[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening and welcome tonight is Monday April 22nd 2024 this is a regular meeting of the minona city council I will uh call this meeting to order and ask you to stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance [Applause] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [Applause] all and Miss faul would you please call Ro Shaq here Wilburn here Calbert here ra here kley here Foster Bolton here weome here next item is approval of the agenda I believe we have an agenda um Mr Funk yes thank you good evening mayor and Council I have two items for your consideration for tonight's agenda the one is related to item 6D which would be an addition Earth Day Proclamation today is Earth Day and so we do have one resolution uh under item six related to also Arbor Day Proclamation this adenda then adds Earth day and this was distributed this came forward today after the packet was distributed and then the second item for your consideration is item 14b which is concerning Greco manona at 15407 and 1549 y Zetta Boulevard there was one correspondence received after publication of the packet and that is included in your denda for your consideration those are the two items that conclude tonight's agenda and turn it back over to you for your consideration thank you thank you Mr Funk um so we've got um an agenda with an addendum um is there a motion for approval counc Calbert thank you mayor I approve I move to approve the agenda as amended is there a second council member Ry I'll second all right a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member R um Miss fa please call R Shaq yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes r yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries so I just want to comment quickly I want to thank everyone for accommodating our 5:30 early start and our goal tonight is um uh Passover starts um at Sunset which is at 8:09 p.m. tonight and so out of respect for that um important holiday we are going to uh we are going to conclude this meeting by 8:09 p.m. tonight so uh note to self we'll do the best we can and I just want to thank everyone for accommodating that so next item is approval of minutes and we have two sets one is the March 18 2024 study session minutes and the second is the April 8th 2024 regular meeting minutes I think we can handle both of those in one motion is there a motion or a comment Council M Calbert thank you mayor I make the motion to approve uh the March 18th 2024 study session minutes and the April 8th 2024 regular meeting minutes and a second council member sha I'll make a second all right we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by Council M sha Miss Faulk please call roll sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries that brings us to um item six special matters and we've got several special matters tonight but the first one is of particular note and that is the retirement recognition for Police Captain Andy Gardner so um Captain Captain Gardner if you'd like to come forward up up here I will read this up here and then I will bring a uh a small token of our appreciation down to you and thank you but um I mean I don't know why they let young guys like you retire but they do so anyway I'm going to read this recognition so after more than three decades of dedication and service to the minetonka police department and the City of motanka we celebrate the career of Captain Andy Gardner Andy's Journey with the Department began in September of 1993 and it will end in retirement on April 25th 2024 marking a career spanning 30 years in service to the Minnetonka community and 33 years in the field of law enforcement throughout his career Andy's versati ility and commitment were present in the various roles within the department from his early days as a canine Handler to his contributions as a SWAT team member retail detective General case detective police sergeant and ultimately as a respected Captain Andy exemplified excellence in every role he undertook Andy's influence extended far beyond the city limits he was a respected peer across the region and the state in recognition of his service Andy was awarded the Glenn Lake Optimus officer year of the officer of the year award in 2006 Beyond his professional accomplishments Andy's unique blend of wit and dry humor endeared him to colleagues and residents he possessed an unparalleled ability to weave captivating narratives always accompanied by a dose of humor making him a cherished Storyteller within the police department as Andy embarked on his new chap on this new chapter in his life we acknowledge the void his retirement leaves within our department his wealth of experience historical perspective and steadfast voice of reason will be sorely missed nevertheless we know that Andy's Legacy will endure as an inspiration for generations of law enforcement professionals to come on behalf of the city of minona we extend our congratulations and best wishes to Captain Andy Gardner as he embarks on this well-deserved retirement may this new chapter be filled with joy fulfillment and countless new adventures thank you Andy for your dedicated service to the police department and to the community of minaka so Captain thank you so much I I have to say that I I'm sad to see you leave it's been a pleasure getting to know you a pleasure to work with you and um yeah you've you've um you've combined a great storytelling and uh and um you know true professionalism but with with humor and I've I've always approached I've always appreciated the approach that you've taken to policing and and um it's a challenging as you well know it's a it's a challenging profession and if we can laugh a little bit and smile um and have great relationships it's a much better job than otherwise would be so just thank you so much and I'm I'm going to come down to read this but um if you have a few remarks that you'd like to make or any great stories you want to tell about about um about anyone in this room you know have at it I do have some remarks I tried to make I tried to make the font big enough to read without my glasses but I was not I did large font too but I have these glasses here if you'd like to I've got I've got some okay I want to introduce my wife Mary Joel and my oldest son Nick um Nick is probably the uh brunt of some of my humor um so you should probably put a face to the name uh mayor and council members good evening and thank you for this opportunity to address you as I stand before you I do so with a heart filled with gratitude reflecting on a 35e journey I must acknowledge the profound changes I've witnessed in policing over the past three decades changes that were unimaginable when I first took the oath In This Very Room from advancement in technology to shifts in community policing philosophies the landscape of profession has significantly changed we've adapted to New Challenges continually sought ways to better serve every member of our community and built trust and Partnerships with the community we serve recognizing that safety is a collective responsibility yet amid these changes one thing has remained constant the unwavering courage honor and bravery of the men and women who wear the badge day in day out they put their lives on the line to ensure the safety of our streets as proven recently as two ago when evil descended on our community perhaps you've heard me say this before I am no hero but I've walked beside a few these men and women are the silent Heroes that walk among us as I turn the lights out of my law enforcement career I challenge each of you to embrace the leadership roles that you are elected to fulfill your decisions shape the future of this community impacting lives of every resident and visitor remember leadership is not merely about making decisions it's about making the right decisions for the greater good even when they are the most difficult it's about listening to the voices of your constituents fostering collaboration and supporting policies that promote fairness and justice for all it's about finding common ground and not encouraging divisiveness I encourage you to continue to trust in the wisdom and experience of your law enforcement leaders they are the Frontline experts who understand the complexities of policing in our community continue to support support them by allowing them to innovate adapt and lead with integrity and accountability in closing I extend my heartfelt Grant to to this Council and council members past for your support throughout my career it has been an honor and a privilege to have been a a police officer as I embark on the next chapter I do so with profound gratitude for the Memories the challenges the successes and the camaraderie that have defined my career thank you better we got a stand congratulations and I'm going to read this for you you probably heard this before but the wood the wood for this Frame was reclaimed from a majestic American elm tree at minona Mills Park so I give you that as a small token of our appreciation and Andy it's um well you're going to leave a void um but but our Police Department is in great in a great position but you will be missed and I just want to say I mean I I've said it if I've said it one I've said it you know A Thousand Times Public Safety is job one in cities and you represent the best of Public Safety in our community and I'm just I will be eternally grateful for your service so um uh best of luck to you um don't be a stranger I know where you live and U and I just wish you the best thank you I get one more sure 2 3 1 2 [Applause] thanks all right special matter number two is um the sustainable motanka Awards and this a pretty cool thing too and so I'm going to read this and then come down and I have some awards for individuals and I'll meet you down at the podium um so our next item is a presentation of the city's 2023 sustainable minona Awards the awards recognize community members for the impressive sustainable sustainability projects and it's very appropriately appropriate that we're doing this on Earth Day the awards we are presenting tonight are made of solid Green Ash that come from trees removed on the city property so we we are recycling just so you know um they were milled by our own Hannibal Hayes in the city's Natural Resources Division and engraved by a local Awards company so let's move on to presenting our Awards to the winners so I'm going to I'm going to come down here and then I'm going to ask that each Award winner come up and I will present your award and then um and then we'll gather for a picture and then you can go do whatever you want for the rest of the night so first of all uh the first um award in the energy category is St David Center for Child and Family development for their rooftop solar and LED lighting project so if you would like to come forward and congratulations we'll get a picture here but then stay here but here's here's your award and uh it's a very you may take that and uh and then hang out and we come on over here and uh and then we'll get a picture of everyone they when they come up come up so in the landscape C category Charlie Swanson for using a goat mitigation service for Buckthorn removal and replanting on his property congratulations and Charlie there's your award and I have to add I they gave me more detail than we're reading tonight but but Charlie not only had the go remove the Buckthorn from his home but then he kept working and he didn't use any Roundup or any chemicals he did it by hand the hard way so uh congratulations for that well that's good you're just a skinny little guy when you started right are you on the air okay sorry about that I'm supposed to be heard okay the next item under the in the waste category is Bailey properties for diverting 100% of their waste to traditional and organic recycling so we have an award for B uh Bailey properties are you anyone here from Bailey all right well you don't need to take a picture of me so the next award we have a young person award and that is the minona high school natural resources club for their various projects including Community Education invasive species removal and tree planting so is there someone from here we go got students coming up this is great and here we we'll go over here so they can get a clear shot of us I'll give you the award and congratulations well done done some nice work and then we'll all gather around here um we also have um a water award and Michelle Trager and Kevin Gordon who are not here tonight for their storm water mitigation Pond project that protects a nearby Wetland from pollution so um you know this is uh this is a big night for minut TKA we have um it's Earth Day uh we've got these um these awards for sustain the sustainable mitat tanka Awards and we are also going to approve our um climate action and mitigation plan and so we are really about the environment tonight and uh we should celebrate that um but reading the the our um climate um adaptation and mitigation plan I know I called it the wrong thing there um adaption whatever um um there's a lot of work to be done it's an exciting plan but there is a tremendous amount of work to be done and it's going to take the involvement of of all of us and all of our residents to really make things happen so with that let's get this picture and then uh and thank and congratulations to you all just squeeze in again as close as we can all right here we go ready one two three one two three one two three thank you thank you well done everyone all right just a couple of more special matters and we um next on the docket is the Arbor Day proclam Proclamation and I've asked council member Paula R to read the council or the Arbor Day Proclamation House member thank you mayor whereas our trees and forests brighten M tanka's future by creating jobs providing areas for quiet contemplation increasing property values and making our city more livable and whereas our trees and forests enrich Society by building strong Community ties reducing crime