[Music] good evening everyone I'd like to call to order this work session of the Richville city council it's July 23rd 2024 and at 7M and I'll turn it over to city manager R luas thank you mayor um before introducing tonight's topic I want to introduce our new senior analyst Courtney Miller uh Courtney started last week and she has already hit the ground running we're super excited to have her just wanted to give her a chance mayor I'm very excited to be here this is week with the city I'm coming from the city of Lakeville most recently really forward to you all that's right round of applause for uh tonight's work session is it's mostly an update on with like Nature Center buing project um it's a chance for you all to ask questions to provide feedback um we will'll also present the draft wording uh for the upcoming referendum on local sales tax um we do need feedback on that uh because we're going to present that to you for a vote at your next council meeting which is August 14th reminder that it's August 14th because August 13th is the primary Mee um we want to make sure that it's as clear as possible for residents so they can make an de ision uh We've scheduled about 45 minutes um for the conversation about the wood like major Center building and then about 25 minutes for the discussion on the referend questions and with that I will turn it over to Carl Hiller our Recreation services director thank you um tonight we have hga Architects here with us we have Glenn Andrew and Noah joining us they're going to give a presentation on the schematic design um as well as the engagement that we've been doing regarding the building before we do that it's it's been a busy couple months we've been doing a lot around the Nature Center um we had a survey and wetland delineation in the survey we surveyed all the 4 in trees to know where they are so we could be conscious of that as we were designing the building uh the Wetland delineation was reviewed by a technical expert panel and um it came back positive in the sense that we have more space to build on than we initially thought which has been really helpful we also o went through a four-month construction manager at risk um RFQ RFP process as it was outlined in State Statute Morton in construction scored the highest mostly because of their their approach they have a really strong team they have resources that they can bring to the project that other or other companies didn't and then they also have a lot of past experience working in really delicate areas and um complicated projects as well we also did an RFP project process for the interpretive displays and the Science Museum of Minnesota and Blue Rhino submitted a joint proposal which is slightly unusual um and they they were selected they are nationally recognized exhibit designers and they're very creative and have very unique and interactive and engaging displays and and educational exhibits that they create and then we're also um getting geotechnical and soil testing done um and that should start taking place in September and that'll help inform us as we develop the footings and other structural pieces to the building as well as figuring out the the geothermal system that we're going to put in and what type that might be and if that's possible um so we've been working with uh hga for a while now both in the community engagement process and also developing a schematic design um the building design is more finalized than the site plan design but we're looking for feedback on both of those um now is the point at which we can still make changes and easily make changes so we're really interested in in what you have to to say on those things with that I'll hand it off to Glenn all right um good evening mayor and council members it's really great to be with you tonight to share our progress as Carl mentioned um I'm with HDA my name is G wagas I'm a design principal and architect with h I'm here with my colleagues Andrew hren and Noah exm and we're GNA lead you through kind of where we're at in the process um and then sort of land on the current design so we'll start with the momentarily start start with the yeah just go down just kind of SC P compar to everything else except for how to run the clicker confidence here okay well I'm gonna skip through the agenda and just get get to the process so we're gonna talk process and schedule first and then then Noah's going to share a little bit about um where we're at and where we've been in the engagement not specific and what some of the the key findings and takeaways to dat a bit um and then we're going to switch gears and start to talk about the design sort of the site and building planning exterior and interior and then share with you some imagery so some exterior images of the the current state of the design um as Carl mentioned this is very malleable this is the schematic design phase and so if you have any familiarity with projects this is early design phase this is to get your feedback and we've got thick skins and so all the feedback you can give us is great all right so let's all right this is working okay so I'm gonna go through this pretty quickly this is uh what we call Project Charter as we as the design progresses we just try to capture almost like a one page elevator speech I'll call it or description um of the project what the guiding principles are um and those include what we're hearing from stakeholders staff in the Comm unity and so this will actually evolve through the process of Engagement um you can see on the right we're starting to um have some specific um design criteria I'll just give an example like in the category of water storm water capture we know storm water is hugely important for this site so that could be a feature something we're going to address and I'm not going to go into the metrics along the bottom but that's sort of capturing the metrics as we go everything from the program to sustainability go um so today we're nearing the end of of our schematic design phase that's why we're here to to get some feedback from you all um and you can see where the arrow is sort of halfway I'll call it through the design process so um uh the project goes out for bid November and then you know we're going to work of course with our construction management partner Morton said to work through some of the constructibility make sure that we're uh on budget you know and have the scope nailed down along with Carl so I think I'm gonna go through this and really focus on the engagement piece now you want me to do this or um just I can down okay yeah so um hello it's great to meet you all and be here to present this I know um Carl has shared some of the information on engagement before but we really want to talk today about how the engagement process has influenced our decision making when it comes to the design that we're going to be sharing um so the way that we have approached uh the engagement strategy for this project is kind of with a funnel approach right so we are working broadly to get input from the entire you know Richfield and wood link Community um through the survey as well as openhouse um events and then taking some of that information that we're hearing with broadly and narrowing it down um with focus groups so these are kind of groups of key stakeholders um who have been identified whether it's because they are using the space a lot like the Wood Lake staff or public school groups um or are part of growing and historically underserved communities um like our focus groups with outdoor Latino and the Spanish speaking population um or the work that we've done with people with disabilities and Frasier that allows us to kind of understand what some of these specific groups might need and how their needs are similar to or different from the the broader public um and then in the ongoing meetings with the project team we are taking all of that