I will call the meeting to order. Welcome to the March 24th, 2026 City Council meeting. Uh members of the public may attend the City Council meeting in person or may watch or listen remotely by viewing the meeting on channel 8 WCC TV at the city's website at wayzata.org/wc ctv. Public comment to the public forum or public hearing portions of the meeting may be provided in person at the meeting in advance or by logging into the Teams call and raising your hand at the public hearing. When your name is called in the meeting, you'll be seen and heard at our council chambers and cable channel. You'll be asked to unmute, turn your camera on, and begin your comments. All public comments should include your first name only and the neighborhood or group that you're representing. Next on our agenda is the pledge of allegiance and if I could ask everyone to stand if you are able and follow along. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Next is our roll call. Let the record reflect that the entire council is present this evening. Uh I will note for the record that earlier uh we participated uh at the council and staff level in a workshop and discussed the following topics. Discussion of Tonka Boat Rentals uh proposal for uh use of a commercial rental of the Broadway docks. Discussion of Steamboat Minnehaha request for a port of call from the charter boat docks. Discussion of the revisions to the subdivision ordinance amendment related to park dedication fees and then review of future workshop agenda topics. Next uh we need to approve tonight's agenda. Um I would need a motion to approve the agenda as is or does anyone want to make any changes? I'll make that motion, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. May I have a second? Second that. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in those favor say I. I. Those opposed, that passes five to zero. Next uh is our public forum. Uh we have two items on our public forum tonight. Um and just as a reminder for those in the public in attendance tonight and you're interested in speaking, please state your first name and the group that you're representing and limit your comments to three minutes. If it is on the agenda, um fill out a form at the table in the back and [clears throat] hand it to staff. Um if you're watching on Teams, you can raise your hand and be heard in the council chambers. Again, we also require uh your camera to be turned on. So, the first item on our public forum is recognition of service uh and the acceptance of resignation of Graciela Gonzalez from the Charter Commission. Um there's no motion needed for this, but we just wanted to take some time to recognize Graciela. She's one of the few folks that I think can authentically say that she's served on four committees. Uh the HPB uh two different terms from 2003 to 2004 and 2009 to 2011. She turn had two rotations on the Planning Commission uh from 2002 to 2007 and 2012 to 2017. She also served on the Park and Trails Board from 2021 to 2023 and concurrently on the Charter Commission from 2021 to present. So, needless to say in her 30 years of living here, Graciela spent more than 20 of them serving her community in many capacities and uh your influence and presence on our community has been felt over those two decades, Graciela, and on behalf of the city and the City Council, want to extend our gratitude for your service. Uh you're moving to warmer climate, which which which is nice, but we're we're sad to see you we're sad to see you leave Wayzata. You've been a fixture here and particularly in this chamber and certainly I've had the opportunity as many of us have uh had uh the opportunity to work with you on numerous initiatives over the years. And so, you've been a steadfast advisor in those committees and your service is being recognized tonight. Um I will [snorts] also note that uh you you you submitted sort of a historical document going back to I believe this is the Lakeshore Weekly News, which was was no which is now defunct, uh talking about your appointment in 2001 and maybe this is kind of interesting. We had two candidates that stepped down to allow your service. Both Kent Tow and Judy Starkey were due withdrew their name from consideration to planning commission to open up the spot, which I think is great. The only reason why I mention those names is they too have served numerous times over the last 20 years. So, thank you for that little note and I would invite you to offer some comments in in recognition of your service, Graciela, and I'll give council a chance to weigh in also when she's done with her comments. So, thank you and welcome. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. It's been a privilege and an honor to serve Wayzata over those many years. And um I would just like to encourage anybody who's present and listening to step up and apply for a board or commission or anything because it's a wonderful opportunity to make a difference in your nest. I mean, we live here and we should care about what happens. So, um just to encourage everybody to step up and you know, apply and serve. Thank you very much, Mr. >> and thank you again for your service. I would open it up to my colleagues who would love to offer any additional commentary if they would like. Anyone like to offer? I just say, you know, I I appreciate I got to watch you on the the Planning Commission um and when you served there and I always thought that you had very thoughtful and careful deliberation and communicated your thoughts uh very articulately. And I really