providing common meeting spaces and places to recreate and whereas our trees and forests strengthen our lives by providing lumber for building homes fiber for producing paper Foliage for decorating and food for eating and whereas our trees and forests enhance our environment by moderating climate improving air and water quality conserving water and energy Sheltering wildlife and benefiting pollinators and whereas each year on the last Friday in April volunteers and City staff plant trees to invit to invigorate our community and all the natural resources they represent and dedicate themselves to to the continued health of our City's Urban and Community Forest now therefore be it resolved that the minona city council hereby proclaims Friday April 26th 2024 as Arbor Day and the month of May as Arbor month in the city of minetonka thank you council member and the next item 6D our our fourth special item tonight is um a special matter is the Earth Day Proclamation and council member Pat Foster Bolton will read that Proclamation whereas the official 2024 Earth Day theme is planet versus plastic which highlights the harmful impacts of plastic use and whereas the global Community faces extraordinary environmental CH challenges such as climate change Global health issues food and water shortages degradation of ecosystem inequity and poverty and whereas all people regardless of race ethnic ethnicity gender income occupation age country of origin or geography have a right to a safe healthy sustainable environment with economic opportunities and whereas it is understood that the citizens businesses and organizations of the global Community must take actions to reduce plastic consumption and whereas a global movement is necessary to ensure Equitable outcomes and maximum success and whereas Earth Day established in 1970 constitutes an opportunity for environmental stewardship commitments sustainability efforts and a commitment to an Earth Day Proclamation and furthermore let it be known that the minaka city council hereby encourages its residents businesses and institutions to use this Earth Day to celebrate the Earth and to make a commitment to daily choices this next year to protect it now therefore let it be proclaimed the minaka city council hereby pledges this Earth day Monday April 22nd 2024 to support plastic reduction initiatives in Minnetonka Min Minnesota and to encourage others to undertake similar actions thank you council member um so that's that's it for special matters but but I think these two Arbor Day and Earth Day I mean they celebrate our environment and and um and we have a beautiful natural environment but we all have more to do and uh so I think that U we'll be more on that as we move through the meeting the next item on the agenda is reports from city manager and council members Mr Funk thank you again mayor good evening Council a couple things for you this evening first I with enthusiastically like to announce the appointment of Kevin Fox as our new fire chief I know mayor and Council you're aware of that uh We've did some social media posting on that and we're really excited and I'm really proud of Kevin Fox to lead our fire department we ended up having four finalists all very good candidates and we also had other internal candidates and uh just really exciting that we're able to promote uh interim Kevin Fox to now fire chief Fox and so we're excited for his leadership we we know there's lots of challenges in the fire and EMS service our department is in really good uh standing and we look forward to uh seeing Uh Kevin Fox lead the department for years to come uh second thing mentioned this last weekend against going back to the fire department was the sensory friendly open house which was this past Saturday April 20th uh this is we've been doing this for several years now it was from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and it's it's one of those events that we did a few years ago it's a really nice Community engagement activity designed for residents with sensory disorders and so a really good way for our department to interact with uh members of our community a lot of fun activities this last weekend so appreciate the efforts of our fire department uh with this activity and then last uh as we look outside and the as evident by our nice weather uh yesterday the trees are starting to Bud but the work is then also beginning for our parks department our crews are getting drinking fountains turned on and getting ball fields ready for all those Spring Time Sports so our our Department's geared up and getting ready for uh summer activities and certainly with public works as they start their street street sweeping and other activities as we get gear up for this the fun summer months ahead so with that mayor and Council turn it back over to you thank you thank you Mr Council any reports that you would like to make Council M Calbert just very briefly I just want to wish uh everyone who celebrates P which means Happy Passover um and happy Earth Day and happy anniversary to my very patient husband um and I also just want to say that um uh we went to a we we most of us up here on the day of and many of our staff um Department directors attended a strategic planning uh Retreat where we got to know one another better um strengthened our relationships and also just um started working on refreshing our uh strategic plan and we had some wonderful presenters and Consultants but most of all I just want to thank um the staff members who were there uh several of whom had early mornings and late nights most of that week and still came uh to the strategic planning Retreat even um pretty early on Saturday morning so I just want to say I see you I appreciate you and I just we are so lucky to have you very good anyone else council member Wilburn also very briefly but it fits in with our Earth Day and Earth Day Proclamation um a while back I uh requested of the city manager that we stop having single-use plastic water bottles available at the city and um because not only of the single-use plastic but also the unknown health effects of um nanoplastics and microplastics um so and there there had already been discussion about that but um was happy to see today that there are now canned canned water instead of bottled water so it's nice to see the city leading by example thank you Council M Wilburn is there anyone else I've got just a couple of things um one you know we our official um newspaper is the um a minona Eden Prairie Sun sailor and um they Rec they they went to they are going to a paid subscription model and um you know it used to be free now it's not um it's going to be I believe um $36 a year or three years for $72 and I I typically don't make paid promotional announcements but Suburban newspapers are under duress and there was just a number of them that that that closed in other parts of the metro and I talked to a lot of Mayors and I have talked to Mayors who've lost their Suburban press and the voice of residents as a result has been diminished and so we have a vested interest in having a Suburban newspaper and so I would encourage everyone in the audience and on the deis and anyone watching on on TV if you value local news and want to have a voice want to have the opportunity to write a letter to the editor please consider um paying for your subscription to the newspaper because it's important so that's one item and then the other item is that I just wanted to Captain Gardner referenced um the tragic event that happened in our city last week uh with a shooting of a hanban county um um officer um a deputy and um a resident in that whole circumstance was killed um and it's a tragic situation um the city manager and I and um uh council member Foster bolt and the police chief did a little door knocking and that neighborhood and we talk to people to see how they were feeling but an event like that is hard on the entire Community particularly in the wake of what happened in Burnsville um I believe that there is community trauma and I want to recognize that and uh and do do everything I can to encourage our residents we live in a safe City but it's not a crime-free city and so there are we we owe our our officers so much they put put their lives on the line for us every day and we're thankful we don't have frequent shootings in our city but no city is immune so I just wanted to acknowledge our officers and for the great work that they do and and recognize that we we all have a role in keeping our city safe and uh I just want to say thank you to our officers both police and fire uh for what they do to keep our community safe and with that that's it that's the reports from uh council members and city manager I see that um we're at 6:00 so we are going to take a break now and then we are going to do our um local Board of um Equalization and so do we need to I see the city manager and the count City attorney Consulting do we need to call an official recess motion to recess until um the conclusion of the local Board of adjustments and Equalization meeting all right um councilor Calbert I will move uh to recess until the conclusion of the local Board of assessment and Equalization meeting Council Wilburn I will second all right we've got a motion by Council M Calbert the second uh by Council M Wilburn um Miss faul would you please call R Shaq yes Wilburn yes calber yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries we are recess all right well I will uh call our meeting back back to order and um our recess is over and we ended on item 7 so that takes us to item eight which is Citizens wishing to to discuss matters not on the agenda and this is an open mic opportunity um for um anyone in the audience to come forward and speak to an item that is not on the agenda uh we won't take any action on that item tonight but please come forward state your name and address tell tell us what you want us to know then we will turn it um over to staff and they will um check into it follow up with you follow up with us and then we will come back at a later me meeting to make a report so um is there anyone in the audience who would like to present something to the council tonight on this item is there anyone all right seeing no one will move on item um nine is bids and purchases and we have a significant item there on um 9 a is bids and agreements for the Hopkins Crossroad Trail improvements project and Mr Manchester I believe you have that report I do thank you mayor good evening mayor and Council before you tonight are the bids and agreements for the Hopkins Crossroad Trail project um I did want to quickly introduce Mr Chris Long who's here tonight our assistant city engineer Mr Phil Olsen our city engineer who are working on this project I won't go into a lot of detail as you've seen this item before but the Hopkins Crossroad Trail Improvement project proposes a trail along the east side of Hopkins Crossroad from Cedar Lake Road to Oak Terrace North it provides an off Street Trail as well as Ada improvements pedestrian refuge and then as safety Crossings as appropriate bids were opened electronically for the project on March 22nd 2024 we received two bids the low bidder Park construction has satisfactorily completed projects similar um in minona I did just want to quickly highlight a number of Grants and funding partnership opportunities we reive for this project uh the Metropolitan Council Regional solicitation funding in the amount of 2.3 million approximately uh the state of Minnesota Department of Employment and economic development deed in the amount of 1.6 million as well as two uh grants from Hena County one approximately 120,000 and then 500,000 for the County's cost particip participation and Partnerships program um if the actions are approved tonight the trail would begin this spring and be completed this fall and then following in 2025 Hena County would plan to Overlay uh Hopkins Crossroad as well as a separate project we would continue with our staff updates using our various sources um signage text alerts emails updates and then newsletters so I won't read through all of these we'll just leave them up on the screen and they're in your packet as well there's six items for recommended action that staff is recommend recommending tonight and I did talk with the city attorney earlier the council can't adopt a single motion um to approve staff recommendations 1 through six as set forth in the staff report if they choose to do so so with that I'll turn it back to the mayor and Council for any questions all right Mr Manchester thank you um Council any questions of uh Mr Manchester can I just yes make a comment but you may thank you thank you mayor um I just I'm so proud of this project and the way it's come together and one of the first things when I was on the Planning Commission we had an issue and it was talking about this trail that was going to come sometime in the future so it's so exciting to see it come and it's so as the mayor said it's not free money but it's money that we've contributed to other sources that we're bringing back into the city so um that's it's just incredible and I'm I'm very excited to see this finally get wrapped up so thank you thank you coun m Shack are there any other comments anyone would like to make what she said that you stole my line very good any anyone else um you I'm just going to add quickly um one you know getting work done in cities is about collaboration and when you look at the collaboration and the different sources of funds now um as what counc Shack suggested um all money that we spend is taxpayer money um it just comes from different sources but it is very exciting and very refreshing when we have worthy projects and the state is willing to contribute the Met council is willing to contribute um that's that's a very big deal and um the uh this Trail along um Hopkins Crossroad is going to really make a difference um in terms of connection in our community and um there's a lot of amenities um that this Trail will tie to there's a lot of