information and using that to drive the decisions that we make so a quick recap from the survey that went out um and this was a great survey we got ton of results and it's very clear how much would L meets to the entire Community um we saw a lot of um when asked what values were most important um to Wood Lake there was a lot of consensus about sustainability conservation um the idea of a peaceful space and educational space and something that's welcoming to all um asked what would be most important to their experience when visiting woodlink in the future um the quality of exhibits and educational programs was the number one concern um places to sit and relax or work outside and inside were both important um views of nature from inside the building were important that's something people really appreciate about the structure right now and want to make sure we preserve um and then access to restrooms and drinking fountains without having to go inside the building um was important enough that it made it to the top five and is also identified as one of the key reasons why people are going to the building right now so we know that those spaces which are typically not very glamorous are actually going to be really important to people's experience for this um and of course this is a project that's being you know funded by taxpayers and I know you all have a referendum on your mind so we did want to ask people you know what do you think is most important to invest in for this space um and again it returns back to those values we were seeing it's nature conservation education and programming making the building more energy efficient and sustainable um and improving Landscaping paths and play area around the building as well as the exhibits which of course we'll be working on in the future with the exhibit designer um the workshops that we did uh we did a number of different activities whether it's just you know having conversations with folks um doing some kind of creative visioning and collaging and things like that and also an exercise called keep TOS change and I think it's important to look at this image here because it really encapsulates a lot of overhearing um where on the left for the keeps you're getting so many responses about what people love about this building they love the scale of it they love the way it like fits into its surroundings and the site um and the little dots on each of these Post-it notes um are things for people were able to kind of coign or agree with something so you can see there's also a lot of agreement for each of these things there are very few things that people want to toss um some of them are like mosquitoes and airplane noise so there's even fewer that are within our control which is great news for us um but then when you get to change there's a ton of ideas people have like again this is a space people are really familiar with they've thought about how it can be better for them um but you will see that there's a little less agreement with the dots right so people are wanting a lot of different things out of this site um so part of what we've all been talking about is how do we balance these conflicting desires right we were getting responses that less is more don't make it a museum don't Disney f it you know um but also there are a ton of different programs that people would like to see here folks want to increase Lake access and docks there have been a couple of comments we've heard about you know adding something that's really tall so you can get a bird's eye view um some folks are saying no coffee shop on site it's just going to contribute to litter and noise if it's not necessary other people are saying having a place to get a coffee you know watch the birds supervise your kids would be awesome and it would generate funds for the Nature Center the idea of an Urban Oasis keeps coming up uh but as does the space for kids to play and be loud and of course you know with the idea of conservation we want to make sure we're minimizing human impacts on nature and not changing the site too much but there's also a real drive to make the site more accessible which means more paved paths and things like that so those kind of conflicting design and how we balance each of those are things that we're continuing to work through um and things like Glenn and Andrew are going to talk through in the design let's switch gears to sight and building plannings and More Design aspects of the project and the status of where we're at today um Carl mentioned the T panel and some of the constraints on the site the Wetland delineation um that was recently done um I'll just point to a few things here so Lakes Shore Drive Lindell drive so here's the existing parking area and you can see sort of dashed in here the existing buing footprint um we have hatched sort of cross-hatched um what we would call potential buildable area so basically everything um within the setbacks of of the the lake um within the zoning setbacks of the parcel the you know 75 foot land buffer um as well as the B3 Wetland offset which is 50 50 feet since this is a B3 compliant um project we have to comply with those uh Wetland restrictions as well um let's see another a couple of constraints that are real for us are the presence of underground utilities um namely storm water utilities and you can see this particular one that's buried about 10 to 15 feet below grade kind of bcts what we're calling the buildable area now this isn't necessarily all desirable buildable area but it's potential buildable area and so um As We examined the site we really zeroed in on you know this is probably the best place to build with the least amount of disturbance especially for increasing the the size of the building um another thing to mention too the existing finish floor elevation is at 826 sea level on the Finish floor elevation and we're proposing to raise that so that you know provides a level of protection in terms of flooding we know this is this lake is part of the overall storm water management system of the area and so this is our starting point I think we're gonna try to figure out where the sweet spot is for that but our kind of schematic design or conceptual level elevation for the finished floor is up above where the existing floor is and so that has some on the cite so I'll just give a quick overview this will still be somewhat recognizable like Shore Drive um Lindale the parking you'll notice is uh bisected um one of the things that um we actually studied in the original pre-design and that's a concept that's stuck is the idea of bringing that immersive experience if I'm sure you all have spent some time at Wood Lake um the idea of a of an Urban Oasis that was mentioned earlier it's real I mean when you get out there you are in the you know middle of the little Minnesota Landscape if we can bring that experience start that experience at the sidewalk because this is a really pedestrian active pedestrian friendly site we' got a lot of people coming from across L Shore Drive biking into this site as well as driving you want to extend that experience as as far towards the sidewalk as possible um so you see the parking is bisected um you see where we have a multimodal path what that indicates is a kind of a what we're thinking of as a bus pull through only so that we could have Bus drop off on the northwest um remaining parking area and then the buses can turn um using that multimodal path um onto lak Shore Drive but essentially it would be bus use only or special use only is our our thinking so um the idea is that it would um be pedestrian first and then Vehicles like that second um let's see the parking count um the existing parking is about I think it's 110 stalls um this reflects adding some stalls um to the southeast um this island we are able to capture another eight parking stalls and then if we can stripe some parallel parking in