pedestrian network but it also is a key segment of our twin Loops facility that's recommended in the pet and bike master plan for next year within the president's A&B neighborhood reconstruction project we're looking at sidewalks on Washington Avenue and Monroe Avenues um as part of the trunk Highway Vernon Avenue interchange improvements the Pax fund will be used to pay for some new shared use paths on the bridge on the bridge that crosses over Highway 100 uh another segment of France Avenue sidewalk trying to close that Gap uh before the Eline comes into service so we're building another segment from 60th to 62nd Street oh and that concludes my presentation I'll take any questions you may have yeah questions for Mr cipion yeah um member member rer can you go back to slide nine so um a shared you you're building a shared use path on conquered no sorry the shared facility is on 64th Street the frontage road okay conquered Avenue and Wooddale Avenues are both sidewalks thank you m member Jackson yes thank you so first is a financial question actually and that is do we have franchise fees on cable bills yes yes and um do we yes yes but yes but okay they can't be used for this this kind of work okay okay okay thank you that was that answers my question the other one is um it seems to me that we approved some work on a study from City Hall to 50th in France it can you tell me what did I see that properly or did I misunderstand that uh you didn't approve anything we just submitted a project project idea to the University of Minnesota's senior Capstone group so they it's a study not a graduate level like you saw tonight just uh towards their end of their bachelor's segment we submit ideas all the time and we have groups studying it so they did a study and it just uh got wrapped up okay good and and we'll see that we don't usually bring that to council because it's the level of some of those aren't worthy to bring the council some are and some we actually submit again another semester to get better results so okay we just use it depending on the quality of the study okay good because uh I went to a 50th in France association meeting and they're excited about having people be able to walk down there so um I I look forward to that in the future hopefully um but this is great thank you so much for all the good work of course and for the sake of transparency the utility franchise fees that contribute to the PX fund are on customers of Excel Energy and CenterPoint Energy within Edina okay terrific thank you seeing the uh slide that you had about um panel reconstruction caused me to think about um you know the sidewalk inspection work that we're doing in the U panel repair in some of our older neighborhoods where trees have probably uprooted panels of sidewalk I still like the idea of thinking about using the PX fund for that instead of having that be a special assessment on individual pieces of property and I'm just wondering what would the Pax fund have to look like or the franchise fee have to look like I guess is a better question uh if we were going to roll all that that activity of replacing sidewalk panels uh and have and paying for the sidewalk inspector out of the PX fund thank you for the question Mar that's that's a good question and one that we are actively working to analyze um we have a work session scheduled for August 7th where we're going to be bringing uh the sidewalk maintenance policy to council for discussion and the sidewalk inspection program will be part of that y okay all right good that answers my question I guess so stay tuned we'll see you in August and talk about that issue all right anybody else have anything on this particular report thanks for this report it's always good to get it every year and see the progress we're making on building out that non-motorized system and maybe with this uh active Transportation money that's coming into the region we'll be able to do a little bit more with that some of the money that comes into our city and and then of course into the region is coming I think 25 million into the Met Council for active Transportation so and that's annually so we'll be doing some work with that too and we'll be able to make application for some of the things we want to do yes we are always looking for opportunities to supplement our funding with grants all right very good all right thanks for being with us all right now we're going to turn to the uh public hearing portion of the agenda and the first matter we have here this evening involves um uh request by Dan Holmes and I see Paul D is in the audience this evening and Steve beny and I'm going to turn to director Teague and have him inter introduce the topic and I think we're going to have the representatives from Don talk for about 15 minutes on on their proposed project over on henerson they've already done eight tow houses over there that uh I think were quickly occupied and um they've got another idea over there that uh involves potentially taking down some homes so go ahead director teag yes thank you mayor members of the council so this property is located on the edge of the Grand View District north of Vernon note here on this first graphic the sites are currently zon single single dwelling unit so it's two single family homes the project that the mayor mentioned is to the South it has a PUD zoning it's the henerson town homes across the street is um a bank and as you transition into the Grand View District so the proposal is to extend this PUD District to Encompass those two lots within the city's comprehensive plan both those sites are guided for low density residential again our single dwelling unit area the site to the South is guided medium density the comprehensive plan was revised for that project when that was approved so the proposal is to extend that Medium density designation to include these two sites here's a look at the two homes today you can see the the Grand View Town Homes to the South so the applicant is proposing to tear these two homes down and build two town home style or duplex uh units on each lot so it would be a total of four units here's a look down Hankerson you can see the bank property across the street so it's kind of a a transition area from Grand View into the single uh single dwelling unit district the applicant did go through sketch plan there's not a lot of changes um if at all other than um providing more detail on the units themselves they're proposed as a single story unit so here's the town homes to the South and then the two uh duplexes that would be proposed to be single story the existing Town Homes to the South South are 33 ft tall that was written into the Pud The Proposal here is for these units to be 25 ft tall and another rendering so note it's about a 10 foot height difference between the two one uh issue that came up that was suggested by uh council member Pierce in is in regard to comparing this proposal to the existing R1 zoning on the site and how would building coverage and the mass of that building compare so what's propos proposed here is a 40% building coverage for each structure under the existing R1 zoning a 30% building coverage would be required so that's the area that's highlighted in red essentially the garage units for each for each um each unit would extend into that buildable area compared to the conventional R1 zoning or the existing R1 zoning the differ being is the mass or the height of the building would be 10 ft lower um so it's kind of a trade-off that Second Story versus extra building coverage the applicants also proposing to subdivide the property so that each unit could be sold individually so the request requires a comprehensive plan amendment to regu that site to medium density residential so that means it's a four fifths vote of the city council and also the rezoning to match that PUD zoning to the South and then the subdivision this is our pyramid of discretion that we look at with these these types of projects just a reminder that with the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance that's or the uh rezoning that's proposed the city council has complete discretion to approve or deny this project so a case can certainly be made either way and staff has has provided the Planning Commission with options for approval and denial and included in your packet are resolutions approving the project and denying um primary issues that we considered with the the Planning Commission is the comprehensive plan reasonable and the rezoning the Planning Commission recommendation is for approval of this project the vote was 6 to3 so the prevailing recommendation again is to extend that Medium density designation we went through the kind of the comparisons for the existing R1 District to what's proposed again at the 10 foot height reduction that would be required within the Pud ordinance but they are requesting that additional impervious or building coverage from 30% to 40% and that's consistent with the existing town homes to the South member rer has a question for you um given that the existing lot sizes are over 9,000 square feet isn't the um allowable building coverage 25% not 30 oh boy I'd have to double check that I'm pretty sure it only goes up to 30 on lots that are smaller than 9,000 square ft but yeah I apologize I'll have to to double check that maybe I have those those numbers backwards so some of the uh the um goals and policies that this project meets within the comprehensive plan having a multi-d development multif family development are typically located on the edge of higher density areas or on more arterial roadways again this is right on the edge of the Grand View District kind of seen as that transition uh area between the commercial the higher density and the single family uh to the west and North uh the characteristics of the units proposed here are similar to a single family home they've been