population in our city and in neighboring cities that will will enable people to use human powered transit to get from point A to point B and I think that's very appropriate a very appro thing uh to talk about on Earth Day so very exciting project would someone like to make a motion Council M Wilber I recommend approval of the bids and agreements for Hopkins Crossroads Trail improvements project as listed in the recommended actions one through six and is there a second C sha thank you Mar I'll second all right a motion by council member Wilburn and a second by council member sha Miss ful please call roll Shaq yes wurn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries item 10 is um our consent agenda and we only have one item on that tonight and uh so I will read that into the record if anyone would like to pull it they may um but or if any council members like to make comments because it's a fairly significant item on our consent AG General item but I will um read it into the record and 10A is a um is the 2024 sustainability commission work plan um so any comments or a motion Council M Calbert thanks yeah I have a a few comments and I'm happy to make a motion after that but um first of all I just want to say how exciting all the work is but also um there are a couple of there are a couple of things that um that struck me today and one is that between the work of the sustainability commission all of the other commissions and all of the plans that we have including the climate action and adaptation plan that we hopefully will be adopting tonight there there's kind of a gap on pollution and um so just thinking about trying to work into one of these plans or the work plan of the commission um just just drive down 494 394 and he wrote around here and you will see a lot of trash so literal like just pollution um as one of the comments on the climate action plan um commented same thing with like chemicals including pesticides there's just this you know because it's not really climate related it's not really like energy related and sustainability related in terms of energy and greenhouse gases so it's just an area doesn't fit neatly in there but it's just something that I was thinking about and um the other thing had to do with maybe there there was talk about partner partnering with our schools on several things and um I think there's so much work that can be done there in including having students adopt a drain because we have that but um more significant maybe working with the schools to see what we can do we have so many open enrolled uh kids in all three minona school districts and they all drive to school and we have it's so bad that we have traffic cops at elementary schools so just thinking about you know what can we do to uh encourage car pools or you know that might be something that that the sustainability commission could take up with our schools and I'm all about Partnerships and I want to get those kids super involved and so it's just just seems like a like a lwh hanging fruit to me thank you cbor Calbert and cbor kley thank you mayor you know I was looking at this and reading it and I had talked to um city manager about it and there's a lot of um great ideas and a lot of things that's going to be happening but I always still continue to say this and I'll continue to say it I just want to make sure that we are really reaching um population lower income population and just really um I see like things that we're going to do but I just want to get more specific on how are we going to reach um lower income communities and making sure that we are intentionally bringing them along with us um because I just I'm continuing not really seeing it as much as I would like to see it thank you HB kley any any other comments um I'll just add a little bit you know um I appreciate the comments about trash and things along um 494 or 394 um also um I mean water I'm getting involved in some initiatives on water um through the Regional Council of Mayors and a number of other groups and you know there's been the story about the eastern Metro and the posos pollution and um that and I know Conor Calvert's been working at the National League of cities on that but um the comment that I got from the mayor of Woodbury is that you know there was that big settlement from 3M but the reality of it is the cleanup that that one um that one plume of posos the the resources that were available from that settlement are insufficient the City of Woodbury itself and the mayor told me this today um um is over $400 million for Woodbury not for any of the other communities Woodbury and um there um a comment that I received from a gentleman who is very involved in water initiatives and is a former met council member um he he commented that um after that strib article on pasas he said the the resources available to solve this problem are insufficient and you know and this is just one part of our metro area and part of our state and so as we as we think of the challenges we face it's going to take a lot of resources but I also want to drive at home to individual responsibility you know I mean when I go for a walk around in the neighborhood and I see a piece of trash laying over in the in the ditch over there or on across the street do I walk over and pick it up and I'm really trying to be mindful Sayes I do but I always didn't do that and I think we there's things that we can all do to make our city better we don't have to necessarily sign up to be you know to Adopt A Highway although that's not a bad idea but you know if you see trash around pick it up if you care about how your city looks take responsibility and pick it up even if even if you didn't put that trash there so I think you know as we work on sustainability and we work on these different things let's look at when we when we look in the mirror we should be looking at a person who wants to be part of the solution so with that pardon my preaching um if someone would like to make a motion well we'll take it Council M Calbert I'd like to make the motion to approve the sustainability commission work plan and to thank them for their incredible hard work good job and a second councelor ra um I'll second that all right we've got a motion by Council M Calbert and a second by Council M Miss fa please call all sha yes Wilburn yes kber yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion carries the next item item 11 is consent agenda items requiring five votes and we have none of those tonight um item 12 is Introduction of ordinances and we have none of those um item 13 is public hearings and uh we're on a roll we have none of those either so that brings us to other B business and we've got two items of significance the first is the climate action and adaptation plan and uh I believe Mr engelson you have that uh report so take it away I do thank you mayor and Council for uh having me here tonight so before we get really deep into this I sort of we do have our consultant here tonight they're going to go over the specifics of our climate action adaptation plan or we can call it cap tonight uh but before we get to that I just want to go over some of our timeline since this has been a pretty the longest process in my career at least uh and then also again with that going over process sort of how we got to where we are here today so first off I'll say about five years ago I think there might be a couple council members that were here there was a pretty big conversation around sustainability plans and what the city was going to do uh I think we have a lot of different things here at the city a lot of really string store community that focus on City controlled property so things that we do on our our properties the way that we're stewards and then also we have a lot of things that create really great development projects that's something that's uh pretty obvious to anyone who looks around Minot Tonka but an area that we lacked uh that I think was really lacking in this area was addressing a bit private ownership properties ones that are already developed that are already there and then also a really holistic plan that includes a lot of different areas so again this was 5 years ago um and at the time we so a little shortly after that we created our first energy action plan though sort of Dipping our feet into the water of creating a plan looks Citywide looking not just at our own facilities our own properties but looking at all the properties within the boundaries of minetonka We did an addendum to that plan in 20122 very quickly we found out there's more that we can add to this there's more that we can do and figure other problems we need to solve uh but then after that plan it came to the point where really we need that larger holistic plan which we looked at a climate action adaptation plan which the point of that is to create goals and strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions uh Citywide and not just our home facilities but throughout the ENT entire boundary of minona and then also adapt to our changing climate so doing both those things together so looking here we have a bit of a we have a timeline put down uh for an 18-month process that um that's this part of it but there was definitely more things that went on before then but the first part I've broken it down to five different areas and the first part in Gray was requesting uh doing a request for qualifications for a consultant and with that there was a lot of discussion both with staff and then also with our sustain ability commission they had a conversation about what they were looking for in this in this plan and then also in our consultant and what came out of all those conversations I really have two big things that we were looking for one was to obtain input from those that are usually not included so people who we usually leave out of those conversations who we don't maybe hear from as often number two was the plan should be available for the general public and usable by the general public I think there's a lot of plans I won't name out any cities but I've read a lot of climate action action plans and there's some that are very scientific and they're great for someone who has a really strong background this area it's really difficult for others and that's coming from someone who reads a lot of plans and does a lot of this work so those are really our two big goals uh that I remember looking down looking back at this uh moving then into our next section there in February of 2023 uh we did we have a lot of Staff here that have amazing uh background information that they have a lot of institutional knowledge a lot of technical knowledge so we wanted to pull information for from them to make sure that we're getting info from our own staff who know this city backwards and forwards so we had a vulnerability assessment that was done by bar engineering a different consultant that had a good background in this area and we had about 80 staff members participate in those meetings we had three different ones uh we collected a lot of information a lot of data around our community organizations environments and infrastructure after that we created an existing conditions report we had to really look at our city and all the information we have here because we have a lot of plans and they're really great and we want to make sure this plan didn't overlap with it didn't step on those different things and really work cohesively with it so that was our next task for our consultant and some of our staff too to make sure we had all that information together and then last was looking at City operations in the section which uh just some in information quickly the city emits about 1% of all the greenhouse gas emissions within our borders so a pretty small amount but to be a leader in this area we want to make sure we looked at ourselves and what are we doing to make sure we can track that and see how we're matching up really with all these U sort of goals that we're setting up moving next into August so we're uh moving through we're already through the summer we're going through the summer of last year uh we did a lot of public Outreach I'm going to talk more about that in a little bit but we had a two-month period for outreach and then October December lhb had all this information and we said go and draft us a plan so they spent those three months drafting like together uh questions back and forth with staff and then starting the beginning of this year we had our first draft plan for the uh cap and that was first provided to staff and then also to the public for comments on our web page and then moving to February we got some some feedback from the council at a study session and then this last March the sustainability commission reviewed and recommended approval for this plan and after all those different comments there was really minor changes made uh it's really impressive what lhb came back with with the with the first plan because substantive there really wasn't any major changes i' just say there were tweaks here and there as uh they got all that different feedback from uh the public from staff from Council uh and the commission which is really impressive it's a lot of feedback we got um so moving on to a that's and then that brings us to tonight here Earth Day uh doing our final review of the plan so I like to look at numbers numbers are sort of my my happy place so when looking through here I want to make sure I had some numbers just to share with you sort of what we did who we met with and um what that looks really um quantitatively so we met with Staff first off that was a big one I talked about our vulnerability assessment those three meetings but we also met with large group a large group of 24 staff members to make sure at different points during this process that everyone sort of knew where this was going where this plan was and also to get again more feedback on how does this fit with what our current operations are and then we also did some focus group meetings so we have areas that I thought