the Northwest parking lot we think we can kind of have a a zero some I'll say and the parking count for this just from a city ordinance code is requires something in the order of magnitude of like 57 or 60 stalls which is you know less than what's on site now I know that's just the building and people use the the site for a lot of other reasons and I know parking can be challenged sometimes so that may be something something to discuss all right I'm gonna turn it over to Andrew to get into more of the the site program we call it yeah so um thanks for letting us be here we so zooming in a little bit um we in in a minute or two we'll go through the actual the building programming but right now talking a little bit about what's going on around the building um and if those of you that are familiar you know the there's a fence that parking lot feels somewhat separate from that entry and so as Glenn mentioned you know one of our goals has been to um not only increase inre the programming and the activity around the building but really create a direct path or a visual connection to some of those amenities that are on the on the outside so as you're approaching the building from Lakes Shore Drive um one of the first programs would be a Dry Creek play metal so this would be part of the storm water management this goes in with raising and lowering the building we're going to be working to manage storm water that's coming off the parking lot and flowing downhill towards the lake so one of the first I ities would be this Dry Creek CL metal that's planted with Native plantings kids can walk through that you could you know you can Envision unpaved trails that kind of weave through that landscape um moving around the building there's um a nature play area and a Community Lawn so this would be a place where kids could come and play be loud run around um there's also visual um connection to the inside of the building building which you'll see so parents could watch their kids that are out there um there would also be an opportunity for Planned events in that Community Lawn space um continuing to move around the building um the current um building from that previous diagram is roughly right here there's a existing Amphitheater that's being proposed to be moved off to the Northwest so that would have a direct connection to the in the multi-purpose spaces so um classes and groups of students stud or other programming events can be using the multi-purpose spaces and have direct connection to that Amphitheater in that Outdoor Classroom Gathering space along the southwest side on the lake side um it's obscured a little bit by the roof um there is a deck that is partially covered and uncovered that provides um access from the interior um so um users of the building that are renting a space or in the lounge or the can exit out onto the deck and have a direct view of Nature and so and then moving around to the southeast again once we get to the building planning this is where we have um located some of the rental functions and so this Trail connection would tie into some of the skiing and walking trails that would that tie into the the greater site so so zooming into the building planning um part of the organization of the building was to um both for the exterior renderings and the building design but also the building planning was to borrow from the existing building and I think one thing that was that really stood out to us through all the information gathering that we did was the connection indoor outdoor both visually as well as the number of doors that are in the Nature Center the direct access outside and so from the main entry from that main entry to the street um you're entering into the main exhibit space and that main exhibit space is wanting to stretch and and sort of and coexist with some of the circulation spaces that exhibit Space is really the Hub and around that the Hub of the exhibit space the the blue space is the offices the uh bright green space is the multi-purpose and the programming areas and down on the South Side there's the Animal Care um which is sort of part of the exhibit space um Raptor Muse and then off to the east would be the mechanical um and building support space along with some of the rental functions and so what we're what we tried to do with organizing these sort of blocks of program is to create these um spaces in and around the building where the landscape or the outdoor programming can start to come in into the building that U Dry Creek bed area as part of landscaping can come into the building here nature play can be located in this Zone the building with direct U visual connection to the lounge as well as access to the corridor around multi-purpose and then um on the South Side the windows from the exhibit um can look out over the lake or bird houses and things that nature that's there to provide viewing so the idea is to try to create these zones and not recreate it but borrow from the existing facility how there's sort of all of these direct connections to Nature different views out of the building from depending where you are can I just add one thing it's also a way for us to break the scale of the building down a little bit one of the challenges I'll say of a building that's larger than the existing probably factor of year before um is the scale of the existing building is amazing people really respond to it it's welcoming there's some visual cues and spatial cues that are are really wonderful about the building it's broken into pieces you know the different room forms and the the sizes and shapes of rooms that are sort of gathered as a village I'll call it into one sort of location um can't really do that with a building it this larger and so what we've done is is organized it into these pieces that can then down the start to see that exterior imagery one other thing that I would add just because I think it connects back to some of the things we were talking about with engagement is you know to glint point we have multiple types of spaces um within each of these areas so when you are having these different functions there are three Lounge spaces right so you can have um a lounge that's a little bit quieter there adjacent to the exhibit space a lounge here that's adjacent to a conference in rental you could you are renting that conference room you could have kind of your own Lounge area that could be identified for you that's separate from all the kids running around um as well as that kind of central one that can be a little bit the louder more active space um and that allows us to kind of have the different programming elements um and spaces that folks are asking for while still maintaining that you know since that some people can be here to watch five-year-olds run and play and some people can be here for a quiet winter even like evening and both can coexist at the same time is this a good place to stop for questions I just GNA like pale yellow to the northwest of the exhibit there no um up Northwest appear yeah so that appears to be bathrooms and what else so in this space um so this this is the large um gender neutral bathroom Bank in this Zone we have um an adult changing a family bathroom with an adult changing station there's a sensory room so this would be a space where children or parents could go to have some quiet rest bit space um and then there's a Janitor's Closet and also a public lactation mother's room in that zone too Sean whatever my questions are mainly about the multi-purpose space or the the event space I'm a little bit concerned I've submitted I submit some written feedback for you to look at later but um how viable is it to like staff only that space my concern is that this building looks so open that like are we going to need people to be like monitoring the exhibits that people cure for an event at the building are not going to be wandering around the