designed um to be essentially that same uh scale and height with the adjacent properties uh parking is to the rear of the the building or the the rear of the lot they would utilize the alleys in the back it's also providing a type of housing that we talk about where are short of um in the city and that's that missing middle housing so missing middle is a range of uh house scale buildings with multiple units comparable in scale and form with detached single family homes and that's exactly what's being proposed here one thing also want to mention that as part of the uh Grand View development framework and the Grand View Transportation study there is a connection AC cross Vernon uh that is proposed sometime in the future that would provide a better access uh to that commercial area an additional density would help support the retail uses in the district the next issue is in regard to the Pud zoning and there was a lot of discussion at Planning Commission around is this project meeting uh the Pud standards where we talk about um wanting to meet most of these criteria so the Pud to the South was found to meet uh those principles um the purpose and intent we believe that it's in an appropriate setting again that transition from the commercial to the single family District it's an efficient uh approach to provide that missile missing mid middle housing um the design is compatible with surrounding uses um there's really no impact on public streets and utilities uh existing roadways can support the project again it does um it's an additional um that missing middle again the variety of Housing and we believe it's an appropriate uh transition so with that um we have provided options for the city council to consider approval and denial Planning Commission is recommending approval um on that six to3 vote however the recommendation this evening is to close the public hearing um or close the iners Person Public hearing keep it open until May 12th and continue action to May 21st and with that I can stand for questions yeah questions for director Teague remember Jackson thank you Mr Mayor so I think you covered this but just we would rewrite the Pud statute or ordinance to reflect these homes so it wouldn't that in the future they could be Town Homes like the eight to the South correct okay and then my second question is with perious surfaces do does the perious surface ordinance cover duplexes or is that just for single family homes in in across the city boy I'm trying to remember I don't believe it covers R2 properties okay so um if we made these R2 properties in the previous surface um requirement goes away yes um in terms of comp comparing this to R2 standards the lots are quite a bit smaller for an R2 lot we require at least 15,000 ft where as council member rer mentioned these are around 9,000 okay so a sort of uh un Uncharted Territory as far as the perious surface goes correct okay thank you member Pierce um actually question the follow up with you member Jackson um when your question about the Pu D I think you were saying that the whatever decision we make here is only um affecting these two properties is is that what you were asking no okay what I thought you were asking that the Pud ordinance would be amended to include these designs so that it it isn't extending you know that you could build up up to the same density and height as the other eight units it will be written in to accommodate what's being a proposed here well restricted to those height requirements corre in the yeah so if for some reason they want to add a second story in five years they can't without coming back to us I I believe that's that is correct okay yeah the setbacks are all the same as the the existing PUD or they would be the same the only difference is that height where we would be holding it to 25 ft okay thanks for that and then so then two questions one actually related to that um was there any discussion about I because I interpret this as spot zoning because we're only talking about these two lots is that fair I don't believe this is spot zoning because it would be matching the zoning to the South it exing y that's fair um so thanks for that clarification uh my question was going to be um if you pull the view of the street up oh actually you not the street the Pud map yeah yeah um and so what I was alluding to is in the purple uh right where you have site so that's the South where those town homes are and then where the Green Arrow is those are the two lots that we're talking about correct and so what I was alluding to is was their conversation if we have a PUD that has these restrictions was there any thought about them covering more than just those two properties uh these are the two properties that the applicant has acquired yeah that's not to say somebody couldn't come in the future um and propose something similar again it would be another decision and if they did that would have to come back for a comprehensive Amendment yeah that's what I was alluding to by using the term spot zoning but I understand what you're describing um so thanks for that and then my second question you talk about missing middle and this may be a question for the applicant um what's the Target price for these yeah I'll let the I'll let the applicant respond to that one okay and I'm fine to wait for that answer thank you what were the what were the go ahead um I am also concerned about um The Narrative that's been really promoted for this project and I'm looking at the memo from affordable housing development manager Stephanie hackinson noting that the values of these two properties are 425 I mean 42542 and 434,447 and they're on lots that are not huge they're um 9,769 U if you go on the hanpen county uh GIS site and you look at the prices here the um you know we're not talking about $1.2 million houses and um if they were to remain zoned the way they are right now with that only you know 25% lot coverage I I have a hard time believing that the result would be something that was 1.2 million or more and in fact the reality that these houses continue to exist today um sort of undermines that argument and I'm very concerned about the fact that this is removing two of the more affordable houses that we have in Edina and that stock of housing is really diminishing the other thing is we were supposed to have a orc session um our last council meeting but that did not happen but it was all about affordable housing and it was um talking about how ownership near a bus line and this is near a bus line ownership near a grocery store this is near a grocery store these are really ideal homes to fit the goals that we're trying to reach for affordable housing or just making it more possible to have more income diversity with any Dina and I I have to ask if these two homes and they you know are not worthy of protecting and um staff is saying take them down um are there any houses any Dina where you wouldn't make that argument well it's it's a hypothetical question we'd have to look at on a case-by casee basis depending on the location this is in an area that is kind of transitioning from a higher density commercial area into the single family neighborhood um this whole block could be considered that transition transition zone that um can use to be used to add a little bit more density to the area so it's hard to say it's questionable though that if it's it's actually going to result in more people being housed these are targeted towards seniors you could have two people maybe one person in you know these these homes whereas you you know could have a family of four in the two houses so it's not necessarily the case that we're adding density of population of people um but we're adding another residential unit the other thing is I wish we had a uh view of the neighborhood and maybe we'll get that with the developers slides but we're completely eliminating the backyard and that is a huge difference um I think really disrupts the neighborhood character and you know I think we need to take that into account the other thing is um when I'm looking at the memo from or the report from housing manager hackinson she references the housing strategy task force report and says that the task force also proposed a goal to consider zoning amendments that would expand housing options such as considering zoning amendments in limited areas such as transitional areas and activity nodes and this is in a letter this is in the context of just resoning two Parcels do you consider what we're being asked to do a zoning Amendment yes okay can you elaborate on that yeah we're amending the zone zoning ordinance you're amending a PUD it's a it's a z it's a it's an ordinance Amendment to the city code that regulates not only these two lots but it's it's still part of the Hankerson PUD but it is expanding that zoning District to include these two lots so it is a zoning Amendment it's but it's a Zone it it is a singular PUD that you are rezoning or amending excuse me corre okay um and I did get a question just recently um that came in about how and we saw some really significant trees in the front yard um so the new tree ordinance is going to be applied here too right correct okay that's one of the conditions that are outlined in the approval resolution and I do it's interesting how this is we don't have zoning specifically for tow houses but we're pushing to amend our comprehensive plan for a project that will occupy much more space in the current structures and it strikes me you know you think about how careful we were with the adus and you know setting up what we really wanted to see and this is really setting a precedent that could happen throughout Edina and um I'm looking at Town Homes uh the on the old Burley site now the houses that are right next to those um have been sold and I have concerns from Neighbors wondering okay then are those houses going to be turned into town