appreciate the amount of dedication and service uh you put into that as well as all the other uh commissions that uh Mayor Mullins just read and um you'll be missed and I I you are a shining example of being a great citizen and Wayzata is fortunate to have a number of people like that. Many of them are in this room right now. Um and uh I just want to thank you for being a pillar uh at the city here for so many years. Thank you, Mr. Cook. Ms. McDonald. Thank you. I just reiterating what Council Member Cook just said, but also um thank you and to wish you very well in warmer climates. And your new community will be so fortunate to have you be a part of it. Thank you. Anyone else? Yeah, sure. The thing that comes to mind is when we when we grow up and we go through school, we take courses in government and in civics. And one of the models that people should aspire to is to be involved in civics with citizenship. Not too many people do it, but here's a model citizen of the way that people ought to be. So, thanks for all your service. Thank you. Okay. Uh thank you for Graciela. We appreciate you very much. Um next on our agenda in our public forum is uh the presentation of the 2025 City of Wayzata Sustainability Champion Award to Folkestone, which I think is the reason many of you are here. But I believe that we will have someone from our Energy Committee that will introduce this. Um I'll turn it over to uh City Manager Yeager. Yes, thank you, Mayor and Council. Laura Lindahl Hof is here on behalf of the E&E Committee to present this award. So, go on up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um Council Members, um hi. My name is Lauren Lindahl Hof. Um I am the chair of the Energy and Environment Committee. Um each year committee selects a sustainability award recipient and this year we recognize Folkestone, a 221 apartment community committed to environmental stewardship. Uh built with geo geothermal system for heating and cooling, Folkestone expanded its efforts through a resident-led eco team. Working with the administration, they began with a recycling campaign educating residents on what could be recycled. They took this further by launching a recycling initiative collecting hard-to-recycle items such as Styrofoam, scrap metal, ink cartridges, batteries, electronics, and more, delivering these items to specific sites. But they were not done. In conjunction with the administration, they received a grant for an organics recycling pilot program, which evolved into a full commercial organics program for all residents. Through education, advocacy, energy audits, and community events, their impact has been significant. So, on behalf of the Energy and Environment Committee, I am honored to present Folkestone the well-deserved sustainability award of 2025. And I'm going to ask that um Jody Devick Neal, Folkestone's campus administrator, come and accept the award. And also, I'd love to have um if you would want to come up at this time, Dick and Sue Eisinger um from the eco team. First, I'm going to turn it over here to Jody. Thank you so much. Sure. Thank you, Lauren, um Mr. Mayor and City Council Members. Um on behalf of Folkestone and our eco committee, um I want to express just our sincere um gratitude to you for this wonderful honor. Um we especially are proud to accept this award on behalf of residents who inspire everything that we do. Um this building isn't a structure, it's our home. It's a home. Our mission at Presbyterian Homes is to honor God by enriching the lives and touching the hearts of older adults. With that said, the Folkestone community was designed and built to create a home that is comfortable, that's healthy, um and sustainable for people who live here and for generations to come. The geothermal heating um and cooling system helps provide steady, reliable comfort while reducing energy use and caring for the environment our residents value. We are grateful to our residents for embracing these efforts and for reminding us every day that sustainability is about taking care of people now and into future generations. >> [snorts] >> Thank you to the city of Wayzata for recognizing the work of our residents and supporting greener choices in senior living. Thank you. I think you wanted to pause for a picture, correct? Is that what you were hoping for? Do you want to pause for a picture now? Okay, let's let our next two speakers go and then we'll take a picture. >> Perfect. Uh I'm the Bay Singer. I'm one of the co-chairs for uh the Eco Team and um what I'm pleased to say that everybody on the Eco Team is here today for you to uh uh to and I'd like to introduce them to you uh So, David Tweet, could you just hold up your hand? Uh Phyllis Moreland Ed Moreland Jim Undabi Tom Von Fischer and my wife Sue is also uh uh co-leader. Do we have Evelyn here? Evelyn is here. Oh, there she she's in the front seat. I'm sorry. Evelyn Heedon is also here. So, I think that's all. Great. We had uh uh uh an idea what we were going to say but uh uh Jody and uh Lauren have really said it. They gave you the history of uh of the uh Eco Team here. But, what I'd like to say is that it uh the Eco Team built a structure of uh uh for these programs that we um mentioned and uh it was kind of like building the baseball field in the Field of Dreams because we built it and they came. In this case, who came was the residents and they came uh in abundance. They've developed a culture uh of uh being sensitive to protecting and sustaining the uh environment and it's really their support and uh them that deserves uh uh