we thought found to be very important to get some more specific feedback from so we met with our natural resources staff Public Works then also Recreation and and Public Safety and that was 13 different workshops over about 15 months uh so it was a lot of meetings from a lot of people I have to thank staff for really putting time aside to review and give feedback on this then our sustainability commission got a lot of updates I went through and I think it was just about every meeting from we started there was an update letting them know where we were at uh so there's that where that 10 comes from and then there was also a workshop that they did on June 13th to talk about goals so that we could see if these goals that we were going to set up match with what they envisioned for this plan as our commission that focuses on sustainability and then the council has also received several updates so I know jul and I went through when we looked at how many updates we gave to the council and I came up with nine was around the number we had and then adding in there also the study session that we previously had for the Council to give some feedback on this so moving into Community input uh this was really a Herculean effort of doing uh input from the community and that's really what we set out to do so uh community outreach events over those two months I talked about there was 12 events and we touched with people specifically talking about this climate action adaptation plan 250 people so a lot of people were we caught at different ways and different events so we did pop-up events just showed up places if you were at a minaka event during August and September there's a good chance you saw me there I was really uh took the show to on the road if you will we also had an open house which is uh very well attended and then we did focus groups with community members so just similar to staff we staff that we want to get input from we also had some uh Community groups that we thought were really important the ones we reached out with was our business Community uh natural resource stewards in the city and then also Service Groups people that are really serving our different communities and vonka and with all of that and throughout this process we were collecting surveys from people online and I think an important story to share here is during that I spoke a lot with our Communications Department they helped run that they did a wonderful job but during what the middle point of it I went back to that original goal which was reaching people that we don't often reach and I realized we weren't really doing that we sort of were missing the ball there a little bit um spe specifically looking at demographics of the folks because we were collecting data from people that voluntarily gave it on um race uh home ownership uh age things like that we noticed it was rather white older and homeowners so it's people we often hear from when we go through these plans so at that point we made a bit of a pivot and uh we modified a few things so when we went out to we went out to a couple different places in the community uh specifically two apartments that have high affordability in their building to ask them what they want to see in this plan so we modified that survey made it shorter uh really getting down to some essential questions so be quick and you could do it in person so if you look on the screen there is a DOT survey here we took that same dot survey out um so it just take people a couple minutes to give us some feedback and um it was really it was a really good exercise it was a really good way to really stretch and push ourselves to get some more feedback from again those people we don't hear from um one of the comments I heard from someone was why are you asking me which was really heartbreaking as someone who believes in uh local government and in service and things like that um but when I heard that I knew I'm in the right place so it was really great to hear that comment to know heyy we're here with some people who don't usually come to the city so uh those responses we got from in-person uh which is including that 75 we're much younger more racially diverse uh and again we're also renters so we really I think hit the bar on that goal that we were trying and we did have to do some pivoting to make sure that worked so uh the last thing that I'll add is throughout this whole process we were doing a lot of communication with the public so we did that through the menaka memo and one and several different ways really looking for those big events making sure that our community which as I tell everyone the minaka memo is the most well read thing I've ever seen it's always amazing at all my events I ask how many people have heard it from the memo and it's 90% of the people in the room so that's still uh print is still alive in the minaka memo at least and then um also menaka matters had our survey and had some other where we really kept it there that was our big housing for everything so any questions about this plan where it was going where it was at uh that was a place that people could stop and then we also sent out uh emails to our city news subscribers to make sure they were up to date on what was happening so that's the quick background say quick but quick as I can make it with a 18-month process uh so with that I'm going to turn it over actually to our two Consultants we have here tonight to go over now the more specific parts of the plan good evening and welcome thank you mayor good evening council members I am Becky Alexander I'm an architect and researcher with lhb here today with Abby finis of local climate Solutions we both did a lot of work on the climate action and adaptation plan from the consultant side and I also wanted to acknowledge Michael orange of orange environmental who specifically did the greenhouse gas emissions inventory for City operations specifically we wanted to also acknowledge today that this group has seen most of this content before at the February um city council study session so hopefully this will be a good opportunity for a refresher on that information a a chance to ask any last questions or make any additional comments and to kind of kick off an implementation phase of the climate action and adaptation work today um Abby will be talking through the document outline and adding just a little bit of detail to the community engagement process I'll talk through the goals and targets that are presented in the plan describe a scenario that reaches those goals and targets Abby will talk through at a high level the strategies and actions that are included in the plan and then we'll turn it back over to Mr engelson for a discussion of next steps and then to open it up for some questions great thank you good evening uh it's very exciting to be here because as you mentioned you know this did kind of start five years ago and I remember conversations with those high school students and so uh we've come a long way and it's it's an exciting evening so happy earthday and uh let's dig in um so the document outline kind of follows a basic premise of of a city plan um we have the executive summary introduction I'll walk through the existing conditions a little bit Drew hit on um the community feedback but we'll take a look at that a little and then Becky as she mentioned we'll get into goals and targets the greenhouse gas reduction scenario and then the way that we set up the strategies and actions to really be something that's not just the something that the city can take and implement but community members residents and businesses can do that as well um so the existing condition summary really is the foundation of the plan where are we at now um really helps to determine where we need to be to be able to meet our very ambitious goals within this plan um so we take a look at the community profile um housing demographics uh land use the way people move about the city um what are those climate hazards that we're already seeing what are climate hazards that are projected so that we can understand you know how different vulnerable populations built infrastructure natural infrastructure will be impacted by those climate hazards and then we take a look at the CommunityWide greenhouse gas inventory so that we know where we need to make those those reductions um and then also as mentioned City operations is a smaller piece but uh we dug into the the city operations greenhouse gas inventory as well so that the city can lead by example um and make sure that you know uh the city is also taking these steps while asking community members to do that as well um and then just look at opportunities for implementing those IES actions initiatives um so a quick highle Community engagement overview um we have some really good graphics I think within the plan to demonstrate um what we heard from from folks um when we went out to talk to people and the online survey um a number of focus groups and really good conversations with people to get their input on what they would like to see in the plan and what they think um is possible from a business standpoint from um and also from the the staff and and other community members um there were also as Drew mentioned a number of popup events in the open house where uh all of this was sort of collecting information to feed into the development of the plan and then of course when we had the draft plan posted that online and also left that up for uh comment as well from to get comment from community members and so we went through each of those comments addressed all of the comments uh um within the plan and and noted how we addressed each of those comments um so it was very helpful to get all of this feedback and create a plan that I think is something that will work really well for the community and um assist you in meeting the goals and targets so when it came to setting goals and targets we looked both at a vision for resilience and adaptation and the vision that's presented in the plan is to strengthen Community resilience by preserving Natural Resources by strengthening Community Connection and by preparing the infrastructure to withstand climatic changes and extreme weather events so it's looking at needing action in these three areas of ecological adaptation of continuing to build and strengthen Community connections within the community and with neighboring communities and then really um taking a a close look at infrastructure we also proposed goals for greenhouse gas emissions reductions these are CommunityWide emissions reduction goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 63% per person by 2030 from 2018 levels and to achieve Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and these goals were developed based on input from the sustainability commission based on feedback from the survey and from some of those popup events and Community engagement in order to and based on conversations with City staff really in order to um set goals that are represent science-based fair share targets that support the state's greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals and demonstrate minat tanka's climate leadership we'll go into that a little bit more so the planning team started with guidance from the intergovernmental panel on climate change for what it will take to keep Global emissions Global temperature rise below 1 and a half degrees cus to avoid some of the worst impacts uh on health livelihoods food security water supply human security and economic growth so that's looking at a 50% reduction in per capita emissions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050 we then adjusted those goals based on guidance from the one planet city challenge to calculate the community's fair share Target which is basically acknowledging that communities that have been more developed have both a greater opportunity and responsibility to decrease the per person emissions um faster on our way to meeting these Global targets so that's where we get the 63% reduction in per capita emissions by 2030 these um represent leadership in terms of climate leadership it's really difficult to compare greenhouse gas emissions goals even between Minnesota communities because they typically have different Baseline years different goal years there might be different um Scopes included in the emissions inventories but this graph is trying to show what it would mean if minetonka just word for word adopted the 20 other um communities that have greenhouse gas emissions goals that are CommunityWide and so the starred values are showing the um minetonka goals compar comped to the dots showing what it would look like if minetonka just word for word adopted other communities goals so you can see that minetonka is among kind of the um leaders when it comes to the near-term goals while still keeping that kind of longer Runway understanding that some of the strategies in terms of getting all vehicles to be running on clean electricity for example will likely take longer into the future so keeping that 2050 um long-term goal this also shows the state goals in the green dots and dashed line and it's supporting those goals in acknowledgment that communities have over the past decades been able to reduce their emissions more quickly than the state as a whole because of the things that are happening outside of City boundaries like Agriculture and a lot of Industry that are harder to get the greenhouse gas emissions out of so by having um goals that are quicker than the state's goals in the near-term the community will be supporting those Statewide goals actually being achievable so it will take transformative action to reach those goals and we calculated what it could look like what it would actually mean to get there in this greenhouse gas uh reduction scenario the good news is motanka is not doing this alone it is joining with the federal AC the Statewide action other communities Market Pol market trends that are all helping move in this direction so this diagram is showing Minot tanka's