homes and are we likely to see this kind of development pop up and we'll get multiple requests for comprehensive plan amendments that's a possibility and staff is fine with that well we can't prevent someone from making a land use request ultimately the decision rests with the city Council right but you're recommending that we actually amend our comprehensive plan on this project yes thank youu thank you Mr Mayor um so with the these Lots right now can we pre do anything as a city to prevent these naturally occurring affordable homes from being removed there's really not there's no tool that we have that can prevent someone from going in and tearing down those homes and building a bigger one okay thank you um and then the maybe the second question and maybe this is what um member Pierce was also getting at but I remember maybe I don't remember the exact address but I think this was during my time on the Planning Commission when we were looking at maybe a block or at the end of the block a similar type approach but in this General neighborhood um if you remember director t What where that was and if you could point it out here um if you recall I do it is this site right here okay and so what did can you remind me if we did anything to that at what if anything happened yeah it was just a sketch plan request and they did not pursue a formal application okay CU I I think as I'm looking at this I don't recall if this was listed as one of our areas of change um but where I'm going is instead of the possibility of kind of lot by lot by lot us kind of expanding this does it make sense and I don't know I'm not proposing one way or another but I'm just does it make sense to consider the entirety of that block within our assessment here or given where we're at in the process do we need to only look at these Parcels yeah with this project we we just have to look at this request to look at this entire block we would really need the cooperation of all the property owners unless it's done as part of like the Grand View District we've never done a small area plan you know we've done the transportation study we we did the the framework document it seems to me in our next comprehensive Plan update that we do want to study this area and I think at that time when we do that we would want to look at what boundaries do we want to look at and I would think this would be a natural um area that we look at and maybe um maybe expanding that more wonderful I I think we should make note of that and remember to add that to our list of of possibilities so yeah and I would add the on the Planning Commission uh work plan for this year they are looking at those areas that we want us look at for the next comprehensive plan so that is underway thank you m u um when we approved the 8 townhouse unit project there was an old apartment building there and I remember one of the things that we looked at in conjunct with and analyzing that potential project was and that was influencing as I recall where the other duplexes if you will side by side home combinations within maybe a block of here and do you recall that I mean aren't there quite a few of the other sites in the neighborhood occupied by duplexes or side by-side homes yes next block over yeah the property um across the alley here is a d duplex all the the hatched properties that indicates R2 zoning or where we have duplexes all duplexes yep okay um what were the most compelling reasons expressed by the majority of the planning Commissioners in support of this uh project because you it's fair to look at flip back yeah that's a good that's a good view right there you got two houses that are affordable um I think they've been sold now so to the member 's point you know somebody could if this wasn't approved they could come in and build new single family homes that were much more expensive um but there's appeal in in the sort of the Noah argument and I think that's what I saw in remember or Stephanie hackinson reported our affordable housing manager she was kind of wrestling with this idea uh on paper of whether to support this project or not and came down on the side of supporting it even though she recognized it in other circumstances these might have been houses that we might have bought you know and and turned into something but I think they've been sold so um so you can see you can kind of see both sides of this I mean there's there's a lot of this type of property in the neighborhood um I don't think there's any precedential value of approving a project like this I mean in the abstract because each project has to stand on its own merits I don't know if member attorney Kendall has a thought on that or not I don't see where you know member rer worries that this is going to have precedential value and pretty soon we'll see this happening all over town I don't think I think each project stands on its own merits and the fact that we did something over by jury doesn't mean we'd necessarily do something over in some other neighborhood that we'd be bound by the fact we did it in the jury's neighborhood that would compel us to have to approve it somewhere else mayor you know as as Mr Teague mentioned the council has a fair amount of discretion on rezoning requests and requests to amend the comprehensive plan and yes each application is processed on its own merits so the council has to view each application on its own merits and individually um you know you may take into account the surrounding zoning but uh it doesn't set precent you have to follow on each one you look at that pyramid of discretion if this happened if there was an application so under place we'd have that same sort of discretion we have here we absolutely would y fact that we did it one place doesn't mean we have to do it some place else correct all right um that prompt other question yeah member rer one thing I want to and can we go back so we're looking at the two houses um it's I mean we can say we can't do anything to preserve these houses at this point but one can make the argument that the marketplace is preserving them they're not being torn down and if we take action we're and what is being requested is very much incentivizing removing these houses because it is allowing 40% coverage where only 25% is now allowed and when I read and this is just a general kind of characteristic of spot zoning the application of zoning to a specific parcel or Parcels of land within a larger zon area when the rezoning is at odds with the city's master plan and current zoning restrictions and I really feel like this plan is at odds with current zoning restrictions so I I don't think it is just a matter of saying we can't preserve them they're going to be torn down I think you know they exist they could continue to exist but if we incentivize their destruction they will come down the point I was going to make or I was trying to make was assuming that Mr D already owns these homes you can't preserve them I mean he if he doesn't get this project approved he could do something else with them that was consistent with an R1 neighborhood remember Pierce and I don't know whether is true or that he owns them um so thanks Mr Mayor so we're not making a decision tonight and I don't like I don't want us to be here till midnight however I I do think for me the way I'm processing this it's a much bigger question to me than just these two properties and so that that was the reason I asked the earlier question what Market what are we targeting for the cost or um for the market price for each of these um we just saw a presentation from the University of Minnesota that talked about increasing density on the west side and this project is exactly what one of them described as a potential way of thinking about it and so I personally think um we have to as a city think about how we're going to wrestle with this whole concept of medium density if it makes sense to do it there or not um I like the fact that you talked about minimizing the height um I today our median home value is 660 um so when I think about attainable affordable home is that that the Target or lower than median I don't know but I think if we think through how we want to structure this but big picture not just these two lots um that to me is the heart question and you would only be doing that work in it in the cycle of the comprehensive plan we wouldn't be talking about just two lots and so I'm thinking about all of that as I I look at this um project so with having member of peers have that word let's bring up the applicant Mr Banky is virtual good evening Mr Mayor members of the commission uh happy to see you I little different uh position here I guess being being remote this time but I guess what I'm trying to do here then is just sort of touch on a lot of the things that we heard today including those previous uh students in their work but uh the project is adjacent to you know the existing Grand New Town Homes which is kind of the big reason that drove the request for the pbd change um with it being immediately adjacent that zoning makes more sense as a planner uh uh than trading in new zoning there as either R2 or pd3 um mainly because all of the deviations are already in the Pud document that exists for the neighboring property um part of the reason driving this is that during the sales of those additional um of those other units there was a lot of a lot of people stopped in and they really were asking for the Town Homes at that time now this is during Co you know we're a little past that now this project is taking a little while to get moving um but that hasn't changed you know we're still looking for that uh that town home unit that um Rambler style unit which while you know it could be considered as directed at U retired people it's not exclusive at all um these units will have four bedrooms um you conceivably have families in them as well um the unit price is speculated