exhibits damaging things right now we only sta this building from like 8 to 5 Monday through Friday and I want to be sure that if somebody wants to have an event on a Saturday evening that it's possible to do that without having like seven sta outsite or whatever the minimum would be yeah our goal is to do it so that if there's an event happening that we can be sta with one person um the part of that is with where the reception is too if someone's at the reception they can see the teing of his space and whatnot do work and that sort of thing um I did see your comment about having a door there and I think that's um another valid solution I think that one thing as as I'm thinking about it that may be a difficulty with that is you're you're blocking off that portion and I could see if someone's renting the whole building that they also want to like something happening in Mak ex space too part of the reason you you rent to Nature Center is so you get the nature center part of it as well um so that would that would be my only concern about that but it's definitely something worth considering your goal is one person one person promising um I guess I'm also curious about the height in the multi-purpose room present the renderings it looks like the low points of that room seem fairly low and I'm a little bit concerned if you're actually using the full space of all three potential rooms that it would almost be like impressively low to try to like see somebody speaking in the middle of the room well I'm sure you guys can talk about we did a lot of tours of nature centers and this was a huge concern of mine um I've been to a couple where they have a seven foot or eight foot divide where the between the divides was only seven feet and that was very disturbing like youd look across and it was it really interrupted um what we have here is I believe it's 9 ft is how tall the separated spaces are how manyet is the large space all told about it's it's roughly 3400 square feet so each each room is roughly a, square feet right now so in working with with Carl and Paul the goal is that when opened this would be a roughly 100% event space that would be the max size for that okay we were talking about a room that's like what four times larger than this room with a lower ceiling than this room at several points I'm a little bit concerned that it's not going to be functional as a large space if you wanted to do it for another type of event like a wedding reception or an event involving a speaker that has a podum or something like that so I'm a little bit worried about that yeah we can that's something we can study and I do want to just remember like although of course the main function here is in nature center we have long talked about having a reservable banket an event space and we don't have another viable site to do that so I really want to be sure that that we're optimizing for that in every way um so one of the places we toured was Westwood Hills and they have those 9ot dividers between the rooms and it's a it's smaller than this but similarly and spaced um I I'd encourage you to go check that out because you get a feeling um that room which hga design didn't have that feeling even though the dividers came down it felt like a big open space so um if I guess I'd encourage you to go check that out and then let me know you a bit so we canew sounds good I I think just one thing to add to the taller those doors get that we we're try we try to find a sweet spot between operability and the taller those doors get the heavier they get and so it's it's find in a sweet spot for operability um with you know for staff to open and close them as well so I don't think that's the reason we should keep them low but just all just throwing into the hopper all the different factors that we're looking at too so and then one other question I had about the the use of the deck for events also seems beneficial I'm just curious the shape of it where it gets fairly narrow in that Boomerang shape versus a larger more um rectangle is there are we trying to actively avoid people congregating outside or is that just a set of choice I think right now it's we're in the schematic design like Carl said the the site and the outdoor space is slightly behind the building planning obviously the detail with the doors and things what we were suggesting um with the deck was the movement and starting to suggest to them there's um larger areas of congregation and there's maybe narrower way areas of Passage or other things how that that line can get manipulated and I think we plan to work with them on where do you want Gathering where do you not want Gathering um we're as part of that building elevation discussion um and how the building gets great up and around there is there opportunities to have openings in that deck where you could walk out on the grade that could also start to separate the deck and Zone the areas so there I think there's a lot of development right now I would say this is a suggestion of it's not just a big Square deck that when you walk out there there's a vast open area it's it's trying to create some different nodes and areas as well as a path along so and I like the idea a lot of the re room deck it does look aesthetically great I just wonder for the function the potential event use of that space be nice to have a little bit larg of a rectangle immediately outside to be able to do an Indo outdo good obervation decks and you all sorts of different designs this going to be incorp that IND I think the way the building you can answer this too but the way the building's organized is try to trying to maximize the views out of the building so some of those views may be from those those decks you know we've even labeled them on the site plan observation observation facing the lake basically all of these different notes would would be potential observation and I think different than um the existing Nature Center that's basically down at the water line this would this is going to be up some number above that so the this would you would be up above on the deck or within the building footprint looking maybe just over the top of the the Cattail so you'd have a little bit broader View a related question to that are we G to have glass that'll minimize bird strikes I know that that happened in some of the other nature centers they had to put in specialized class that is in in the design um from the start we that's part of B3 um requirements as well as I think would just be good practice for the Nature Center so yes that's already in our early schematic design and then I had a question for Carl if they're putting in Raptor Muse and stuff are we to program means that we have Raptors that's the thought that um we develop a volunteer core that could help us maintain the Raptors and I know another nature centers Raptor program is very popular and also a program that used to so you could potentially also be self self sustaining financially in that I was pleased to hear that you're looking at geothermal I think that's really important and I have question right now we've got the whole Nature Center basically fenced in from what I'm understanding here we're basically going to be removing the fence of northern part of it is that accurate yeah so we've been Paul and I have been talking a lot about fences at the Nature Center and that wooden fence all the way along the parking lot we were considering removing it I'd be interested in your all's thoughts on that the other thing we've been discussing which i' be interested your thoughts on is the access points around the park there some of the access points accessible up from the street we considering opening those putting bike um lockup station or bike bike racks there that people can loock their bikes to so they don't bring them the park and making them more official entrances we heard have heard from residents there