historic emissions as the white dots from 2007 through 2021 I think is shown on this graph which have decreased come down over time as we use less electricity use cleaner electricity specifically it's showing the the top line if you follow the top of the blue W Ed or the blue triangle it's showing what we'd expect to happen if nothing changed except for the community grows gets more people has more jobs as um expected in the in the Met Council forecasts the stars are showing the goals so we're trying to get down to those stars and each wedge is showing the impact of a set of strategies that move the kind of reference scenario closer to those goals so this is showing kind of a if every um if all of the policies that are currently in place and the market trends that we're currently seeing happen and reach their full potential this is what we'd expect to see so getting actually pretty pretty close closing a lot of that gap between where we are today and what those goals are so this includes things like Minnesota's energy code for commercial buildings which is optimizing Energy Efficiency by 2036 that's in that top blue wedge um it's showing things like Minnesota's carbon electricity or carbon- free electricity by 2040 which is in the third one down one more down yep it and it's showing um Federal and uh Federal clean car standards as well as Market based electric vehicle adoption so that's that big green wed towards the bottom and I'll also note that not included here is Minnesota's policy to offset Highway expansion projects with projects to reduce vehicle miles traveled so any project uh Highway expansion projects that's in uh anticipated to increase travel needs to be offset by other projects like bike trails or um Transit projects or car sharing to help the state reach its goal of a 20% reduction in vehicle miles traveled per capita so this is all good news but it won't necessarily happen without support at the local level even the things that are shown here so it might not need Minot tonka's intense coordination and collaboration but it will need some um some support so things like making sure that the energy code gets fully enforced at the local level um helping get some of the funding that's available for building efficiency projects for electrification projects to switch over to Electric space and water heating getting some of that coming into the community um supporting the clean energy transition through local renewable energy projects and energy storage projects to help that grid wide transition to carbon- free electricity by 2040 and potentially proposing local vehicle travel reduction projects to offset Highway expansion but there are some areas that do need a focus on additional local action these areas are existing building efficiency and electrification reducing vehicle travel supporting that Statewide goal and going Beyond it ideally and then increasing the rate of electric vehicle adoption so getting getting those rolled out within the community kind of as quickly as possible so this version is showing a scenario that adds those three priorities into the existing policies and market trends to show what it could look like for minetonka to meet the goals that are outlined and I'll just say that by 2030 these this is this is a big effort so by 2030 it's showing that I think one out of every four buildings has been has undergone an energy efficiency retrofit and has electrified their space and water heating that all new buildings are designed to be as energy efficient as possible and use electricity and and not use fossil fuels basically it's showing that one out of every three vehicle trips has been eliminated served by something else and it's showing that one out of every five vehicles on the road is electric rather than power by fossil fuels and about 75% of waste is recycled is not is not landfilled or incinerated by 2050 of course there's no fossil fuels used in buildings or vehicles or industrial processes it's kind of a it's a big thing to wrap wrap our heads around all electricity would be carbon free by 2040 for the state and and and that's what's shown here as well um and significantly less driving uh and as close to zero waste as possible so that's kind of the level of impact that's needed the level of work that's needed to get to these goals with that I'll turn it back over to Abby to talk about how do we get started no problem right yeah uh so the strategies and actions um we've written a number of these plans together and every time we try to take a different approach and think about what best fits um the community that we're working with and this one is quite a bit different I think in in terms of the strategies and actions and how we decided to take the approach for motanka in that we really wanted to equip community members with the tools that they need um to be able to take action because we know it's both a collective effort we know that things need to change uh at the policy level through our utilities um Etc but there's also a lot that we can do at home um and a lot of the emissions are coming from our building energy use they coming from our travel use and so uh what we wanted to do is design uh basically here are the things that you can do here are the high impact things here's how much it might cost relative to other action and go ahead and make a list for yourself um so we did that for residents and we did that for um commercial entities as well and really focusing on those things that reduce emissions in your home as well as um making your home your properties uh more climate friendly uh and more prepared for some of these climate disruptions um and it's really a good time to be doing all of this because there is a ton of incentives that are available or will becoming available um for people to take advantage within this window that we're really trying to hit that 63% reduction um and so we wanted to align these actions these recommended actions with those incentives so there's federal tax tax incentives that are available now there will be rebates that are available both from the state uh and the federal government um that can be paired with utility rebates to help bring down um The Upfront cost of a lot of these things that um we'd like to see done so when we're looking at climate friendly homes we're looking at uh the home energy emissions and addressing that through efficiency and conservation uh electrification that means uh changing our heating systems to um from from gas systems to Electric which is air source heat pumps um and there's been really cool Innovation happening with uh air source heat pumps in that they can produ they are energy efficient up to 400% um in cold in cold climates which still the physics of it blows my mind I don't I don't fully understand it but um uh they've come a long way and so looking at electrification of our heating systems looking at electrification of our cooking um and uh water heating as well and also complementing that with clean energy and considering all of this in terms of income you know it's it's going to be a lot of upfront costs and if there's income qualified households making sure that they're not bearing the brunt of upfront costs and they're not getting their their utility bills increased and so how do we pair that with um Community solar subscriptions to bring down the cost of electricity when we're electrifying our homes um how do we create rebate programs that you're you not required have upfront costs but you get those rebates taken off from from the get-go um as well as financing structures so trying to make it as Equitable as possible um to support people through this transition uh travel emissions really look at driving less and driving cleaner um there are a couple of strategies or actions in there I think that are related to Safe routes to school and and having walking school buses and and biking school buses um that are taking off across the country so kind of looking at those different creative strategies and making sure that they're safe so people can get their to their destinations uh in clean and healthy ways um waste emissions similarly I think the reduce is really something that should be uh weighted more heavily in this category because um it's not showing up in our greenhouse gas inventory but there's a lot of emissions that go into the things that we buy and so being more uh conscientious about the things that we purchase and the the climate impact of that the other side is what can we do with our yards what can we do do with um the properties around our homes to make sure that they're more climate friendly um and our protecting habitat uh are can withstand heavy rains can withstand droughts and being prepared for those extremes so just thinking about what it takes to uh prepare your home for that and then also be a bit more resilient when those um hazards come um very similarly with businesses the actions are a little bit different because buildings are different the building energy is a little bit different and mechanical equipment um but similarly set up to look at those building energy emissions um travel emissions also are going to have a little bit uh of a different take and thinking about employee commutes and how do we incentivize uh employees to uh make more climate friendly choices getting to work or working from home um thinking about those uh company fleets as well and so how do we Electrify some of the fleets and we're starting to see that I think um as there's more innovation in that space um waste uh same thing we really want to reduce waste and then also make sure that we're recycling uh what we do purchase um and then climate friendly property and climate ready businesses um are also very similar and I think that you know um Hopkins and uh St Louis Park have really good uh programs that look at you know how do we incentivize our our commercial properties to deave um and think about some of these storm water infrastructure uh actions that they can take as well so there's some good examples from neighboring communities um and then lastly just looking at what the city can do through leadership um and operations uh through how you think about the budget um you know what are the fleet emissions what are what are um what's the process for converting the fleet over to Electric we know that there may be vehicles that are uh more easily converted to Electric than others um so trying to think through what is the timeline and what makes sense to do uh which part of the fleet first um and then maintaining a really good natural resource uh programs and and initiatives um and thinking about that through climate and thinking about uh resilience um I mentioned St Louis Park and Hopkins there's a lot of opportunity for multi-jurisdictional Partnerships and and Regional collaboration I think um because climate doesn't just kind of pick at the borders right it's it's it's a regional issue as well um and then you know we set up these buckets where we think that cities have the most influence and authority and the the first one is that leadership and uh City operations and then there's also education and engagement I think this one is a huge area for the city to be able to get out the word the way that we have this plan here are the resources um you know we're going to set up workshops we're going to put this in uh our various newsletters social media Etc to make sure that people are aware of um what resources funding financing those kinds of things are available to them to help meet the goal um incentives uh again this could be Financial um similar to other cities that have cost share programs that can um uh complement those state and federal incentives and then regulatory is looking at different ordinances and um uh permitting structures that can be alleviated to to support more climate friendly um development or other decisions um and then lastly is just looking at the policies and programs that are uh in place in a lot of instances or new programs and policies that may need to be developed to help meet the goal so there is a list of those areas um and you know the next steps are going to be looking at implementation and uh working toward that 2030 goal and then the 2050 goal so with that Drew I think I turn back to you absolutely thank you uh thank you Abby and Becky for that uh so uh looking at the i' say the final step but it's really actually the beginning step so uh and the next step is going to be implementation so that's going to be involving a lot of different groups uh staff conversations number one uh there's a lot of things in there too in this plan that are things we're already doing so really just adding on to that really confirming what the city's already doing that we're doing the right thing keep doing it uh there's also going to be others that are going to take more effort planning and funding and and those are future things that will come on as a piece by- piece basis as we go through this plan uh and then lastly this uh this effort's going to take a a lot of people so it's not just staff I talked about that 24 staff group that we meet up regularly so there's good communication there and a good group uh group working there but then also Community involvement uh we this this doesn't end within the boundaries of City Hall and within our offices it goes out and we're going to really need to get a lot of Partnerships to make sure that this uh plan gets into place and is effective so I will make it a short and Suite there for that last slide and hand it over to the mayor and councel for any questions or comments all right and I'm going to do a little process check here because um we are going to be done in an hour and that is with our agenda so not with this item with the agenda so um what I'm going to say is we've got about 10 minutes more on the climate action plan so um if there are any um questions or comments from Council let's let's make those um I don't know if we're going to have much time for any public engagement but maybe one or two comments but