it's starting in the 800s which you know a lot of people are going to go oh wow that's pretty expensive but the hard part here is that there's a lot of infrastructure rebuilding that needs to happen with any Redevelopment any Redevelopment project and that's so true here as well you know we're required to go back into the street and rebuild the sewer and water lines all the way back into the into the units that is not a cheap process that is part of what drives that sale price um you know the the uh coverage you know is mitigated you know that additional coverage is mitigated but there's a cost to that as well um you know the units are Ramblers Ramblers by their nature will cover more square footage of land than a two-story and that's very true here as well um they're notely large go ahead um yeah I don't want to interrupt you but want to introduce yourself too please yes um mayor council members Paul Don uh with Don Holmes give us your business address too would you Mr D uh 9655 63rd Avenue North Maple Grove thank you I live at 6605 I won't put any Dina um I think councilman uh council member Riser you had some specific questions about pricing um well I mentioned prices but um I I think it was M Pierce who was asking about pricing yeah both of you had um so if you just finish the main level on this town home you get 1438 Square ft and I could conceivably get a customer in there that would only want that most of the ones that came through the parade of homes and stuff were couples and maybe they would only want two bedrooms finished 1438 Square ft that would dictate a price maybe starting in the 700s I can't I can't say for sure and if you add the lower level that adds another one uh 1,49 to get a total square footage of 2586 Square ft if you finish the entire main floor and the lower level for bedrooms but I can't say that that's going to happen um most of the homes that I do and that's I'm approaching uh over a 100 easily in the city of Ed um most of these homes are homes that are sold to families I would say 90% of them and I talk to all of them and they they need four bedroom some of them need five and some I have two homes going in a diner right now um these uh one level could possibly only need the upper level finished or the main level so I wanted to address that with you also the idea that the north home in the picture the red home that's a th000 square ft th000 Square ft it's a two-bedroom home they tried to sell it uh before I got involved and they couldn't sell it to families one family decided to go out and get a proposal to put a um Second Story on the home and um it added uh uh they had several bids and they were all around $250,000 to add a second floor on that so that home is compromised and you wanted to know if if homes like this are are all should be kept or in within the committee and what dictates that over the last 20 years I've had a lot of residents who have called me and wanted to sell their home and so I got and I meet with them and I view the home and I can remember probably at least 10 of those homes where I've told the homeowners keep your home do some remodeling on it and sell it it's a sailable product and then some of them I go in like this particular one on the North side it's not a it's not a home that can be kept and remodeled so I think that answers your question the one next door is even a little more difficult because uh of some of the the lower level and the structural members in there A lot of times I'll go to homes and if I do decide to buy the home they're compromised with a lot of mold and things in the basement so that dictates a lot of my decision if I'm going to buy the home what this what the structure is really like if it's old growth wood in the lower level and the trusses and the joist are in good shape then I I say try and remodel it and sell it or stay here and remodel it and live here so I think that's a couple questions that um were asked of Mr Teague and uh I thought I could answer those sir I don't think I asked those specific questions and I do kind of want to push back on I I think I appreciate your opinion on those houses um and I feel like the number of houses that are in the $400,000 range are small in EN and the point I was trying to underscore is that the marketplace you know dict takes the prices and what we're being asked to do is to sort of inter well to really intervene and um the point I wanted to get across is that there could be you know we don't have that many of those houses and so what you're asking is kind of a lot and I hear what you're saying but I think we may be viewing this very differently we we don't have many of those houses I we have hundreds and hundreds of them here I've lived in this community since since the uh early 60s and there are many homes that are like this in the community that are there to remodel I see them all the time and there are also people who are willing to move in and to put in the SWAT equity and to to increase the value and to stay in those houses and in the neighborhood where I live there are smaller houses with single car garages um where you have families that are living and maintaining those houses and really taking care of them so I think it's it's just two different ways of looking at this I mean I think I I just stated the one home is a th000 square ft it's not a it's a two-bedroom right but here's the thing um well okay different views and I know a lot of people want to have really large homes and you know one person's really large home is too big for other people and there's also where you know I keep thinking whatever happened to the movement for the not so big house you know and how do we get that going in Edina and so I kind of want to push back on the idea that house that is a th000 square fet is just unacceptable and not livable U because I I don't think that's necessarily true no I'm not saying that I'm saying I remodel a lot of homes in Edina which which are dictated by the fact of the how much usable and and what's the condition of the home is the first thing and this home is very difficult to remodel where the stairways are and everything and like I said they had bids to do it and their bids started to were $250,000 and up so that doesn't make it affordable thank you U Mr beny did you have anything else you wanted to add I I do I do I I guess you know speaking about it you know I'm really I was really interested to listen to that whole discussion um from the the college students mainly because the same words that I think I've been using for I don't know several projects sub middles here with you now and things the the modest densification you know they they used targeted density um gentle densification is another word um the key I think to remember here is you know these are two houses on three lots a block over there could be three houses on this on these properties there's a way that it could be three lots again these are not platted Lots uh they could be recombined and there could be three houses here we're asking for one more House of approximately 1425 Square fet which is a modest house size you know we're not getting Mansions here we're not getting large houses we're simply providing what the market is looking for and you know it was I heard somebody ask how do we start these changes in the area you know it it's kind of unfortunate for us that we seem to be at the Forefront of you know what is a coming you know movement but that doesn't change the fact that you know we are Property Owners or we have interest in property that you know and this is our request currently and the request is not a large lift by any means when you look at what the goal is and you know one point here too you know these houses were both built in the 50s there's a lot of talk going on today with you know carbon neutral you know reducing our carbon footprint I I think a lot of people don't realize what a change new construction brings to that metric uh new houses are roughly 4 40 well no they're 30% more efficient than a home built before 1986 1996 I'm sorry so houses built of this era have something that's called a her score which is a a method of measuring the efficiency of a structure of 130 the homes that we're currently building have a her score of 40 to high 40s low 50s what that tells you is that there's that it's like a gas economy feature so you're actually gaining in your carbon footprint goals by allowing new construction and it's kind of hard to hear that I know because oh we have these old older affordable houses that people can live in well but those houses aren't contributing to your climate goals that you know that are as spoken as they everything else um you know like I say you know we had other options than PUD here and you know if if PUD is such a a a no no for the city of Edina you know we're trying to work within your existing zoning framework so you know if this is a R2 it has other deviations that need to be met if it's a pd3 it has other deviations that need to be met we chose the Pud because of the adjacent existing uh zoning and it it just is a cleaner way to incorporate this parcel into the into that neighborhood if somebody chose to do something with that down the road that's certainly not anything that we have on the table right now or even even considering it's not it's not a goal of us to continue to build um you know tow houses in this area at this time um the trees and things the trees are covered in the in the landscape plan and yes there are some nice trees on this lot uh they're mainly confined to the perimeter which is a good thing because it allows us to maintain them um and uh let me see oh the um you know the biggest I thing I think that we keep running into is the whole idea that even more density is sometimes requested even by your own Planning Commission that they really would have liked to have seen more density here uh in the in the