really this award. You know, you have to think what in the world would have spurred a large senior committee a a community of of 80 average age of 85 to collect 12 more than 12,000 alkaline batteries so that they could be more properly uh recycled for other uh for their components and uh o- over less than 3 years, actually. >> [clears throat] >> Uh I don't know what the real answer is, but I think the common answer is or the most common is that seniors have a desire to leave a better world for their children. There are other things, of course, because of a sense of uh of uh a purpose uh in their retirement and uh for many, an appreciation of nature and conservation. Uh whatever it is uh we hope that we can keep it up. Uh and that's what I think we've seen at Folkestone in developing the Eco Team. Now, my wife has some things we'd like to do. Okay. So, I think, Dick, one thing that didn't get mentioned by Lauren and Jody is one of our Eco Team members uh along with administration applied for and received a Hennepin County energy grant for organic recycling. And that was about a year and a half ago and it's been an amazing success. After the pilot study, a program was established uh campus-wide to capture uh organic recycling and we're on pace and you won't believe this, the numbers. We're on pace to save annually 7 tons of food waste from the landfill avoiding methane and away from the incinerator avoiding toxic fumes. That is a conservative estimate of how much organics we are capturing. Um but we're not done. We'd also like to do more. We'd like to work with PHS corporate and other multi-family dwellings in in the city of Wayzata to encourage and support some of these initiatives. We'd also like to find a vendor for some of these hard-to-recycle items that we are as volunteers we're transporting off campus. We'd like to find um alternative to that program and Ridwell may may mean some of you know about Ridwell. Um they are a company that currently doesn't uh service communities like Folkstone, but we're hoping that they will. Um we also want to collaborate with PHS corporate to align more of their business operations with sustainable recycling practices. For example, we really want to reduce or eliminate use of disposable items in our dining areas. And we'd also like to address the challenge of educating new residents. We have a lot of visitors, a lot of caretakers and staff and that is really challenging to keep up with those folks and um and uh train them. So, we'd be happy to address any questions that you have. Any questions of our speakers? I'll just reiterate thank you to all committee members. Thank you to representatives from Presbyterian Homes, from our Energy Committee and also from our designated committee chairs uh for all of your great work and well-deserved recognition this evening. So, um Take a brief pause for a picture. >> Yeah, so like maybe all of the committee can stand up with the award and someone can grab a picture. So, we'll get out of the way and let you guys do that. Well, how about I mean you just stand right here. Oh, you got to get in there with the award, right? Oh, yeah. >> [laughter] [applause] >> Yeah, no one you know no one No one's going to challenge that. How you doing, Dan? Good. How are you? I'm all right. Good. We'll just give him a second to You can stay. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, these are senior-related meetings, you We lost We lost everybody. What? Uh yeah. Did you see who the author is? The byline on that? Oh my goodness. Don't kidding. It's my mother-in-law. Yeah, I just didn't know that I just forgot that she was a staff writer there. 2001. Patty McDonald. She's And who is she? Oh, is it? Oh, really? Very cool. That's cool. Give that back. Is that Gross Yellows? Uh yeah, she's she submitted it to to posterity. She didn't want it back. She just wanted to She wanted me to reference it. She's moving. She's decluttering. >> [laughter] >> All right. Well, we'll mush on here. So, I think uh are there anybody on Teams for the public forum or any Mr. Mayor, they are not. Okay, so now we are going to move on to new agenda items and we have No, actually we're going to Yeah, new agenda items. Does anyone have any new agenda items [clears throat] to add from council? Future meetings. Hearing none. Next is the consent agenda. I will read off what we're affirming on the consent agenda. Approval of City Council workshop and regular meeting minutes of March 10th, 2026, approval of the check register, approval of municipal licenses, receipt of the police activity report, receipt of the building activity report, approval of the agreement of an agreement for use of City of Plymouth yard waste site, adoption of resolution 16-2026 accepting a donation from the Wayzata Lions Club, approval of professional services agreement with MRA for temporary human resources support, approval of proposal from Badger State Inspection for water tower repairs, and authorization of mayor and city manager to execute agreement with the Greater Lake Minnetonka Area Legislative Coalition. So, I would need a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented or if any items need to be pulled for for discussion. Make that motion, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. May I have a second? Uh Oh, did you Well, [laughter] Okay. >> sure if it's the time, but I think I'd make a comment on item F, not pull it, but just a comment at sometime. Yeah, that would be fine. So, we'll just we'll just table the the motion for a second and then we'll allow you to make your comment and then we'll bring it back. Perfect. Yeah, so item F pertains to um the use of the Plymouth yard waste site. I think it's a great um it's a great thing that our residents can can use. I mean, the only question is how well is it known? Um I I wasn't aware of it and I haven't come across it in conversation. So, I I just make the comment so maybe staff can think about how we how we make that aware to our citizens through the portal or or somewhere else, but um I think it'd be good to make sure people are of as aware as possible that they can use that site. Yeah, Mayor and Council member, good point and we'll make sure that we promote that more. Okay. Anything else? Thank you. Um bring it back. So, we had a motion to approve the consent as presented by Ms. McDonald. Could I have a second? Second that. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. I. Those opposed say nay. That motion passes 5 to 0. Uh public hearing, we have no items on the public hearing tonight and now we move on to new business. We have one item for discussion on new business tonight, which is to consider approval for affordable housing agreement at Wayzata Woods, uh which is item 9A. Ms. City Manager. Uh thank you, Mayor and Council member. Community Development Director Sharp is going to give an overview of this request for affordable housing agreement, which was recently considered by the HRA. Thank you, City Manager and Mayor. So, as stated, this is a affordable housing agreement with Wayzata Woods. Uh the action requested from this evening, I'm going to try to read as much as possible just so that the uh watching audience is aware the council's screens are not currently working, so they cannot see the PowerPoint. So, it'll be a little bit more detailed than I would otherwise present. You can try seeing it from behind you, but that's a little awkward. I have eyes in the back of my head. >> So, action requested this evening is the uh it's stating that the Housing and Redevelopment Authority and staff recommend approval of a affordable housing agreement with FLT Wayzata Woods LLC, uh which I will go into who that is and who that entity is and further slides. So, the background is FLT is Red Tail Acquisitions. That's their legal name as they're going into legal agreements. Uh they're based out of the West Coast. They acquired Wayzata Woods located at 240 Central Avenue in May of 2025. >> [snorts] >> Uh Wayzata Woods for context is a two-building, 107-unit apartment complex built in 1965. They are seeking a 4D tax classification status. What uh the 4D tax classification status does is it lowers the tax burden on properties to essentially maintain or incentivize affordability of their units. This is administered by the state Minnesota Housing Finance Agency and local units of government often partner with two uh developers to certify what their affordability limits will be. There are other options that the property owners can select, counties, um and other entities. However, a common partner is the cities. A non uh The state requires that entities such as governmental units uh be a sponsor in order for this to move forward. One of the slides that I included was the location map for where [laughter] Wayzata Woods was located. So, I'll just generally describe that it is south of Highway 12, east side of Central Avenue, north of Wayzata Boulevard. For 4D tax uh classification, properties must enter into an agreement and with restricted covenants that were recorded against the property. These must certify that 60% of the units at minimum meet the following criteria. The income of residents of households, I should say, does not exceed 60% of the area median income and rents shall not exceed 30% of their household income. For Hennepin County, this is divided out by how many residents are included in how per household. This is also included in your packet, but I'll read through it for posterity. That's $55,620 for a single person, $63,600 for two people, $71,520 for three people, and $79,440 for a four-person household. What this means is that they will need to keep the total income levels below that and then their rents they will be certifying are no more than 30% of those incomes for at least 60% of those units. The The document actually being acted on council this evening is a declaration of restrictive covenants that is recorded against the property and as part of that agreement they must cer- uh FLT or Red Tail must send their reporting requirements yearly to the city uh similar to what they have provided in the draft agreement that is included in your packet showing the rents of all of the different units and their income levels and then identifying which of the 65 identified, which happens to be 60% of the units for the total building, meet those affordability requirements. Traditionally, when we've brought this item forward, uh the HRA has reviewed these in past or in past cases, the city actually participated financially by part by waving a portion of the building permit fees. In this instance, Red Tail has not requested that the city participate financially and so the didn't have a formal action that was needed. However, for a best practice, we did bring it forward for the to the HRA on February 23rd, 2026 to receive their recommendation. One of the recommendations that they proposed was that this have a minimum of a five-year applicability to ensure that affordability was maintained over time and with that condition, they unanimously recommended approval to the City Council. The declaration and