we've just we are going to be voting on this at 7:20 which is 10 minutes from now so please uh use your time accordingly and um sorry to be so brief but that's the way we the way it is tonight so any comments or questions from the council um Council Wilburn I will be brief um I just wanted to thank the staff and our consultants and the sustainability commission and everybody who put in so much work and so much time to to come uh to to reach this I think it's really an an excellent document and ambitious but necessary um and so I am in support very good councelor Calbert uh I'll also be brief we did have one comment from Heather Holm who is our uh loyal Watchdog and um you know did read the the uh document and I think some of the suggestions that she made were reasonable you know have a native be maybe talk about native trees versus trees um uh so I don't know if we want to you know really get into that and I also wanted to mention that I did talk about you know the the whole thing about partnering with schools with the sustainability work plan and what we didn't talk about was drive-throughs but we do talk about not idling and that seems to go together with the work of the sustainability commission we've had some interest in D you know studying drive-throughs because we're not liking them too much um but uh and the other thing is I'm not I think it's really important to as we move away from Cars to reexamine our parking minimums but this talked about eliminating parking minimums and I don't think we're ready for that yet but I think that's a great goal to move to thank you Council Cal Council RA reading your body language it looked like you had a comment yeah thank you thank you mayor um again I'll Echo council member Calver and just thank you to everybody who's been involved in this plan from the very beginning staff Consultants community members who have uh you know done the work and engaged and uh given us your comments um I haven't read as many climate action plans as Drew has but I have come through a couple including henpen counties and I just have to congratulate you on something and a document that's very readable and very user friendly so you hit the nail on the head on that one um so you hit it out of the park whatever metaphor that you want to use um I just have a couple of comments otherwise I don't want to get too deep into the weeds here I would love to follow up um with you on uh uh the impact of the Excel renewable subscriptions as that as an interim step um it's listed as less impactful as some of the others but for many people it's a great first step and an interim Stu before because it doesn't take any time and that's usually my band wagon that I beat whenever if you can't do anything else at least at the beginning do this now because it's so easy and it makes a huge impact um and then go on and do the other things but start with that um I'm also also uh would be interested if not now then later looking at um you know obviously this is going to cost some money a lot of this is you know is going to cost resources or require resources but I think we also have to pair that with what successful implementation plan will save us in the long run so this is an investment in our future I think many people have heard that my family's been in this General 3M radius area for uh five generations and I think it's an investment in our own Futures and our children's Children's children's Children's Futures if we make this investment now it's better to do this investment up not upfront now and and you know spend what we need to responsibly and wisely then have to spend a lot more on catastrophic cleanup later so let's do our part and and uh do that and then lastly I think I spoke with Mike about this um this morning and look forward to hearing if we need to do any um you know kind of looking at the post the natural resources uh master plan the Water Resources master plan EAP EMP these things that you looked at um that fed into this plan but maybe we need to reflect back out on those plans in view of this so if there's any of that's required I'll I'll be looking forward to hearing um what staff and and Consultants might think about that and uh yes thank you again and I look forward to supporting this thank you yes go ahead council member Foster Bolton thank you um I'd like to just Echo council member Calvert's um point about the suggestions that Heather Holmes made and also just one thing that like I it points out in your survey that the it the needle moves even a little bit more when people say yes I'm willing to make sacrifices even if um it causes some disruption which in turn talks about what you mentioned about pest decides like um letting the residents know the impact cuz we do get so many ads to to um you know fertilize our Lawns and stuff like that and to just sort of mitigate all of that information that we get with look what it does look what it would do if we didn't do this stuff so um so thank you and it's awesome even I can read it and like that's sha I don't I I'm going to hold my main comments except I think in reading the report it does say that Heather Holmes recommendations were implemented in many regards so I just want to make sure that's really clear on the record um and I I'll refrain from making any further comments C Cy I just want to say this is much more clearer um when you explained it um I felt like it was more in depth what I talked to Mike about earlier um um but I also I know you said you um survey two apartments and um got some information from two apartment buildings but I just want to make sure that we continue on going to those apartment buildings and making sure that we bring apartment buildings along with us and then also um the education piece making sure that we continue to do the education specifically at the apartment buildings and because that's going to be very important as we continue to do this work making sure that we bring everybody along um and then also um um the education piece um just really pushing the education and then just helping people really understand um what it's going to take and for folks who may be on a lower budget or lower income just really looking at um how can we help folks on a lower income when they're thinking about paying their rent paying bills how can we um what can we do to support them I think it's going to be really really important thank you m kley and we're we're pretty much out of time so I'm I'm I'm going to move this forward the um I I will just add there are two things that stood out to me I I totally agree with what council member kley said about the importance of Education um for a lot of people this is a big mindbend this is a totally different way of doing things and you know the lwh hanging fruit that the XL Energy is making transitions significant transitions that making our energy and people when they plug whatever in don't notice a difference but they're using cleaner energy okay that's that's the stuff that's easy for individuals but this requires real Behavior change and so the education and the coaching is really important and not just for it it's important across the board and then the other piece that stood out to me was you know I I did the dangerous thing and I read the comments and um and you know there are a certain element in our in our city and in our in general that said well this is hogwash I don't believe it and I'm not doing it sick it you know up your nose with a rubber hose basically and uh and you know so then to get to 63% we we have to we we have other the rest of us are going to have to do more um to get to the type of reduction that 63% represents because there are people who are not going to do it now when when they when they can take advantage of what XL is doing they don't care and they don't know but when it comes to over it action you know there's going to be people at well I'm going to keep my old car and I'm never going to drive an electric car I'm not going to do this I I don't believe in it and so I think we have to we have to figure out our comp our compensating activities so if we're going to make the target we're going to have to compensate for the people who are not going to play play ball because there are going to be some of those so um I think that's uh that's something and then and then I mentioned to Mike today we you know people like lists and they like to be challenged and I think I think there's some opportunity in our education to to you know create scorecards for people so that they can you know they they can score for being more climate resilient and also um um per you know we can provide recognition and do things like that but I think people like to self score I just think if we can um work with some of the gamesmanship that people that Intrigue people from a marketing perspective we can have greater success so with that Council um I I I just hate to do this such a a big deal but um we do have a we do have a time schedule yes M two comments thank you Mary um one is there were a lot of questions so let us make sure we kind of gather up those comments and maybe in a couple of months maybe bring back a info um session for you at a either a quick study session item or um at a regular council meeting and have a little bit of an update and then two all comments were responded to not just one person so just want to there were 15 people that commented I want to assure you that each comment was responded to in the list so thank you mayor and just to add your comments um miss wishnack this is not this is not a oneandone thing well okay we've we've passed it okay we can move on now this is we're this is this is a change in our lifestyle so I think we are going to look to staff and and and to the sustainability commission to come back and report to us and then I think that might be when we'll have a night where we have a little B more time we can take more public comment do the things that we'd like to do because this is important this is lifechanging in many ways and I don't want to give it short shrift but I am giving it short shrift tonight so with that if someone like to make a motion council member Wilburn I move that we adopt the minetonka climate action and adaptation plan as presented to us councilor Calbert thank you mayor excuse me I second and I also wanted to mention multif family house to uh council member cley's point is going to be key um just making making opportunities with the landlords with the tenants to make things happen and easier for them to do the right thing is going to be a great uh a challenge and an opportunity all right so we've got a motion by Council M Wilburn and a second by Council M Calbert please call R Shaq yes Wilburn yes helbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome Mo yes motion carries and uh and I want to thank everyone and I and I am sheepish and a little embarrassed that we're we're doing it as quickly as we are but we are tonight but we need to keep talking about this this is important and we need to make it a way of life so uh looking forward to that so thank you so much all right well done everyone thank you Council R for that um so that takes us to 14b which is items concerning Greco minona at 1547 and 1549 wetta Boulevard and uh Mr Gordon has that but he's not here so I'm going to have to look to miss wishnack to take that staff report I used to be a city planner so I think I can handle this mayor um thank you mayor and council members as you know Greco is proposing a project at the two addresses listed above I will be less than 10 minutes with my presentation so hopefully that's um quick enough uh the Planning Commission spent a lot of time on this uh matter so I think you probably all have watched that meeting as well so but I'm going to recap quickly the background of the site is it's 19 acres in size 6 Acres of Upland actually exist on the property and this is flood plane Wetlands all of that subtracted out there's a 418 regulated trees on the site and the property itself is guided institutional and it's zon planned I 394 District as you can see it's right on the freeway um on the front edge road to this neighborhood we always put this slide in uh guide plan just a reminder of what the comprehensive plan is intended to do it's that long-term Vision about the community and the goals and the strategies that we have and then then it includes a development density or type designation for every property and an Institutional property is really intended for P public or semi-public land uses these include schools or religious institutions government buildings and also multi-purpose complexes like the city of minaka has here at civic center and really the reason for that guiding all those years is because it has quite a history of being used that way it was a nursing home Hill crust nursing was existing on the site you can kind of see that little white box in the center of the site uh and how it existed in 1960 it then evolved and changed in 1967 and then you can see kind of the full buildout as we know it today in 1977 and it was operated and owned as that nursing home facility until 2019 when they left the site this is the jumping forward now um quite a few years and we now have some concept plans that were discussed both in 22 and 23 I would also tell you that uh once we heard there was a vacancy in the building we did start talking to the neighborhood uh just the staff were meeting with the neighborhood to talk about the eventual probably application that we would receive for reuse of the site so we did start that even before anybody was proposing development on the site so you can kind of see the left hand side was existing building was being retained and then there was a new building added to the southeast side that has evolved in 23 and this was kind of the layout that we saw at that point and then um it's changed to what you see today which is 121 Independent Living uh building and then uh it's a three-story basically from the front of the building you can kind of see on the right hand picture