end they ended up uh liking this project as it is but that additional density comes with other costs that that are going to continue to drive up the cost of housing any DIN and mostly it's the rebuilding of the infrastructure that's required in order to accommodate that greater density and you know I do think it's it's great that you that Edina is beginning to look at you know how how they can look at the comp plan how they can look at these small areas and try to try to help move the city toward those climate goals TI toward those carbon goals but in the meantime you know asking a land owner to wait for those um uh studies to be done is pretty unreasonable I think um you know we we really believe we've got an excellent project for that location we we think it meshes well with what's already there and that includes the existing single families to the North and the single families and duplexes to the West um we think it's a a really great transition it does you know firmly shut off any any Gap that existed between the bank and the existing single family and it contributes you know one to two more families to the city of Vina and it's in an area of high walkability and you know I do think that whatever families are going to are going to live there are going to integrate into this neighborhood very easily with all of the services that are already existing in the area you know I do think that everything that Edina does it will just simply enhance the Grand View neighborhood thank you thank you Mr Binky I can't remember if you answered this question that I posited earlier but what were the most compelling reasons expressed by the majority of the planning Commissioners in support of this project I may have gotten Sidetrack or did you answer that um I believe it they felt that the reducing the height you know it transitions into the to the neighborhood it fits that missing middle um that it seem to really fit into the neighborhood okay all right one thing if I could clarify sure the lot coverage is 25% so I just did some quick um calculation so these lots are about 9700 Square ft so they would be allowed a footprint of 2,425 square ft so you could get figuring if it were a two-car somewhat smallish garage 400 square ft with a two-story home you could have 6,000 square F feet of a finished single family home on the site all right um this is a public hearing matter and uh our director has suggested that we um take testimony this evening and then leave the record open and deal with us in our next meeting and so let's um let's now open it up for public testimony so if there's anyone in the audience that wishes to come forward and testify regarding this proposed project feel free to come forward Andy Brown 5512 Parkplace I'm extremely concerned about the um precedent the sets especially in regards to lot coverage I own a smaller lot um I have a neighbor that tore that baby down and now I've got Windsor Castle for a a deck out the back and um so member Pierce I know you had a lot of concerns about adus in the area that that was um may may be taken up by that um live that daily with what's going on there water is a huge issue in AA what is this developer doing for water mitigation on that I was forced to put in brand new sewer and water line when our street was reconstructed so I don't have a lot of Sympathy for the developer about oh this infrastructure is so costly there is a whole huge swath of a Dina that has had to redo that underneath underneath the underneath their ground we even put in a water receptacle system in the boulevard that people were supposed to tie into if they wanted to but councils previous to you decided not to force teardowns to hook into that as they were available to do so and so water still runs freely all over the darn place and so that threatens my house and I'm a homeowner that has a 1947 house but I've put money into Windows I've put money into insulation I've used Obama era programs to do that I've put in new um uh uh uh new Roofing I've done everything I can possibly do to be energy conscious and energy efficient to save money in that respect so I I kind of feel offended by some of the developers comments on on what goes on with this I understand that they are experts in their field and what they do but that doesn't mean you should broad stroke everybody in A din regarding what's happened and so um I feel very concerned about this because I think it's going to be a very slippery slope I understand the need of you know how we manage the city and infrastructure and all this other stuff but there's a lot of us that have already done a lot of effort into this and then to make this PUD I'm sorry Mr Teague but you know what your zoning codes have made my lot almost uninhabitable with all the water no matter what infrastructure so I apologize if that's directed at you but it's not been good so I think you need to really push back on this developer and how things go let's not personalize things it's not mr's zoning code well it it sometimes feels that way Mr Hoffland I mean God's honest truth this is getting kind of ridiculous so um you've been out to the house you know exactly what I'm dealing with but um manager Neil you've been out to the house you know exactly what I'm dealing with so I don't think that my comment is relatively unexpected regarding the situation inappropriate I don't think it's inappropriate either inappropriate was not letting I'm not making those tear down houses go into a system that I paid for Sir with my tax dollars to make our property better and you still didn't not Mr teague's zoning code okay then whose zoning code is it it's the city of udina okay then who am I speaking to regarding that speaking to the city council okay because that talk talk to us but don't pick on our staff your staff too it is completely and utterly ridiculous me Risser asked an honest question about well then where will you say no and you know what for a lot of us that really resonates where will you say no and he couldn't come up with an answer so that's what's personal about it thank you anybody else in the audience wish to address the Council on this matter hello Janie Weston 6136 Brookview Avenue that's my correct house number um anyways thank you for correcting those minutes from the previous meeting um I have a number of thoughts on this project um I don't particularly have anything against Mr Don I watched him build a house across the street from me first rate good quality did the work well however in this case I think it's completely inappropriate to be asking for a PUD on something that this is not appropriate for um how PUD is supposed to be done is you reone to PUD first and you have in mind that there's some city gives the Builder gets there's some give and take usually it's mixed use where is the public good here coming out of this this is a personal request from a builder to add to an already existing PUD and that's not how PUD are supposed to be used period the better more appropriate way to have a builder in this circumstance be making a request to do what they want to do is asked to have it rezoned to an R2 and then deal with the setback in the size of the duplex issues or perhaps put a triplex on it as an our2 lot but don't add to the Pud that is not how PUD is supposed to be used and I did a lot of research on this and gave you all some good information on this year and a half two years ago so please remember that um some other things I live in a house built on the same Flor floor plan as the one on the left in that picture it suits me very well I have two bedrooms I have a single car garage I like my house it's a great house for me to be as I age a retired person in it is not too small for other people to retire in it's perfect if I have a guest they can sleep in the second bedroom it's great I have everything on one level a house of that size is a good house in the case that both of these houses are going to go away one thing I would really like to see done is don't tear them down call adding house movers have them picked up and moved D both houses are small enough this is very doable it saves a waste of materials going into a landfill makes someone else happy to be able to put a house on a brand new Foundation someplace else or a nice little Lake cabin something but please let's not continue tearing down perfectly decent structure thank you Miss Weston you're welcome anyone else all right do we have anybody on line okay all right uh we've had some um oral testimony here this evening the um recommendation of uh our community development director Curry Teague is that we have a motion to close the inperson public hearing uh keep the public input open until Sunday May 12th and continue the action to the May 21 2024 city council meeting someone care to make a motion to that effect mov moves member Jacks and seconds the motion as stated any further conversation on that motion all those in favor of adoption of the motion stated say I I I opposed carried take this matter up uh at the May 21 city council meeting and we'll leave the record open for public input until May Sunday the end of the business or end of the day on Sunday May 12th all right we've got one other um we got two other I guessing matters this evening director Teague set okay thank you mayor members of the council uh this is a site that you're familiar with uh we went through a sketch plan a proposal for a dental office on this site so it's located in our kill office and Industrial Park current zoning is planned office District 2 it is guided in our comprehensive plan for office use located right here located on the uh site today is 110,000 squ foot office building the proposal is to build the new 6,000 ft² dental office office in the Southeast corner of the site so as I mentioned they did go through sketch plan and as you recall the uh the main focus was the surface parking lot in front