are residents who drive to the entrance in order to walk the park and um I understand why in the past they've kept it more closed off but also it's a really valuable amenity to Residents and in that area access feedback on that is to make sure we have secure place to store the bikes so we don't have people riding bikes at two in the morning there that kind of stuff as teenager you know so I think that would be good do other people have feedback Sean yes I want to say enthus the opaque fence was in my written feedback but as much as possible I would really like it to be accessible I think there's a decent I mean it's kind of hidden but there is an entrance on the South Side I use that personally quite a lot from Brian Avenue in 73rd um but like if you live on Lake Shore Drive over to the West you'd have to walk all the way around to that there's no access at all from the northwest corner I would love to have multiple ways in and out just I think you already know this of course but like for our context because we compare this to Westwood a lot I noticed they really only one way in and out but it's such a more like isolated area compared to this this is so much more urban of a setting I was looking at the Rock score Westwood Hills is 15 and this is 70 so like I think it makes sense that we're much more open and Visually if we need fencing at all I'd like it to be low with the parking lot and feel less closed off from the rest of the area um yeah I few more technical thoughts I completely agree about not having fence making it more accessible throughout the park I love the uh bringing it up to the street um I am not an expert in this area but when I first saw the split parking lot my immedate thought was like have we asked a bus driver about that and so I uh if it hasn't happened yet would encourage that but I love that that becomes more natural um I question first and then comment on how to share with the public uh I didn't see in the photos a connection to the trail that comes off this corner is that part of the plan yeah the short answer is yes okay we should put that in the photos so we don't get the public confused about it because they're I mean to the point about neighbors just like coming in and walking like this is not or people who do multiple Labs like this is not always a start and finish only and so having a very clear like I want to just continue through this area um is important um my other comment I agree about kind of expanding deck space and having significant seating area Outdoors too um would be great um like we have a picnic shelter but that's a little more removed and so if people want to bring the picnic lunch great um my one question that might be a rabbit hole that's not worth it is just that um the main entry doesn't feel obvious particularly if you park on that side and I know that like the experience once you're in the building is you're generally like looking toward the lake but it just feels weird that like if you were on the street you're looking at the offices and like the blue part is kind of its own little spur and if we already have this spur in the lower right that is like not mostly not public use um I don't I don't know what this does to the whole design but like could the offices be part of that and have more of a sort of flat front with a obvious entry way that faces the street and either parking lot you could see it easily I think that would be a great thing to discuss when we look at the renderings because I think it's going to help if we're looking at the renderings while we discuss that I think it'll help it make a little more sense okay I think um to discuss not exactly your point another but another thing that we were working on Glenn touched on those setbacks and that sort of buildable area the other I think thing we were we were trying to avoid was disturbing as much of this area as we could with the Wetland setback which is this dash line that comes through here the more we um co-located these building masses sort of the bigger the CH the bigger it the more it pushed into the site so this was our attempt at sort of of trying to not block that Crossing rout while still creating these nodes of public outdoor space within the building so I think just to provide some thought of why it was located there not that we like noep shouldn't look at turning that entry yeah I guess I was just wondering if the blue spot moved to where the words main entry are now and the main entry was like where the r of reception is of like cranking that yeah but I not an expert Center yeah and and one of the things and you may have already seen this see the imagery so um one of the things we're trying to do is not necessarily architecturally distinguish between what's an office and what's a multi-purpose space taking the same aesthetic approach using the same material palette the same kind of treatment of the roofs that sort of thing to tie all the different parts of the building together so they all feel like a ping hole so it's not necessarily this is the office and this is the town hall and this is the garage that's thing um but I do want to acknowledge your initial point about like where's the front door and how do people get there and I think visual cues both from the street and from the parking are going to be super important and all those can be reinforced to the the building design and the site design so I know Simon's got a question before we go to that the great area is that public can I add one um so one thing that they haven't talked about that been a big thing as we're thinking about is having separate entrances for separate purposes so if you come up as a school group they're not coming through the main entrance they're coming on the right side of the building there and so as you're thinking about it too the reception's right there in the middle so that it has good visibility of all the different space public spaces that people can enter from and I think people really enter from where we'll have that main entrance but people will enter based on their use of the space if you're a regular and you come every day and get some coffee and sit and have your kids play the play area you probably come through the play area drop your kid off grab your coffee and sit there um if you're new to the building you probably come in the main D if you're a school group you're going to come in the the top left corner there um just keep people away from the group so I think um the main entrance is important but also people will find those other other ways okay that makes more sense to me because yeah and then I think much of the public will just assume that that's their parking lot if they're coming by car and that that's for school groups that's fine okay thank you so the great area also is public I just want to clarify that before we go to Simon's question this this area yeah no this would be I would say is private or back of house rentals and so so this little this section super light green super light green would be the rental area so someone coming in through the the front door or anywhere else can be directed down this border to access the rental area and then behind there the gray would be back a house that makes a lot more sense I was confused by the label and I guess to add to that too that kind of space the green that's the rentals we're looking at using as rentals in winter but then the rest ski season is only so long the rest of the time we use it as like a classroom space all right thanks for being patient um thank you all of you just it emotionally just feels really wonderful to be here with you all talking about this so it's want to acknowledge that um I said several several thoughts um in no particular order I agree with with Ben with regards to the the reception area and kind of different thoughts about how that could be and I I had the same thought of kind of rotating that