the look and kind of this I call it the shaped type building and some of the parking area uh out front and 15 of the units are proposed at 50% area meeting income and six at 60% area meeting income and the reason I mention this now is because we had had it tabled the last meeting I think or two meetings ago and the reason was is because there was some trouble trying to get the affordability into the next slide that I have which is the assisted or memory care if you know anything about uh the costs of providing that care it is quite exorbitant in terms of the Staffing and the needs of the patients that are in that facility and so we were kind of going back and forth of how best to address affordability in the full memory care facility and what we ended on is basically in the last rendition they had 12 units on the independent side and then um four would have been required on the memory care side so what they've done is increased it to 15 units on the independent side and dropped it to one unit accepting Elderly Care waiver program on the memory care again just to quickly explain elderly waiver is about a program where people apply to the state of Minnesota to receive additional care monies um to help with their care so just a a heads up on that um this is with the look at the building it's really a one-story building from the streetcape the requirements for this proposal is they need a guide plan Amendment from institutional to high density residential there's some notes in the packet that talk about medium density if you don't take some of the flood plane area out um they go into the medium density category if you um uh net that out you end up in a high density so there was some when they first applied I don't think the calculation was quite accurate in terms of what the city required as um the Upland area they also requireed to have a master development plan a flood plane alteration permit and then finally a final sight and plan final sight and plan review permit with a tree removal variants um in terms of the comp plan let's just talk about that for a second the current nursing home obviously is not a viable use it uh can't be reused there's a moratorium if you're aware that Minnesota has a moratorium restricting new nursing homes then there is also um the issue of high density would actually be less impactful from vehicle traffic um surrounding the site I think going from um a very busy uh let's just think I think a church was proposed there early on the kind of traffic that that would have created compared to what a senior facility would create I think that was one of the considerations we used in our analysis and then finally develop uh resulting from the change would actually remove a potentially blighting influence on the vacant nursing home building we've had lots of calls for service out there lots of public safety issues and so uh it's really in disrepair so we felt that that was a positive as well in terms of the master development plan generally it meets code requirements uh we have had a long conversation with the neighbors in the area so we feel like a lot of the input that was provided was implemented into the plan of course no plan is perfect so we understand that but I would say the majority of the comments we've received over the number of years that this has been talked about has been have been addressed it does reflect a high level investment the materials on the building so forth which are addressed in the plann I 394 District have been addressed with the plan package this issue I want to also cover this tree removal they have 38% tree removal just to note why that is um there were a number number of in the courtyard if you will trees that were growing up and then there's a couple on the edge of the building here too that when they demo the site those trees obviously have to come out and so that's kind of kicking up their tree removal to 38% so that is a need for a variance of course this is the worst case scenario if the developer is able to save additional trees on site they obviously will do that and we will work on their grading plants to ensure that is the case um finally the staff recommendation adopt the ordinance and the resolutions approving The Proposal with that mayor I'm going to turn it back to you for any questions thank you thank you Miss wishnack so um process check again at 7:30 um we are going to be looking for a vote at 8:00 so we're going to squeeze in what we can get and so um first of all Council questions for staff any questions council member cley I had a question I had talked to Mike about this earlier it sounded like from what I read that um we're asking to give up four um units for the um medical um I guess the medical medical care for the memory care Memory Care um unit and um I guess you explained it um you did explain it why um but I'm just wondering is there any other way to I just think the the units having more units that's affordable I would prefer like to have more units um in affordable I mean even if you maybe did away with the memory care but have the four units would be preferably um because um to me that makes more sense to have the um units Miss wishnik mayor and Council M cookley so just let me do the stats again just to make sure we all are on the same page so the original or at least the there was 21 the requirements under the housing policy is 10% basically affordable five at 55 at 60 that's the starting point so on the 121 unit building on the left side of side or the west side that would have been 12 units total on the memory care the 40 unit that would have been 4 units total so in the end what they're doing is proposing to add more units to the 121 so they're up to 15 affordable as you see on the screen and then adding the one for a total of 16 which would have been the overall requirement with four and 12 but so we we get the same number of a portable units it's where the mixture is in the project I think that's the difference um in looking at the financials of doing um for in the memory care uh as a staff person who looks at all these Gap issues with affordability all day long I I did not think it was feasible for them to do that I did agree with their uh calculation their assessment that they could get by with one elderly waiver um but uh really transferring that to the endp dependent was a way that we could still get the affordable units so CER sha thank you mayor um I think I'm confused but is it 15 + 6 or is it plus one or is it 15 one plus okay so this says 15 and the packet said it I'm sorry yes 15 plus 6 + 1 you're right sorry I said that wrong so there's a n extra units coming as a result of giving out right let me make sure or maybe it's not nine it's five five 15 units and six yeah 15 at 50 6 at 60 and one in the memory care yes 22 and then that would be 16 so there's six extra six extra yes okay that would be but it comes from not being able to do the memory care yes the point is still the same MH very good other other questions like I guess I'll just say something I guess you're saying that um you can they're not going to be able to have them in the memory care but you'll be able to have it in the other building um if you um reduce just I guess one in the memory care versus and then have the rest of them in the other building right just one in Med memory care right okay so true I guess I'm a little confused about like why why was the difference made I guess can you go over that again sure I'm a little confused in that area Miss wishnack thank you mayor and council members I'm just going to give you a roundabout figure here let's just say it costs $155,000 a month to be in memory care generally um and if you were to live in an independent Care Unit let's say it's a one-bedroom unit and the price of that one bedroom I'm just looking at the chart here let's just say at 50% is 1,00 and at market rate it's 2,200 compared to 15,000 for a unit that's the difference in the Gap um that we're trying to figure out with the development finances so it's a difference between trying to cover a $155,000 gap or um the difference between 2,200 11100 so that's $1,000 Gap a month not 15,000 so that's really the basic issue the basic challenge thank you Miss wishnack are there thank thank you are there other questions otherwise I will invite the applicant to come forward and um um welcome thank you I'm hoping hopefully you've got enough time to uh cover cover what you need to cover and um thank you for being here tonight yeah absolutely uh Josh said with Greco I'm the president owner of the development and Property Management Group located at 607 Washington Avenue North in Minneapolis and uh thank you very much I will keep my remarks very brief this evening um like um Miss wak uh mentioned you know this has been 18 months in the making for us a lot of collaborative effort with staff uh community members um through four different uh public meetings uh with just the neighborhood I should State uh amongst the Planning Commission and City Council meetings along with multiple um in person on the phone uh Communications too with neighbors uh in the area um somebody left their phone up here so they're probably going to be looking for that soon um like I mentioned my name is Josh banstead the president owner of Greco we're a 20 year 20 plus year uh real estate development Property Management Group look at here in the Twin Cities and I'm joined with our uh civil engineer LS and then our design architect C Wilson again the site plan um you're familiar with this this is a this is an iteration between four or five different Evolutions that really focused on trying to you know create the lowest density of the project near the neighborhood and the highest density uh as far away to the north in the neighborhood and what started as a U-shaped building on that South Side turned into this uh t/l shaped building as we work through that with the neighboring neighboring folks to again uh get ourselves as far away as possible from the neighborhood um as part of that I think it's a project that we were really proud of uh excited to see come to life we think it uh you know really represents the the fabric of what's developed here in the city of minona and the quality level plus also uh is a knot to uh the existing uh fabric there in this neighborhood plus the future of where it may be going um again just some just some high level renderings of the project I know you have these in your packet um and whatnot this is our uh look forward schedule so tonight we're here April 22nd meeting with you folks assuming approvals this evening if we move forward expeditiously uh we would be looking at a September 2024 construction start it's roughly an 18mon window in totality we have four for uh 15 months here shown but beginning to end by uh by all completions completing our project in December really takes you into the spring with Landscaping completions and whatnot um we look forward to your feedback I would just wanted to point out one piece uh related to the affordability I think it did get a little confusing up on the slide so we are proposing 15 total affordable units in the independent living building that's seven at 50% Ami and8 at 60% Ami and then one elderly waiver unit in the memory care facility so there was some area of confusion I think that when the report came out the 15 got input is that it should have been the total so so clarify 15 total 15 to yes 15 total units gotcha thank you all right thank you very much um that was that was nice and brief um you know we're um you know so we um we watched Planning Commission meeting and I think we're pretty familiar with this and we really appreciate um um your report um I know that the thing that I particularly appreciated as this has gone forward is the interaction that you have had with the neighborhood and and how you've taken the um taken so many things with the neighborhood to heart I mean I remember when earlier there was a there was a tall building toward the back to the to the South and the um and then you were retaining the original building and and um and while I like the idea of retaining the original building I'm sure that had was its own kettle of fish but um but the fact that we've really scaled down the buildings closest to the neighborhood and um and that the that the height of the O of both buildings are um not are are quite reasonable I think that is um a very positive aspect but we've got a few minutes if um and I see that there are people in the audience if anyone would like to make comments on this please come forward please keep your comments brief and we'll do our best to move along and um like I said we're going to vote on this at 8:00 hi good evening please provide your name and address we're uh Jannie and Greg grffin 1539 Clare Lane we are our property is right next to the the proposal and um we addressed the city council two years ago when when this when uh Eaglebrook was trying to come in everything else and we're glad where we are here today uh we think that this has been a very good development and um Josh and Greco have been working with the neighborhood very well and um uh they've been very able to communicate with us steadily and met with us both at our residents and and at his office you know it's really interesting this Earth Day and I I give Greco a lot of credit they've been very sensitive about how they plant trees the wetlands the way that vegetation is on the plans they've done a really great job so I'm really it's just perfect for today for Earth Day that they've done that um however we've had some challenges which you probably are all aware of with the break-ins it's been almost every other weekend we feel really bad about calling the police because they are so busy with other things and it's become an unsafe neighborhood because of that so we're hoping to move this along so that the building can be taken down so that we're not calling the police every other day because they have much more important things to do but we're really thrilled where we're at now