of the building along Metro Boulevard and the the potential of or the issue of um bringing the building up closer to the road and then there was concern about if we did that patients would have to cross the drive by in order to get to the building so the applicant has revised the plans to address both those issues they've moved the building up there would be green space Landscaping in front they've shifted the entrance a little bit to the north and they've provided the parking uh main parking for the clinic along the side of the building so patients don't have to cross that drive a in Shifting the building in order to preserve the existing drive a they had to shift the building 10 ft to the South so they're also requesting a variance uh from that side property line from 20 feet to 10 feet here's a look at the existing building the applicant can go into a little more detail about the building so the request is a site plan review and variances for first floor ceiling height from 20 to 10 ft and that sidey yard setback that I mentioned they're also requesting a subdivision of the property so looking at the site plan it does comply with all of our uh minimum setback standards with the exception of the two Provisions that I mentioned there is adequate parking on the site a traffic study was done by stantech Ed terhar is on the call with us should you have any questions but the study does conclude that the uh existing roadways uh can support the project and there is parking so here's a look at the site plan the area that's highlighted in red that's the new lot configuration there is a sidewalk that's contemplated along Metro Boulevard in our bike and pedestrian uh plan engineering has concluded that um we don't we won't request the sidewalk be constructed on this site rather when the roadway is improved in the future there's adequate room within the right of way to provide those Boulevard style sidewalks uh that we require so no additional sidewalk is being requested at this time building materials comply with our code we the applicant does have a materials board if you care to uh look at that again here's the preliminary plat so primary issues that we considered with Planning Commission are the variances uh Justified Planning Commission is recommending approval the vote was 9 to zero we believe that the variance criteria is met um the intent of the ordinance is met um it's consistent with the comprehensive plan in terms of the land uses and it meets the three uh zoning test um the intent of a side yard setback is to provide adequate space between buildings the closest building to the South is set back 165 ft away so the the rear of this building would still be 70t away from um the the propos the building to the South so there's adequate uh space in between uh buildings um again the proposed uses are consistent with the comprehensive plans um in terms of that 20 foot ceiling height this is one of the our work plan items for the Planning Commission and we've been discussing that over the last few months um um it it's looking like they're recommending that those 20 foot ceiling requirements um remain but only in the Southdale district with multi-use buildings so we're we're still um noodling through that but the idea is to take it away from districts outside of the Southdale area so this plan would be consistent with that and as I mentioned uh the traffic study concludes there would be no impacts uh with that again we're recommending that you close the Inu hearing um the inperson public hearing and keep input open until Sunday May 12th and then continue action to your next meeting with that I can take any questions and the applicant is here for a presentation as well yes it quickly does the uh request to create a subdivision result in a park dedication fee also being yes created all right it does in the amount oh I've got it here it's based on the square footage you can certainly do that computation you have to do it right now sorry I've got yeah yeah that's fine and I think I think some of our colleagues have questions here so member Jackson did you have Yeah question actually you asked my question but I don't see it in the resolution um is that something that would be included in the resolution in the final it should be in the resolution yes there is a park dedication and I apologize I didn't get that in I I'll get that in for the next time okay great thank you other questions for director Teague at this point in time well yes member U thank you Mr Mayor uh when I look at some of the photographs included in our packet it looks like there are trees nearish this site I can't tell from a a lot line perspective where those fall um can you walk me through uh if any of those trees will be needing to be removed if you know yeah I have a a rendering in the packet this doesn't show trees that are removed um they're required to provide Landscaping based on the perimeter of the site so we take into account existing trees as well as proposed and it is well within our code requirements um any final landscape plan approval is subject to review and approval of the city Forester so they take a look at that at the time of of uh a building permit they're also required to submit a a letter of credit for the landscaping that's required it is based on 150% of the value of the Landscaping that goes in and we hold on to that letter of credit for two years thank you um the other question and I I can also ask the applicant this if you're not aware of it but I think that the the table suggested 31 parking spaces for um the parking uh minimums that we have are I think 20 so what's driving if you know the requirement for like a 50% more than 50% increase in parking uh the more than F I'm not sure I follow um if the parking minimums suggest 20 and they're providing 31 that would be a 50% increase over the minimum all right so um within this lot is it's all shared parking so there would be easements established um over bar both Parcels that allow access to and from as well as the ability to park so somebody in this office building could also use these spaces as well so based on the total square footage of all the project all the uh the buildings here they're required 389 uh spaces and the existing and proposed osed uh parking is 412 so they exceed our code and do you and I can I'll tackle this one with the applicant but what I'm curious about is why we need to exceed the code within this site I can come back to that with the applicant thank you questions for director teag I think you can wait till you come up to make your presentation member rer will any Heritage or protected trees be removed and I that I do not know um this as we've discussed this evening um we have not been enforcing the preservation um the tree preservation ordinance on Commercial properties can address that issue with the applicant too any other questions for director Teague at this point in time director Milner the park dedication fee is $4,900 we know you can do math too but uh nice to have a somebody do that for you while you're talking while you're busy all right let's bring the applicant up here and um hear about how the plans changed since they were here for a sketch plan and and um spend a few minutes visiting with them so welcome gentlemen make sure you identify yourselves and your business thank you and your business address thank you sorry Ben krisak with hemple Real Estate 10005 crossone Circle and um developer yeah Chris White House uh with djr architecture I'm the architect uh we're at 3 through3 Washington Avenue in Minneapolis great um we have more of notes comments py remarks than a full presentation um so just talking about um kind of the process here so we came through um planning and um city council of course with Sketch plan um we heard you loud and clear on a few comments on parking lot and Shifting The Building forward so we tried to take those into account we had to put our creative thinking hats on and and move some things around um in terms of parking counts as you look at the site it's all parking right now today and so we're we're placing a building on top of um an existing parking lot we are adding um storm water ponding in several locations on the site that doesn't exist today and we worked extensively with 9M Creek um watershed and I think we will probably be losing um some additional parking um if they want the um these basins to be a little bit larger um to continue filtering and retaining water um terms of trees we're we're doing our best to save as many trees as possible there's a couple on um I think kind of mid no is it pointer here um basically kind of in the middle of our building there's some kind of scrubby looking trees that will probably come out but I think they'll be replaced with higher quality I have an image I have an image of a street F if you have an overhead cam are we able to zoom in on this um okay sure we're sorry all right so if you want to zoom in um these larger trees it's sort of a stand of sort of Three Trees right there those we you in fully intent intend to keep and to have remain these ones that are further back we are going to lose but part of the reason for that is before when we came before you we were respecting the 20 foot sidey yard setback which didn't allow our building to coexist with uh the sidewalk and then these parking space the parking spaces uh just to north of the building that's why we had that parking lot if you remember between our building and Metro Boulevard which was sort of the source of some some feedback so in L to make this parking layout work where we get a significant number of spaces that you don't have to cross a drive AIS to we did have to push the building South and that's the reason we're coming forward with a request for the sidey guard setback variants and um just comment a little bit more on the building we did skinny the building up as much as we we