and I have an alternative thought I'm going to get to in a second um but with the deck read U what Sean was saying about that one way that you can expand that and give it like a Vanishing energy towards the towards the the lake to have that same initial shape and then have a tiered step down and out so you could potentially actually put something like the amphitheater in the deck through a tier deck that might just communicate efficiently with the space hey this is this is the Gathering space if you wanted to address people outside of com from multi-purpose rooms to that so just just a thought and that could also free up that space to move the offices off of the multi-purpose rooms which then would kind of create like enveloping welcoming kind of arms to the building I really love that this is like a play in an inviting space like making that non-descript parking lot into a space that's actually inviting I think is incredible if we just left the nature play bace and invited people and had the walkway great point that Ben made about the multi lappers I'm a multier of w Lake you to have that walk space through if you didn't have the offices right there and you had a walk space through a play Space the offices where the Ampitheater was and the Ampitheater was on the back just to maybe another way to use that space and it doesn't look like we take too many trees if we uh located the offices in the multispace the SP other other thought on the multi uh purpose rooms um storage seems like there I know there's a lot of reason to have a lot of storage but do we have any thoughts about having some kind of I know you could kind of use the catering space for something like a coffee shop I would not look to the coffee shop to be a huge Revenue generator for us you know I think at a push it's going to probably pay for itself but really would add I think a ton to the community aspect of the community space so I was curious if you had thoughts of how something like that could be integrated I kind of see that storage space right in the center as like great real estate that could be expanded or bumped up into to I think having a coffee shop space that functions for catering or having like a door you know the you probably wouldn't want to locate those separately I wondered if you had any thoughts around that can uh speak to the coffee shop so we weren't we haven't been looking at putting an actual coffee shop in um the places that I know where they have that it's um difficult to manage and they don't necessarily pay for themselves or they just barely break even the one of silver would um from what I understand barely breaks even what I would that's what winning looks like for a nature center Coffee Shop I would imagine yeah yeah um what we've been looking shop that's not yeah so what we've been looking at instead of a like full-fledged coffee shop was doing um snacks and coffee behind the reception so that you could buy a cup of coffee from the reception and it' be made there we do a very similar thing at the community center at the community center we offer free coffee though so people can come and take their own cups and stuff um I guess that decision would still have to be made whether it's paid for or not but we've been looking more at having a more coffee bar that's available at the reception than fledged coffee shop situation if that's something we need to reconsider I can sorry can I can I request a homework of any places we could see set up like this um oh like this yeah um Eastman has something like this I know um yeah they have um uh coffee pitcher behind the counter with some snacks and a glass kind of case on the counter sort of thing something really awkward I'm like randomly approaching receptionist being like I heard there's like coffee available here do I pay you do I like it just sounds very intuitive I I I think there has to be something more than that that isn't a fully staffed like thing feels like it fits with the vibe of our current Community Center and not really in a fancy new building sure to me or even a not fancy new building so I'm looking at the clock and I know you have some more stuff that you need to go through and we're gonna need at least 15 to 20 minutes for the last item last my last comment on that just in terms of our financing and opportunities now like now is our chance the the 50 to $7,000 investment we can make to take that storage room and make it something that could sustain um uh more intentional Hospitality space I think feels really important and Urgent and the ultimate risk is that it doesn't work for that and you there's the cost there but we could use it as storage and it would not be the worst thing that happens but if we don't do it now years before we have an opportunity to shift gears to the renderings we've got some exterior Concepts and interior how much time do we have so we can so the council meeting starts at seven and we need a little time to talk about the valid questions so like five minute stops I would say sorry yourself out all right I'm I'll go fairly quickly through this um for the exterior Concepts one thing that was very striking for us was standing out on the boardwalk looking back towards the Nature Center and there is a very strong horizontal line or data You've Got The Cattails below which are this varied environment and above you have the the recognizable nature system Center Peaks and so in thinking about how to break down the scale of this building um we started trying to think about it in two ways and think back to the site one thing that struck us was when you're in the woods any you know when you're in the woods there's this varied depth there's this variability to the trees there's light Shadow there's variance and there's difference um above again borrowing from the Nature Center the existing Nature Center is the these Peaks these iconic Peaks that are in The View and so looking to site the idea of um the wasp's nests or the Muskrat houses are these these elements that sit above an atom or these objects that are self- similar but they vary in shape which would be the was nest and so that was something that we we sort of tried to bring forward and so you can see the development of the building from the exterior standpoint is striking this datam taking that datam from the place and thinking of it sort of above and below that data line and so this was a quick concept sketch that you will kind of see materialize in the exterior renderings and so I'll go through these fairly quickly um this first view would be as you're approaching via car on Lake from lak Shore Drive so this is from the drive lane this would be your pedestrian approach from that that widened um that P access area you can see the the uh access Drive Lan going going through here and then throughout these renderings you can start to see the datam that is um struck across the building and then below that datam um windows and material treatments can vary based on program and um and visual the transparency that we want to see through the building and then above we are using um the roof forms to bring light into the building as well as to create that sort of variability and help merge the building with the landscape so that you don't just get this big rectangle popped in the middle of land in the landscape one thing um to note we're looking at doing green roof on those sloped roofs and so that again will help merge that you won't have a big white roof um roof shape up there and that so the shaped roofs the shaped PE would be a green roof and then on much of the flat roof would be PV so tying and that's what we're where we'd be accounting for some of the renewable energies as part of the B3 and the sustainability goals this view would be from the north um west parking lot and so this is into that multi-purpose Wing is to your right and this would be the nature play area designated is