we've come a long way just this past Saturday there were seven squad cars at 7 o'clock chasing kids in the in the area so we really want this to move forward and um we're looking forward to having them as our as our neighbor very good well Mr and Mrs Griffin thank you for your comments and the only thing I would say is don't be afraid to call the police they're here to serve you and we we don't want um crime in our neighborhoods and and you know this is becoming a blighted property so um calling the police is the right thing to do do not hesitate your safety is way more important than anything else so do not hesitate to call the police if you feel a need we appreciate that thank you thanks is there anyone else who would like to comment on this project please come forward state your name and address my name is Megan Fields I'm a member of Good Shepard Presbyterian Church at 15321 ways ATA Boulevard um we're right across from the property yes um and just reiterating what the Griffin said um the vandalism has been um pretty extreme it's it's spilled over onto our property as well we've experienced vandalism on our property and um so we mostly would just like something anything to happen there um so it's not an abandoned der elct property anymore um we were um enjoyed the the nursing home that had been there prior um and I I don't want to speak specifically on behalf of our church um but I I think generally the consensus is that we are um enthusiastic about another um Assisted Living Memory Care sort of facility going in this place very good and there's probably some members that are going to live in that building when it's built so good best wishes of that too thank you thanks um yeah please come forward good evening hi hello kathern Friedrich 15424 hter Drive yeah we live on the back side of the property so as much as I very much appreciate all the feedback that was taken into consideration of the people who live on the east side of the property I feel like there's been very little involvement with the people who back up to what is is now going to be a four-story building looking into my backyard um I would love to have had like I did attend some Community meetings I don't know when the plan changed I clearly missed several meetings um I would say that I've pointed out that there's been a lack of communication on your own website of when these meetings are taking place and I understand that you're doing the best that you can and I understand you're apparently transitioning from one website system to another website system but my opinion is that we have not been super transparent with all of the neighbors there's some of the neighbors that we have been very involved with but not everyone I also would um Point um to what you were calling out miss kley my mom lived in a memory care and assisted living I think that those things are needed I think that we need more of those I also know how much it costs to have somebody live in a memory care every single month so this used to be institutional that was something we moved into this neighborhood knowing that there would be a memory care to living things like that in our neighborhood I get we're transitioning to a 55 plus but somewhere in this plan we shifted from a very large memory care and and assisted living which was going to be in the original building and a small 55 plus Community to a very large 55 plus community and a small assisted living and Memory Care Facility my ask is for the people who do live behind the property to have similar feedback on this large scale building that is going to be in our backyard I understand the trees are not being touched I can tell you that 7 months out of the year I can see white right in there I saw the police there on Saturday as well and the community service officer was sitting outside of my front driveway so they can see what's happening right from my yard and I can see into two stories and now I'm going to have to look into four so I'm looking for some more building shading some more large trees like pine trees um that would provide me with some shading from that property so that's my ask agreed what she said thank you thank you thank you all right is there is there anyone else who has comments anyone all right I will bring it back to the council for comments and discussion and action so um coun M Wilburn I just have a really quick question for the developer and apologies if this was stated somewhere and I missed it but um I'm I was looking at the plans and all of those flat Ro roofs and will the roofs be solar ready they they will be designed in a way that yes they could accept uh solar panels in the future and then we'll have internal infrastructure ran up to accept those mhm uh that would be on the independent building the um the memory care facility has a gabled roof so that that would not be yeah very good before you sit down I just want to see if Council has any more questions for you so you don't have to run back and forth but um um councelor R yes thank you and thank you for the presentation um I just had a question regarding uh are these rental for both or is the independent living again apologies if this was somewhere is uh is that going to be uh owner you know condo HOA situation uh both buildings would be rental thank you um one followup go ahead just uh so I know one thing that we've been talking about recently is uh number of 911 uh calls to some of our assisted you know care and you know private are what what are Staffing plans or I just I just want to see if there are Staffing plant that are going to be adequate to address that so that that isn't an issue yes um so the independent living is just that it's a it's it's uh 55 plus individuals that are able to live on their own uh the memory care facility will be uh staff 247 with enough staff to correct okay I think the peak staff hours um on that facility and the owners are here too from Rivers of Life um and they uh if I recall correctly the peak um staff on that facility are 12 members okay great thank you any other questions all right you're good okay thank you thank you mayor if I may yes just um I'm looking at the report for the supporting information section it's missing the number nine that's why um it's 15 total on the independent nine at 50 6 at 60 and one elderly waiver program on the memory okay sorry about that very good okay we're we're good so but it's 15 in one building of at two levels of Ami and then one in the memory care um or more nursing home type facility correct yes and for further Clarity um the type the number of bedrooms is also stratified and that's in the chart that was in the packet okay thank you and having had some experience I'm just to comment with with memory care I mean the challenge with memory affordable affordability and memory care I mean when you have an apartment it's usually you know 1,000 square feet or 1,200 square feet or whatever I've known people who' have lived in memory care the cost goes up dramatically and the square footage goes down dramatically typically um a memory care unit is 300 square feet or something like that it's it's basic because the the so Memory Care is really more about care than it is about rent and so you get into a conversation of what is does what is affordable housing if you just break out the housing piece on a square footage basis you'd say well 400 ft that we should you that shouldn't cost much at all but but because the per month cost is very high because of the high level of care you essentially start saying well we're going to have our affordable housing funds pay for medical care essentially um I'm I'm paraphrasing badly but so it's it's a different ball game and that's why it's so challenging so I think the solution that staff has worked out with the with the applicant is is is is good because we care about affordable housing but if the city start starts getting into providing care for our residents that's a that's a totally different conversation so I think that's an important distinction to make so other counil uh Council M Shack thank you mayor I'll just make a couple brief comments I think that the project you know I think it honors what was there originally in the way that Society has evolved we certainly have a health care Elderly Care issue that I don't think we have the resources or our affordable housing trust fund is set up to to the mayor's point to address so I appreciate that we're still I think meeting the spirit of the ordinance and it's unfortunate you know we talked about memory care in the pre in a past meeting and the complexities of the cost and we it is what it is um I also appreciate the engagement that the developer has had um with most of the neighbors I am sensitive to the the neighbors to the west and kind of Southwest and I would hope that the developers will engage with them in a way to make the impacts as um mitigate the impacts as much as possible but overall I think it's a a good project I um again appreciate the work that the that the developer done I understand I think we have to be nuanced in our review of the tree preservation ordinance so I have no problems with given the unique um situation on this on this parcel so I'm in favor of this tonight thank you other comments Council M Calvert thank you mayor everything that council member sha said and also I just first of all want to thank the residents that came out tonight I remember talking with the Griffins when uh the church was proposed and they were going to be staring at uh several level um parking ramp had that proposal gone through as proposed with a lot more traffic and just a whole different set of issues so thanks uh I just want to thank the developer for working so well with the neighbors I am listening to the neighbors that are behind the proposal and I'm hoping that we can help them with buffer um uh the other thing I would say is that as part of this as part of this vote has to do with Comprehensive guide plan Amendment but it's kind of a like for like it's a very similar use um on a much on a on a large parcel um and uh I just appreciate how they've stepped down uh this to the single level in the memory care because it is so close to a single family home and um and I agree about the fin in um so uh in general uh I'm in favor and I just want to thank everyone involved including staff for coming up with a proposal and for the tree lady to be saying okay it's okay in this case to have a a tree uh loss variance um this is really important so uh um thanks for the hard work and I'm in favor thank you counc B uh Calbert other comments anyone or coun R just really quickly again I just Echo what has already been said and and uh also appreciate the residents who have concerns reaching out and I will also Echo that I hope that the developer can work with them to find some evergreen or some other uh you know remedies potential remedies that'll mitigate um you know their concerns and um regarding the comprehensive plan amendment I think that's very key to remember this is in my opinion a lateral move and in some ways um you know is a much better situation for you know the residents I'm understanding from what could be in in this situation and what has been proposed previously so with that I'll be also supporting very good any other comments or a uh or a motion councilor um thank you mayor I'll make the motion to adopt the ordinance and resolutions approving The Proposal very good and a second councilor kley I'll second very good so we've got a motion by Council M and uh second by Council M kley I'll make a quick comment um I walked on um Holdridge Drive the other day and you know I understand that the current building is visible from um from holded drive and this building will be more visible so I think that you know continuing to work with with a developer they've in they've demonstrated an ability and willingness to work with the neighborhood and so I would just encourage you to do that um I you know I understand your concern but I also will say uh you know one of the things that makes this high density is because there's um a limited amount of high ground but in reality the site is much larger and so when you talk about how close you are the neighbors are well you get the benefit of this larger property and and this is not being built to the you know to the lot line so there are some benefits there I'm not saying it totally mitigates it but I think between what the developer talking to the developer and and working on this and the fact that it's a larger site than than high density would dictate because um if if they if it was all high ground it would be mid density so I think that um um those are just some of the factors as we as we consider this that um um are supportive and I think that uh um you know I think continued dialogue is is the right approach so with that we've got a motion and a second um please call rooll Shaq yes wurn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes Foster Bolton yes weome yes motion Miss Fulk thank you very much um now we're 3 minutes early so um oh excuse me mayor just as followup for the public safety concerns uh staff will work with the developer I know they've worked a lot on Safety and Security on the site they've already done a lot of things but clearly it's been found out if you will and so um we'll work with them to um beef up the security around the site so we don't have the continuous um calls for service so excellent mhm well well thank you and um thanks everyone for your input and I think um um this is this is a good project that I think will benefit a lot of people in minetonka and U I appreciate everyone's involvement so that takes us now um excuse me that takes us to item 15 which is appointments and reappointments and we have none and so item 16 is adjournment is there a motion to adjourn Council m kley I make the motion to adjourn is there a second council member Wilburn second okay we've got a motion by council member kley and a second by counc Wilburn all in favor say I I I we are adjourned [Music] [Music]