could um there are just physical realities of running uh enonic clinic and some of that is okay you lay someone back on a chair you need a 84 in chair the doctor needs some space to navigate around that chair um and so there's you know there's a point where it's like 96 maybe Works in one of those rooms but you get to 93 and now it just gets too tight um to get around um the um the patient to adequately service the patient so um yeah in terms of the ft um we are hitting that with the lobby and we actually did make the lobby a little bit bigger the height requirement yeah sorry the height um requirement we did make the lobby a little bit bigger we thought that would um Set It Off to the street a little bit nicer and then create a nicer environment y inside so one other thing I did bring this plan to show that we uh one comment at planning was uh where are the bike cracks so we did add that versus the copy that you have in front of you there are uh there are three bike racks so that'll accommodate at least six bikes um employees I imagine could even bring their bike in the building so there there should be plenty of bike capacity and um we support people biking I bike around a Dina all the time so I think um you know I think that will be um a nice addition you want to get your materials board and show us your materials sure please you can as you can see thanks yeah um the majority of the building is Stone um this lower portion the portion um near the ground sidewalk is this um the majority of the darker gray would be this Stone um the wood look material that's actually the metal panel but it's longboard it's used in a lot of nice projects that's a wood look um metal panel and then all of the sort of canopy and roof that you can see and trim storefront is uh dark Browns and the nice thing about the metal panel is it won't um fade nope it won't um you know start to rot and that kind of thing so and then this is a pretty significant Stone here Chris yeah are you sure we can afford that well that's I'm just the architect yeah y so it's a thick Stone it's not just a real thin um comments on materials or anything else from Council Members so is this a big glass in area is that where people can walk by then and watch surgery that's that's the that's the waiting area lounge and reception yep oh it's a nice it's a nice touch I think that was another thing that we talked a little bit about was trying to be more engaging with with the site in the street and so that was good and that parking was really quite an improvement quite a dramatic Improvement there remember Jackson yeah I just wanted to confirm that this is the um Eastern side of the building that we're looking at sort of the looking from the NorthEast Southwest um correct Corner that is on the plan there yes uh we would be looking okay yeah I have some other sort of axons here here you are so yes this this view here sort of shows that area that we're showing in the rendering there where the majority of the building is yes uh lower Windows because those would be the operatories and and it looks as though you've got um all four sides are pretty we don't have like a back of the building at any point okay terrific thank you all right any other questions for the applicants folks on the council all right member rer um I think you have addressed the concerns um very well that were raised during the sketch plan thank you thank you all right thanks um this is a public hearing matter again uh opening it up for public testimony if there's anybody in the audience who wishes to testify feel free to come forward then we'll go online and see if there's anybody ready to testify and again uh I think the notion of director Teague here is that um we close the inperson public hearing keep the public input open until Sunday May 12th and continue the action to the May 21st 2024 city council meeting is that correct director teag okay I'm not seeing anybody coming forward here in the audience um anybody online I don't have anyone online but because no one spoke yet I think we should wait a minute or so in case someone um tries to dial in my clock shows that it's 10:05 I will come back to you at 10:06 um or when we have a caller whichever is first okay very good um again folks if you're listening onine and wish to testify uh matter is open for public testimony at this point in time it is now 10:06 and I still don't have a caller so I think it's safe for you to move forward thank you director brat is there someone on the council that cares to make a motion to close the inperson public hearing and keep the public input open until Sunday May 12th and continue the action on resolution 202 24-31 to the May 21 2024 city council meeting moved second agna moves member Jackson second a motion is stated any further conversation or discussion all those in favor of adoption of the motion stated say I I I opposed carried and one more public hearing matter director Milner has and uh this I think he'd like some action on yet this evening after we complete the public hearing portion of it and it's a street that I don't know if any of us have ever heard of I thought it was a typo when I first saw this on the mini Wawa oh thank you mayor mini waha Avenue it's right or used to be right outside of City Hall here so uh we found some uh we didn't find some documentation to support a easement vacation that supposedly happened in the 70s so we're here tonight to Recon airm the vacation of minua Avenue embodied in resolution 202 24-34 so during uh drawing the legal boundary of Tupa Park the historic property is right over here there was an unresolved RightWay vacation related to the highway expansion property records are difficult to find there's been references to this vacation of mina Avenue but no recorded document so to resolve the matter allow for a clean legal description we're recommending we conduct this vacation this evening and affirm that the road is formally vacated so there's Tupa Park um and that yellow was platted as mini Wawa Avenue back in the day and it was there was a driveway Mr newor found a picture of a driveway that supported two uh single family homes there in that area no longer needed of course because of the park and the highway expansion so we're asking uh for a vacation of that officially to reaffirm it there's no issues with private utilities we did open it up to Better Together Dino to seek any public comments and receive none um so we're recommending you close the public hearing this evening and adopt resolution that right away vacation you want to go back to the slide with the location on it again so we can all kind of appreciate mini Wawa Avenue for a moment okay pretty fascinating um all right thank you for that any questions for director Milner yes um so if we're vacating a street there does that mean we own that land well we own the park we own the park and we're working with mot on the rest of it associated with the larger interchange project when we remove those off ramps yeah but we don't know who owns the yellow strip north of says they own it okay but we we had the right to put a street there and we're vacating that we're just vacating through the park just highlighted where me went to the north I should have stopped my highlighting in the park you're just vacating within the city property right okay terrific thank you okay other questions for our new Resident expert on Mini Wawa Avenue all right uh this is a public hearing matter let's open it up for public testimony is there anybody that cares to testify regarding the potential easement vacation of mini Wawa Avenue nobody is coming forward uh anybody online that wants to talk to us about mini Wawa Avenue no I feel badly but I really do think we should still wait a minute okay I just there I there'll be the one time and then someone will say I was trying to get in my clock shows that it's 1010 so I'll come back to you at 1011 or when I have a callor whichever is first who makes a motion here we're going to let them you say the word mini waah wa every kind of kind of Revel and saying mini Wawa Mr Mayor it would be great if someone who spoke a jibway could tell us what that meant don't you think it's like we have minnes Ina and minihaha and what does mini waha mean time to Google it here real quick there you go I think we should have we should have a street sign somewhere preserved it or something for mini waa that would have been a good name for that restaurant in the Bon green the mini waha all right it means make a good sound or laughing water with that it is 1011 and I think it's saf for you to move forward all right um is there anyone who cares to make a motion adopting resolution to vacate mini Wawa Avenue all right we got a motion in a second um any discussion all those in favor of adopting the resolution of status say I I I oppos carried okay um we get a resolution accepting donations um to adopt resolution 2024-25 36 which accepts donations on behalf of the city of viina we've got one donation in this reporting period um any further discussion all those in favor of adopting the resolution 202 24-36 say I I I opposed carried and this reporting period uh a person named JY wenzong uh in din has do donated the generous sum of $3,200 for Memorial bench at brison Park really quite generous thank you to the Wong family for that um all right and now we are on to commission correspondence I don't think we've had anything come in you provided us what was there before and we're on the manag your comments thank you your honor I have one comment that is to let you know we are in the early stages of of trying to reschedule the joint meeting between the HRA and the Adina housing Foundation we've identified um a couple of of dates at the staff level uh Jennifer gari will be reaching out to both the HRA and the housing Foundation uh to to see if we can put this meeting together all right thank you that's