application to the state of Minnesota must be recorded and filed no later than April 1st, 2026. So, this is a timely application uh that we wouldn't have another fallback date at this meeting uh to be able to meet their deadlines for 2026 tax cycle. However, there is no direct financial uh impact to the city and uh this is a standard practice that we've worked on on other properties within the city as well. With that, the proposed motion is approval of the affordable housing agreement with FLT Wayzata Woods LLC. The applicant has notified me that they were unable to attend due to conflicts of flights. Originally, they were looking at attending the prior council meeting in March due but due to pulling together final provisions of the agreement, we needed to push it back to this date. They were able to attend the HRA meeting and answer all questions there. I will try to answer any questions that I'm able to on the applicant's behalf. Thank you, Mr. Sharp. Questions of staff at this time. Hearing none, so I'll bring it back to council for any discussion. Anyone have any comments or are we ready to move forward? I would just say I I think this is an important property in the city of Wayzata and to maintain affordability um in as many units as possible is really important and so I'm in full support of this. Thank you. Any other comments? Um I guess I I would just say that it it lines up with our affordable housing policy and it lines up with policies at the HRA level even though there's no TIF money being used, just this tax break by maintaining this level of affordable housing stock is important to us and will maintain what is existing today, right? So, that's important. So, with that, I would accept a motion to approve the housing agreement at Wayzata Woods. Would anyone like to make that motion? So moved, Mr. Mayor. May I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say I. I. Those opposed, that passes 5 to 0. Um next on our agenda is the city manager's report. Um Ms. Yeager. Uh thank you, Mayor and Council. I've got just a few updates for you tonight. Um the first is I would like to recognize one of our employees, Lor- Lori Chrismer. Um she's the administrative assistant up here at City Hall and she will be retiring on April 1st after 9 years of service to the city. So, if you've called City Hall or you've stopped in at the front desk, you have probably interacted with Lori. Um and so, I just want to highlight her years of service to the city, her patience, her care that she gives with all of our residents. She provides amazing customer service and she will definitely be missed. So, I wanted to recognize her for her service to the city. Um after that, I want to also mention for any small businesses that might be paying attention, um Hennepin County is running a grant program for small businesses that the deadline is tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. Um their grant program is between 3 and $10,000 to help businesses recover from Operation Metro Surge. So, if you were impacted and you're interested in applying, the deadline's tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. Um the last thing I want to mention is that we will have our local Board of Appeal and Equalization hearing Tuesday, April 7th at 5:30 p.m. So, if you got your property valuation notice and you are concerned about the number there, you don't agree with it, and you want to talk to somebody about it, I'd recommend as soon as possible you get in contact with um our assessor um because most of the time they're able to work with you on the front end, but if not, um we want to make sure that you know about that meeting date and attend if you need to. So, again, that's April 7th at 5:30 p.m. here in the Council Chambers. >> And it's important for them, regardless if they can attend to contact the county so that they preserve their rights to appeal, correct? >> Yes, absolutely. So, if you have any concerns about it, reach out to the county right away. Um there's information on um how to contact them on our website. Yeah, I saw that. I I had a call today actually referred someone to that portion of the website. Is that updated with the change of the individual that actually is responsible for Was that >> on the assessing page on the how to appeal it um Perfect. Excellent. Then I did not steer them wrong. Thank you. And that's all I have for you. Okay, great. Any questions of City Manager at this time? Um City Manager, would you highlight there's a meeting here on Thursday morning, I believe, for Highway 12? Oh, yes, great um point, Molly. Let me get the dates of that meeting. So, MnDOT has been um hosting um a couple of different meetings in preparation of their Highway 12 construction project. So, they have one um specific for businesses, and that Let me get the exact um time of that. It's Thursday morning at 7:30 to 9:00 in this room. So, it's it's geared towards businesses to come and talk to their representatives to talk about what the impact um will be of the Highway 12 construction. So, if you're concerned about that or you have questions, that's a great meeting for you to engage directly with MnDOT staff. Thank you. Mhm. Perfect. Any other questions of City Manager? Uh is there anyone else on Teams for public uh comments at this time? Mr. Mayor, there is not. Okay. So, I would uh accept a motion to adjourn. Right? So moved or who will take that? I'll make the motion. I'll second that. Motion and second. All in favor say I. I. >> I. Those who oppose, we move forward. Thank you. All right. Okay.