back is back here with um glass into that lounge space this is a view from that Boardwalk um here you can start to see the building is slightly raised this deck would be that uh observation area that stretches along the entire building and then along the roofscape um in our let's say high-profile spaces the multi-purpose rooms above the exhibit um the Raptor Muse which we need additional height um you start to have these roof forms that pop up and um create variability along the length of the building I'm interject one thing think about the roof forms in some ways they're a to the existing building the existing building are just shapes that gather the spaces underneath them these serve that function but we're also mapping onto that the idea of having them as light monitors right so to Daylight the interior of the space and then also to provide a surface for a green roof so yeah I'm GNA keep going um we have just a few interior views so here this would be a view as you walk through the front door into the exhibit space um you can see one of the clear story Windows as well as um the expansive view outside this space will obviously get designed with Blue Rhino in The Science Museum to develop the exhibits in the space can just mention the ceing Heights The ceing Heights oh yes okay so the datam that we have let's call it say struck would be the the window Heights and the bottom of beams would be roughly at nine feet so that is one thing that has um again taking from the existing building that that the sense of place the sort of almost residential feel to that scale is something that has been responded to well and then using the volume of these popups to create grander spaces to create volume for exhibits you know you can Envision hanging things from the exhibits in those spaces so the underside of the beams and window heads would be roughly 9 to 10 feet and then the top of those Peaks is in the 20 to 24 foot range and those vary based on the spaces As you move across move along the L of the building this is a view from the center multi-purpose room looking outward so again an expansive view of the the lake and the nature uh the Nature Center um each one of these rooms would have a door direct access to the outside so when um the operable walls that would be at the underside of these beams when those are closed you would still have direct access outside and this is a view looking North in one of those rooms just showing a detail of that light monitor up above using those light monitors can help us balance light as well for daylighting purposes um and so that that would it will go into a bigger picture design of the space and lighting and using those um not only to provide views out of the space but to help balance light and almost reduce the lighting load had a lot of our discussion earlier timeline issues withot questions people stop our discussion but can we send of time but thank you very much thank you so much so then the sample ballot language we can jump right into it we have um the ballot language on here is the order and what's there is was given to us with we worked with the consultant to set it up and that's what we have here were interested in your in the and the Order of the questions so the purpose is to make it as clear as possible to Res so they can make inform choices with they voting is there we see here clear or needs to be fixed um my main comment um that I I think we're attempting that already but I'm not sure we're as clear as we could be is to to people that um I think the main thing that's missing is that the 20year maximum would fund all three of these I think right now it reads some you could easily read it without doing additional research as like if like our estim it's an estimate I know uh we have no guarantee um but that if we if I say yes to all three is there enough funding from this source and I I mean the the most precise like true answer is we don't know obviously it depends on what people buy but I I worry that this isn't clear enough that um yeah can I just correct one thing the maximum is 20 years it is possible that if the sales taxes are more robust it would be less than 20 years even if fotter approved all three projects correct what I'm saying is it's it's clear that this would not continue past 20 years it's not clear If This Were in place for 20 years could it fund more than one project you only f up 4 million you can only fund up to I I what I'm wondering is if in the like opening setup if we're allowed to include like if this tax were in place for the maximum 20 years estimates indicate it would generate roughly this much revenue so that people or is that is that like more detail and is helpful we we have not indicated anywhere how much revenue we're expecting and so you mayor um so I because that it's not only the $65 Million worth of project cost but it's also the financing cost I and that is going to depend on interest rates all the rest of it I don't think it would be good to put that into the referendum question and that's why all almost all of these questions are are worded so that it's 45 million plus the cost of of financing um if if you are saying that it's not clear that in 20 years that the three projects will be funded that's a different question so I guess I'm struggling a little bit with the question a different misinterpretation of the 20 year which might be helpful is just another way of talking about it um so I have the opposite concern which is like even though it sort of says it it almost sounds like if I don't know much as a voter that that would be approving three consecutive 20year terms and that has 60 years total so my suggestion on that if we're allowed to not include the first for up to 20 years it only included a maximum 20 years for all three items or something like that second mention because it really does sound like shall I authorize a 20-year period question one shall I authorize a 20year period question two and as to really read and interpret the second longer paragraph to understand that it's all one total period yeah that feels important too that's it is different than what I'm saying but that feels more important to clarify yeah I guess I don't I don't know how else to frame it it it it's not clear to me reading this that uh if if I were to vote Yes on all three i setting up a competition between them is that clear Katie yes I think so and the answer is no um because we think there's sufficient revenues to fund all of these projects um but I I take your point and we we did think we're trying to explain that the0 five is it doesn't if you vote for is going to be 1.5 I appreciate that and I did not think about it as it people interpreting it to be you know uh 60 years as opposed to 20 years but I take your point we can try and work with the the the paragraph in the beginning I don't know about the actual questions because the questions have to stand on their own they're individual questions so I don't know about that um but we can look we can look at that I I do I understand that point um you add language at the very end a maximum years all three projects I mean just to clarify so people don't we can look at clarifying it in that top paragraph looking all that comprehend they the time and that is the balance right I mean I'm getting conflicting uh feedback which we also struggled with we want to add more text but adding more text clarifies it but then also makes it very wordy and the and the questions have to stand on their own that end I I think there's words that can be cut there we kind of kill our Darlings a little bit passive voice too which I don't love the residents are and then they asked to authorize and then it kind of indirectly implies that the city is doing the asking say the city to impose one you could just say the S we're asking the residents to impose a 1 half perent sales tax use we say City Once Rich field