all thank you all right thanks um remember egno Council comments I think uh the only one for me is over I guess this was maybe a week ago I did a sitalong with dispatch uh here within the city and one just want to appreciate uh my dispatch hosty uh Cara was absolutely amazing and I I think that I learned a lot and the timeliness was perfect with our appreciation um of the Proclamation tonight um I should actually quote the exact name of that Proclamation that we did um but that one was for National Police Week um and so just really amazing to see all of the the work that our our city does and I think that additional appreciation that we often talk about um but the fact that we um kind of maintain our own ambulance service as well I think is really impactful so it was just a really great experience and would encourage anyone to kind of use that opportunity to um view the inner workings of our city in that regard um if there's of an interest there so that's all for me thanks member agel member Pierce thank you Mr Mayor um so I you know originally I didn't have any comments but there is one thing I like to talk about um because I've gotten this question a couple of times and the question is um you know someone might say to me what do I like about being on councel and what they talk about most the question is around voting and and these are just my comments but it's came up twice in this meeting um I don't View councils role is to say yes and no to things and so I I think people see that and yeah we do vote um but really the role is about and this is these are my comments the role is about framing what outcomes we want and the hard work is working with listening to the community uh working with um service providers in the community to frame what future outcomes we want and most of that work working with the city staff is done outside of council it's not done on the Das that work is done outside of council and it culminates in sure a vote Yes no uh but the purpose of the role from my opin in my opinion is framing outcomes um and so the when we looked at the the um the housing uh PUD the funny thing to me when I look at things like that if we vote for that we get an outcome if we say no to it we get another outcome the question is well which are those two outcomes ones that we want and if they're not then what outcome would be preferred and what work do we have to do to set a frame towards that outcome um and so I don't at all view the responsibility as a council member to just vote yes and no every other Tuesday um it's about the work that you do leading into that and then the conversations that you have with the community and like I said other with City staff and then service providers in the community to really try to frame and set a future outcome that we think is the right direction for the city and if we do a good job at that um as a council then we set the right path for the community um member Jackson has been saying this lately a lot for the next 100 years and so I enjoy the work that we're doing uh but I just thought I would share that's the perspective that I use as I go through um and consider the work in front of us thank yeah thanks for those thoughts Jackson yes thank you Mr Mayor so I loved when chair Lewis stood up and talked about the um time and talent that our citizens who serve on commissions give and we had a commission recognition event last Thursday and it was just a delightful event sit and have a little something to eat with with our commission members and and visit about their experience and get to know each other and I was just so grateful to everybody who came and it was a a wonderful thing and I'm very thankful for everybody's service um and the same day was the day we had the groundbreaking on uh um the fire station number two it was fun to throw the dirt um and it's May so we've got lots going on so tomorrow I'm going to drop off clothing for the clothing swap which is going to occur on Thursday so everybody it's a if you like the idea of a zero waste economy drop off your clothing for the Swap and then come find some new uh at the thing so I've got some uh Halloween costumes to get rid of um and coming up on the same day I think is um the Electrify everything and our days of remembrance I believe are a week from Wednesday is that correct um but I want to remind people that that's coming up as well so if you're interested in how you can get grant money for electrifying your home is I went to the first Electrify everything it was very interesting but I will be at the days of remembrance which I'm super excited about learning more um at that event so that's what's going on thank you yeah thanks very much um rer uh tomorrow May 8th is bike walk to school day so just everybody keep that in mind as you're out and about um and I I think it's just really wonderful to have that and promote getting to school that way so that's all I have um remember Pierce's comment caused me to think about um conversation we've had a couple of times and over the last few months and that is you know I'll call it future planning and we've always been really good about that when I first got on the council we were doing that kind of the work of the day you know the things that needed attention in the here and now but kind of collectively asked the question what do we think are we going to do the work around planning what we want our town to look like over the next 20 30 years and so we've raised that issue again because it it just feels like it's that kind of time again to kind of look at what we did before and and be thinking about the future I know man Neal if you've had any conversations with I know last time we did this David Burl led the effort future IQ uh and the planning for the future of redina and I don't know if any work's been done along those lines or not or or director Teague if anybody's given that some thought we we haven't yet but as I mentioned at The Retreat uh we were involved in that about this time in 2014 so if if the council is of a mind to kind of start that process again with with the more kind of futurist uh uh approach uh he's he's a local uh we've had good luck with him he's interested he'd like to do the project if we if we want him to do it well we should have that conversation I think people are probably of the mindset isn't it time to look at the future of our town again and engage our citizenry last time we did it I think we had well over 250 people involved in l a tabletop exercises out at Brar as I recall with some interesting conversations that took place um we got a special election coming up on Tuesday uh May 14th that district 6 commissioner position is open we've got two final candidates there one of them are State uh legislator Heather Edon another one a business person uh also on the 18th uh there is the D Asian-American uh Association or Alliance event at Rosland Park if I remember correctly EA event 518 but get that on your calendar starts at noon I think noon to 4: um as I mentioned earlier when the uh when the girl soccer team was here that was a great event over at the capol and and want to thank everybody that participated in that and made it possible uh and then uh remember Jackson and I were part of a conversation down at 50th in France at a meeting last Friday and then we've had a couple of meetings since then and we're going to I think we're going to have to we'll see where this goes with the Eline proposed Eline construction but they're proposing right now that 50th be closed for three to four months through 50th in France and you you figure out how that's going to work and small business survive in one lane on France Avenue for three to four months we got some serious conversation to have with the Met Council about their planning around this so stay tuned we might have to have some special meetings about this um anyway that's uh it's it's a very very serious thing I think not that we don't think the eline's important but um seems to me that there's some way to do this and and not be the death no for several businesses down there being having 50th I mean and then those 10,000 cars a day that use 50th where are they going they're going into single family neighborhoods as they try to find their way out of that that dilemma down there so we got to we got to think this through and work hard on it with the Met Council uh and I just got a text from the our rep at the Met Council about that very issue so it made me think about it I wanted to share that information with you and then I spoke with the ad realy Realtors this morning and kind of gave him a mini state of the city update things that we've been working on uh and that's it for me manager Neil anything else anybody else got anything yes member Pierce um just you mentioned the special election uh and so I don't know if we need to do this or not but you mentioned um I think you were talking about the City Commissioner the county commissioner the county commissioner and you mentioned Heather um but just so nobody's thinking that we're endorsing a candidate um I do know I actually only know of two people from Idina but there might be others so I know of Heather and I know of Janet y but I don't know of anybody else the the two candidates are Heather Heather Edon and Marissa Simonetti okay and this they they were the top votee Getters in the primary that came out of the primary right right so and they're both the resents so we either way all six were red a res yeah yeah no thank you yeah and thanks for you that input all right um is there a motion well I guess we don't have to I like have enough motion to adjourn sove remember Pierce moves we adjourn second who else wants to adjourn this thing second I had to go look for mini waa Avenue all right member Jackson second's adjourning and um any further discussion all those in favor of adjourning say I I I POS We Stand adjourned one last e