residents we don't we don't have to say the city to so I think we could probably get back half of those words in the first line and a half potentially I defer I defer to the to the middle school teacher in the author in the room you can cut that but you have to make sure that it's clear that you're imposing it only in the city of Bridgefield because we don't have the authority toose it elsewhere I I guess I'm less concerned about like if there if I had to compromise on confusion having a random resident think that we might be imposing a sales tax in a not is not my I wouldn't I wouldn't use a lot of words to communicate that I think we might lose as many people as we gain the indirect objects and how about Richfield residents are being asked for authority to impose a one half city is collecting the tax I don't know I think the second Ridgefield you could cut I don't think you should in the first but I I don't know I mainly just want people understand that there's to men's point that there's enough money for all three as we currently estimate and that it's not 60 years and that it's not one half% you guys to come up with the most way to say that kind have to tell what that's the heart of it well yeah but I mean it provides wellness and Recreation yeah I mean in that example that's maybe not essential but like the Veterans Park thing is kind of a scatter different you do could we do this and also the the other challenge is that it's we have a three lines on sentence as like the first framing device for this so you have to you have to hook somebody in for three three lines in one sentence if we could shorten it to say something like field residents are asked to author to impose one half% sales tax and use and use tax period and that that tax that you could identify the three projects 20 years and the revenue if you voted for all three you would you would achieve this and then you could exp you don't have any any sense that's more than a line which I think could maybe be helpful for folks and then you could add more details in the questions that sense to just toak it into two sentences it's more readable I think the other thing I just thought of that could shorten things is the last two sentences would be combined shortened if multiple questions are approved the maximum total sales tax by the city would be .5% and maximum time would be 20 years so you don't people think we or did you catch that I just want to make sure um so suggesting that you combine the sentences um at the bottom and then would not need to clarify the 20 years up at the top so I think it would be I don't know if you're required by state St to use that first language exactly but I would prefer to not have the first 20 years and to have what was just described of any or all of the questions are approved along with this question the maximum total sales tax is .5% for a maximum period of 20 years that's a different question that you answered yeah so I think we need it in the middle and the end but we don't have to add it to the top which to the top Katie was asking the idea based on my comment was should we add something at the top oh sorry I thought you meant the the pre the main part of question one in that example you mean additional setting sum what what actually happens do we get to have that Preamble above all three questions or what is that thing at the top the the Preamble is just to introduce the the question on the ballot on theot yes have question one two three okay so we do get to do a preamble with all three questions uh so the way it's written now would be Preamble question one with explanation question exp explanation okay so then we could leave the middle section alone that looks like that's probably some legal thing that has to be said and we could break the top into two sentences like Simon suggested we could possibly clarify the bottom like Ben suggested so that know it's not cumulative that all work yeah I don't think it answers my concern but given everything else I think it's good and not worth the extra language to clarify that do so we're not seeing that it's a maximum of% a maximum million you you can't say that you could say you could say it's a maximum 65 million in Project costs but you it's confusing to say that because they could only pass question one million but the max I think the number that would actually be relevant and I think would just be too much language to be worth it would be like estimates indicate if this were in place for the maximum 20 years could generate roughly I think it's like 90 some million once you to cover cost of Interest which um most people are not experts in like how much interest costs and so that gets confusing um and like would be at least one sentence if not two that I'm not sure um I would love it if we could just say like estimates indicate that there would be enough to fund all three projects if all three are approved um but I I don't think that's that's too much editorializing yeah I don't think go there I guess maybe between the two parts that the thing that I'm most concerned that people would confuse is that by voting three times voting one and half% as opposed to A5 B point I think it kind of gets the the total volume of funds raised will kind of get lost in people's minds but what could be clear it could be unclear and could actually sway people's VES I could see people voting no for a one and a half percent yes for a five% them not easily knowing the difference so if I had to pick one like less not concerned about the 65 million concerned about5 would you just add the word total in there Richfield residents are being asked to authorize the city of Richfield toose or the word maximum half% total of half% I think if we have it in the bottom because that bottom gets repeated in all three that if it's the bottom after each question says if multiple questions are approved the maximum total sales tax would be 0.5% and maximum length of time would be 20 years it's true it's very clear down there I guess I still wouldn't I would not understand like if I was just coming at this without the level of knowledge and sophistication that I would have I wouldn't be certain that question one was 5% question two wasn't cumulative if I didn't explicitly somehow communicate that put yes three times doesn't change for 5% yeah or 5% it does seem like we already clarified that with the we'll changes to the last sentence shown on the screen which is the maximum for all three or combination there would be% oh did we did we get okay I'm not I'm not tracking with all the edits think stff knows what our concern is and they will probably fix it ask I mean it is possible if you do not I do think that the changes and thank you changes at the bottom of each question makes that clear but if you prer we don't have to put it with each question we can put it up up at the top or we could even if you wanted to really Drive Point home put it up at the top and have it on each question I kind prer that actually I think you might might just jump to the question so you might know that yeah having four times is because then it's clear you know it's better four times put it in parenthesis after yes and after no and yeah is that the feedback yes thank you very helpful then sarcastically raised a really good point and are we allowed to use things like parents and as ases and Bolding to communicate and information actually think that's a great idea I don't know it was not in our examples I also feel like they have like a very limited copy editor or whatever they us to those things likeor do you have the information that you I do and we don't have time to summarize so I think what I'll do is I'll do a summary to all of you so I know that we are on track to bring this back to you at the council including a summary of what we heard about the building as well just I didn't have time to do it today so thank you stand at